‘If we can’t even have as good as or a better toll system than what they have in Malaysian highways, how else can we do better than Malaysia in everything else?’
I FIRST got a chance to visit Malaysia — Kuala Lumpur in particular — in 1989, when I was a part of a UP Law debating team that represented the Philippines in the First ASEAN Student Debate Championships. The Islamic University of Malaysia played host, and the four of us from UP (then future-Attorneys Manjo Oyson, Abe Espejo and Janet Cruz (now Regalado were my teammates) were even given two student guides, both Malaysia-Chinese, who helped us enjoy our week-long trip that saw us return home with the runner-up trophy, with Singapore winning the top plum.
At that time, it was evident (to me at least) that Malaysia was like a racehorse chomping at the bit; it had a Prime Minister in Mahathir Mohammed who had grand dreams of a modern and secular Malaysia, one that balanced its culture with the demands of the modern world. His “trophy” was to be the Petronas Tower, which had its groundbreaking in 1992 and was completed in 1996, at that time the tallest building in the world.
Malaysia has always benefitted from its rich and vast natural resources (oil, palm oil, timber, minerals and agricultural products) and its relatively “small” population: in 1990, while the Philippines had a population of 61 million, Malaysia’s stood at 17 million. (Note: the Philippine population as of 2024 was listed at 119 million, while Malaysia’s stands at 34 million). Think about it: with such a big pie to be divided among a small number of people, each one gets a bigger slice!
Last week, I had a chance to make my seventh trip to Malaysia, this one not school or business-related, and so much more relaxed. During that short trip, what I saw only reinforced my opinion of Malaysia — it is a country focused on the future and one that places great importance on good governance.
Now, while good governance in the West may mean something else in the East, especially in the area of civil rights and freedoms, it means the same thing in the leading countries of Southeast Asia when it comes to taking corruption seriously and jailing people no matter how high up in society whenever corruption is involved.
We should be embarrassed when we compare our attitude towards corruption to that of Malaysia. They’ve jailed ex-prime ministers; we pardoned ex-presidents.
In the 1980s, Malaysia’s main gateway was the Subang International Airport while ours was the NAIA — with two terminals at that time. Today, the Malaysian capital has the new and sprawling Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) with two terminals and more to come — while 40 years later we still have NAIA, albeit with three terminals crammed in a small area.
Not only that, I was particularly conscious of the highway we had to take from the Petronas Tower to KLIA, noticing not only the quality of the road network but also the super-efficient RFID system that worked almost without incident every time. Interestingly, there are at least three RFID systems a motorist can choose from: Smart Tag, Touch and Go and MyRFID. In contrast, the RFID system in our highways is dependent on who made the highway, because the highway builder’s RFID is the only RFID system you can use.
We should stop fooling ourselves, giving ourselves pats on the back, and celebrating our successes. Instead, it’s about time we took an honest-to-goodness look at the eyes around us and benchmarked with the best.
If we can’t even have as good as or a better toll system than what they have on Malaysian highways, how else can we do better than Malaysia in everything else?
