IS Malaysia short of entrepreneurs? The short answer is a big “no”. SME Corporation Malaysia’s data point to there being 907,065 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia.
They make up 98.5 per cent of all businesses in the country. Of this, 76 per cent are micro-businesses. This perhaps misses the true number of micro-businesses in the country by a mile.
According to media reports, there are five million micro-businesses in the country. These are people like Pak Long Men, who runs a food outlet in Kuala Kurau, Perak, with an unassuming name — Gerai Makanan Dan Minuman Min (Min’s Food and Drinks Stall).
The witty among his customers — and he has a peninsula-wide following — have named it Sembilang 4 Pagi. Sembilang has an uncanny resemblance to the catfish. He is up in the wee hours of the morning getting the fish ready to be on the plate by 4am. He is a fisherman-cum-restaurateur.
Or Man Udang Galah of Teluk Intan, the at times forgotten town made famous by Sir Archibald Anson. Man Udang, as he has come to be called, is a fisherman-cum-restaurateur who serves freshly caught “lobster” prawns from Sungai Perak adjoining his Tepian Pantai Sungai restaurant.
People like Men, Man and like-minded people keep the economy running. But not many of them are being championed. These are the little guys who energise the local economy, in their own passion-driven ways.
Men and Man, and unnamed others, don’t just tell but show. It is no accident they work a 7-day week. Hard work comes naturally to them. The nation must champion them. Ministers must travel the nation to meet them. It is hard to champion someone you do not know. Real people with real stories motivate like no others.
Ministers — and the nation’s planners too — need to develop the journalistic instinct of dredging out stories. Presentations are so old school. If the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration could get rid of PowerPoint presentations, surely our civil service can. Examples from the ground are inspiring stories that deliver a greater catalyst — the feel good factor. And real.
There is considerable passion on the ground. Plus, they provide the missing link to growth opportunities: marketing and branding. Shared prosperity would require an intimate knowledge of neighbourhood businesses.
Eateries that go viral suggest that such businesses are alive and thriving. YouTube videos on Malaysian farm products and other agricultural activities tell a similar story.
We must humanise our economy. The economy is fuelled or failed by the people. So planners must start by highlighting individual examples, settings and realities.
Take the case of a group of padi farmers from Kedah who moved to the East Coast to plant the crop. It didn’t work out as they anticipated. But these never-say-die little guys switched to growing pineapples and they are doing well. Hijrah migration is a good thing for it can distribute talent and verve around the country.
It is thus we can build a new and happy Malaysia championing our little guys over teh tarik at Mahbub Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur or at Tepian Pantai Sungai eatery in Teluk Intan. Little guys make Malaysia beautiful.