OPEN SECRETS...

"Do you want to the latest secret?",whispered my friend to me."Thank you! I don't want to know", I replied. I just got the feelings that I may not be able to keep a secret. A secret is a secret;if everyone knows about it, it in not a secret anymore. That reminds me of so many secrets that people told me; many remained secret but somehow as normal human being we like to share some of  the secrets we know with our friends. As more people know about the secrets, the less secretive they become. Given some time, everybody knows about it and it becomes a public secret or an open secret.

Again,it reminds me to read a book I bought recently entitled Secret of the Secrets by Abdul Qadir Jailani. But this is a different kind of secret. You will only know the secret if you understand the meanings of the written words of this great sufi.Most likely,ordinary souls like me would not understand much of what being written.
If I think I understand, most likely I have  misunderstood them...

Everyone of us has at least a secret or knows a few secrets. Once, the secrets are told to a third party the chance is that it will not remain secret for long. The best way to keep secret is not to tell anyone about it.

"Okay, since you do not wish to know the latest secret I will tell you an open secret", insisted my friend."Let's talk about the "open secret" revealed by our PM at the recent UMNO General Assembly", continued my friend without getting my consent. " I am ashamed that our secrets are being televised alive and everyone now knows about it.What do you think?" he asked. "Since it is an open secret, it was not actually a secret at all. Being mentioned by the President of UMNO officially confirmed it.Honestly, I don't know what good or bad it does to the Malays" , I replied.

I observe that many people love to hear a secret. Knowing it first is a privilege to some especially the juicy types. Many a time, they are just gossips about others. Many people like to talk about others, but a few dared to talk about themselves...

After a few puffs of cigarettes , I opened up and told my friend a little secret that is struggling to come out my chest. It has been hibernating there for the last few months....

This very short encounter between a senior government officer(a Dato')  tells a story why many construction projects given to Malays are "alibaba" (sold) to non-Malays.

Malay contractor: My company was awarded RM 50 million contract.I hope to get Dato' co-operation to get the job done.
Dato': Congratulation! I will help you if you work for it. Can you submit to me your plan to implement this project. That should includes the Gantt's Chart, activity network diagram with CPM and also the S-Curve.
Malay contractor: Dato', I don't understand what you are talking about.
<The Dato' took a deep breath. How could someone who knows nothing about project management got such a project?>
Dato': Tell me about your previous project experience and what were you doing before you got this contract.
Malay Contractor: Well, I was a driver and then I got this PKK/CIDB licence.
Dato': Okay, go and get a qualified project manager and come back with him next week.

The above may be an isolated case, but many a time those who got government contracts were not competent to undertake such projects. The easy way out is to sell them to non-Malay contarctors for a quick gain. This is nothing new. It has been going on for years. The question is what the relevant authorities are doing about it? From my personal observations, nothing concrete and significant are being planned and implemented to address this issue. The way I see it, it will go on and on...

Well, that is not the end of the story. Just take a school project worth say RM 10 million being awarded to a Malay contractor. He has to buy building materials worth around RM 6 million from a non-Malay companies. Labour and machineries will eat up another RM3million leaving the contractor with the last RM1million (10% of the original contract value) for his overhead and profit. Considering about 70% of the contruction workers are foreigners and most equipments rentals are non-Malay companies, I could safely say that not more than 20% of the contract value goes to Malay interests. QED.

By the way, the note  I wrote above is not a secret at all. It is known to everyone in the construction industry. So it is an open secret!