Abstract
The Look East Policy (LEP) was introduced in 1981 after former Prime Minister Mahathir’s East and West competing perspectives contributed to a nationalist enthusiasm to turn Malaysia into a new industrialized country using Japan and Korea as models. This paper reassesses LEP within the framework of policy evaluation and addresses its long-term impact, with a few twists. For the purpose of this article, only Japan will be discussed as a model for LEP. This article argues that LEP has contributed to Malaysia’s progress in becoming an industrialized country. This research applies assessment indicators such as input, output, processes, performance, and cost considerations to evaluate the achievements made by LEP in terms of work culture, ethics, investments, and human capital development. Intensive interviews were conducted with 30 respondents from various organizations with similar profiles, each contributing experience such as studying, living, working, co-operating and collaborating with Japanese counterparts. Themes were developed based on sequential questions occurring in the narrative interviews’ transcriptions. This study shares respondents’ voices and it reports them as they are. The findings show that LEP produced both advantages and disadvantages, but the former seem to blend in better in organizations, individuals’ lives, and an incremental effort to establish a strong industrialized state.
Highlights
Models for development have always been referred to by most pre-industrial nations as guidance because they illustrate many stages of trial and error
The findings show that Look East Policy (LEP) produced both advantages and disadvantages, but the former seem to blend in better in organizations, individuals’ lives, and an incremental effort to establish a strong industrialized state
A common criteria that all respondents had was their direct experiences with Japanese counterparts: either they formerly were students at the Japanese varsities, formerly or presently living in Japan or working with a Japanese multi-national corporations (MNC), undergoing on-the-job training or technical skills enhancement in Japan, teachers enrolling in Japanese language learning programs, or government officials who were directly involved in formulating and implementing the LEP
Summary
Models for development have always been referred to by most pre-industrial nations as guidance because they illustrate many stages of trial and error. The leading inspiration for Mahathir was the story of Akio Morita, the founder of Sony, who went through tremendous bitterness before Sony was established as a strong brand product and a global business empire This story in tandem with his Vision 2020 agenda demanded that all Malaysians should look east for a better future. This article is meant to reassess the Look East Policy (LEP) using the Japanese model of organization, cultural influence, multi-national corporations (MNC), education, technical or training programs, and work ethics. The policy evaluation framework highlights evidence that recognizes LEP as a successful policy as it contributes to changes in organizational work systems, both in public and private sectors, as well as individuals’ work ethics
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