Toyota can teach Malaysia a thing or two Dr Hsu Dar Ren

Dr Hsu Dar Ren
Feb 9, 10
5:12pm My first car was a Toyota Corolla, model KE 30, and I bought it new after my housemanship for a princely sum of RM11,500 in 1978. That car was not equipped with an air-conditioner, although there was a very basic radio and cassette player. CDs were not invented yet. During that era, we were still using turntables to play records three times the size of a CD. The Proton Saga was not around yet and maybe that was the reason the Toyota car was still relatively affordable.

But unlike now, when you can practically go to a new car dealer and just give a few hundred dollars for the deposit and get almost 99% loan financing, then we had to save up about 20% of the cost of the car for the down payment before any bank or finance company would approve your loan.

The car ran superbly. Until the time when I sold it in 1986, almost 7 years later, it had never once broken down in the middle of the road. I had no worry; every morning I just jumped into the car and without fail, the car would star when I turned the ignition. In 1982, I came down to KL and my Corolla was stolen in one of the Pudu back lanes. Since public transport was almost as bad as now, and I stayed 13 kilometers from where I worked, I got a second-hand car, a European brand (which I bought for only RM3, 000, believe it or not).

Compared to my Corolla, this car was horrible, breaking down so regularly that I lost count of the times that I had to leave it by the roadside and take a taxi home. The police took a few months to finally recover my Corolla. It was found in Jalan Brunei off Jalan Pudu by a vigilant policeman on beat who found that the number plate and the number of the car on the road tax disc was different. (Just to side track, this is why it is important for policemen to go on beats).

I thanked God for getting the car back and faithfully used it until 1986. The point I want to make is that Toyota, even though very basic then, was reliable and you could count on it to move you from one place to another without fail. Driving a Toyota, you will have the peace of mind in that it would not break down in the middle of the highway (where a stalled car can be such a nuisance and embarrassment) or in some remote area where you will not be able to get help easily and you would worry about your own safety sitting inside a stalled car..

It is this peace of mind and reliability that have become the hallmarks of Toyota. Slowly and steadily, Toyota built up a worldwide network and a reputation for reliability. Until, of course, recently, when the company started to face some very serious problems. It has to recall eight million cars worldwide to fix certain problems with the accelerator pedals.

Hearing the news of the recall, my first impression was that Toyota has perhaps grown too big and bulky; is trying to make too many cars , its QC sections have failed to match up with its sales and marketing arms. It is indeed dangerous to drive a car with an accelerator pedal tat may stick to the floor. Little wonder that upon the announcement of the recall, Toyota sales plunged and its share price dropped steeply.

However, do not write the company off. It has a culture of excellence and even though this excellence has somehow been compromised, it still practices transparency and accountability and volunteered to recall all faulty cars. Malaysia, too, was growing steadily and impressively in the 60s, 70s and even the 80s. Together with other little 'tigers' of Asia, we were the 'Toyotas' of the world. We were looked upon as models of the Third World.

Like Toyota, we made impressive strides – until official policies skewed the whole economy and changed the whole culture from that of striving for excellence to that of 'cronyism and patronage'. The whole system became so corrupted that our corruption perception index ranking has deteriorated yearly until we are now deemed to be one of the most corrupted in Asia.

While Toyota has always practiced accountability, we have been sweeping everything under the carpet including many instances of mismanagement and scandals. While Toyota has identified the problems, been transparent about them and announced a recall of all faulty cars to fix them, we know about our problems but try to ignore or at least dismiss them as minor. We try to use gloss paint to paint over all our problems, telling the people that everything will turn out to be nice and good.

We are not bothered that underneath the glossy surface, the rot has taken root. We try to use all sorts of methods including compromising the integrity of our institutions to cover up these problems. By doing so, we create more problems in trying to cover up the earlier problems. It has become a vicious cycle. The rot spreads deeper and deeper. We do not have the determination or the political will to break the cycle.

We have been loitering around the middle rungs of the world economic ladder for a long time while those who started at the same time as us have gone much further and higher. In fact, those who were behind and below us have also levelled with us and some have gone past us.

I think we need to learn a thing or too from Toyota. Perhaps we should really look East instead of just paying lip service. We need to learn from Toyota's courage and determination to right the wrongs and to face its problems head-on instead of trying to avoid them. Toyota knows that for the short term, the company's fortune and shares would be affected by the massive recall of cars but in the long run, by publicly admitting and rectifying the fault, the company will establish an even firmer footing to launch itself higher and further than its rivals .

Ironically, by admitting and rectifying its faults, it sends a message that the company practices good after sales service and that the company puts customers' safety above all else, including the company's reputation and fortune.

We should do the same.

Perhaps it is time to convene a national consultative council, like the one we had in the seventies. Identify the problems in the economy, education, race relationships, religious differences and other areas. We must have the courage to do away with self-denial and stand up to face the problems. We must discuss frankly and wholeheartedly what we have done wrong and identify these problems and rectify them. Like Toyota, we should be prepared for temporary hardship in order to launch ourselves further and higher.

Like Toyota, we should look further ahead. Like Toyota, we should let the people know that we put their interests above all else. Like Toyota, we should realise that to recapture the excellence that we have lost, we need to be transparent and accountable and overhaul the whole system with input from all quarters. We need to face all our problems head-on and solve them.

That is the only way forward for without pain, there will be no gain.