This thesis examines the accounting policy and financial reporting changes made by Malaysian telecommunications between 1957 and 1994. During this period, the telecommunications sector moved from being a government department to being a government-owned company in 1987 and a partially privatised company in 1990. A periodisation analysis method (Tinker and Neimark, 1987) is adopted to divide the time frame into three discrete periods: Period 1 (1957-1970) when the Malaysian Telecommunications Department pursued the cash basis of accounting; Period 2 (1971-1986) when the Department was supposedly changing to the full accruals basis of accounting; and Period 3 (1987-1994) when the corporated Syarikat Telekom Malaysia achieved full compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Practice as an essential preliminary to flotation as Telekom Malaysia. Lüder's (1992) contingency model of public sector accounting innovations is used as a framework to analyse the stimuli to accounting change in Malaysian telecommunications, their effect on the expectations of change of users of accounting information and the behaviour of the producers of accounting information. The barriers to accounting change before corporisation are identified and the outcome of the process is evaluated. The discussion of privatisation as policy innovation stresses the importance of policy transfer from developed countries to developing countries and, in particular, the role model offered by experience in the United Kingdom to countries such as Malaysia. While acknowledging the importance of the influence of early experience of privatisation in developed countries, it is revealed that Malaysia had its own political and economic context which shaped privatisation policy and the manner in which it was implemented. Liberalisation of the market and regulation of telecommunications especially developed in a different way from that of the United Kingdom.

The crucial role played by small and medium-sized industries (SMIs) in developing countries is very well acknowledged. In Malaysia, for example, the SMIs are perceived as the backbone of the nation's industrialisation process. However, the promotion and development of these SMIs are often hampered by their lack of access to formal institutional credits. The lack of access to formal credits is often ascribed to the higher level of perceived risks, moral hazards and transactions costs. At present, banks and SMIs in developing countries do not have the appropriate technology to adequately assess these risks. The present study seeks to suggest that project appraisal practice can and should be adopted by the SMIs in order to assess their project's risks. Banks are recommended to use similar techniques to objectively evaluate their lending risks. Built upon the theoretical framework of finance and development, the study empirically evaluates the relationship between the adoption of project appraisal practice by the SMIs and their access to formal sector finance. In addition, the study also attempts to identify the factors that can influence the company's decision whether or not to adopt formal project appraisal practice. A very significant and positive relationship was found between the adoption of project appraisal practice and the SMIs' access to formal sector finance. The following factors were found to be significant in determining whether or not a firm adopts project appraisal practice: (1) access to banks finance, (2) entrepreneur's level of education, (3) training on project appraisal, (4) market classification, and, (5) level of business experience. The study therefore concludes that the adoption of project appraisal practice by SMIs should be encouraged through formal training. Finally, the study suggests that the present system of providing finance to SMIs should be reformed and a more innovative and efficient system is recommended.

This study examines the extent and patterns of supermarket use in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia and the town of Alor Star, a small town in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 436 household heads were interviewed for the study. Although the supermarket was first introduced in Malaysia in 1964, the study revealed that the adoption of supermarkets among respondents was still low. Even in the high income residential areas, the percentage of respondents that could be classified as heavy users was less than 50%. However, the percentage of heavy users was found to be significantly higher in high and middle income residential areas than that of low income residential areas. The study also showed that there were different patterns of food shopping behaviour among respondents. Perishable food is commonly bought from wet-markets, staple food is normally purchased from neighbourhood grocery stores while processed food is mainly bought from supermarkets. Log-linear analysis showed that car-ownership has the strongest influence on the extent of supermarket use. Among the three major ethnic groups the Chinese were found to have the strongest tendency to patronize supermarkets. On the other hand the Malays were found to have the lowest tendency to become heavy supermarket users. The results of this study could be seen as useful, first, to supermarket operators in Malaysia in planning their marketing strategies. Consumer profiles associated with heavy supermarket users may be used as a basis for market segmentation. Secondly, it is useful to the government in its modernisation process of retail outlets, particularly in smaller towns, which should proceed slowly and with care. The urgent need of the food retail system today is the improvement and modernisation of the present wet-market system, where fresh food should be sold efficiently in a more hygienic environment.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis analyses UMNO factionalism from the perspective of the elite’s manipulation of the various modes of nationalisms. This thesis argues that UMNO factionalism, which is seemingly a power struggle between competing UMNO elites, has been significantly shaped by contesting nationalist ideologies that reflect the unresolved questions of national identity in Malaysia. These two issues, that is, nationalism and UMNO factionalism, have shaped Malaysian politics in significant ways. UMNO factionalism has been related to such major political events as the 1969 ethnic riots, the introduction of the New Economic Policy, the UMNO split in 1987 and the Reformasi (Reform) movement in 1998. Frequently, the impact of these disputes extended beyond UMNO politics and affected wider Malaysian politics. At the same time, due to unresolved questions of national identity, nationalism has occupied a central position in Malaysian political discourse. There are ambiguities regarding the relationships among the various ethnic identities and national identity and between the individual and the larger Malaysian community that enable elites to construct and manipulate nationalist ideologies. In this thesis, the conflicting nationalisms are captured by five different concepts of nationalism – ethnocultural, civic and multicultural nationalisms in one group and collectivist-authoritarian and individualistic-libertarian nationalisms in another. The Malaysian Prime Ministers have constructed nationalist ideology to define the Malaysian nation in their attempts to resolve the unresolved problems of national identity. The challengers’ arguments, to mobilise the community, mirror the community’s (negative) responses to the Malaysian Prime Ministers’ nationalist visions. In addition, the ideological arguments in the disputes extend the dispute beyond the elites, involving the community as well. Furthermore, because of the ideological conflicts, these factional disputes affect the direction of government policies in significant ways. This study shows that UMNO factional disputes have followed this pattern of ideological conflicts, although the exact contents may vary. The 1969 factional dispute was a clash between Tunku Abdul Rahman’s shift towards multicultural nationalism and its challengers’ ethnocultural nationalism. Tunku Abdul Rahman’s nationalist vision moved away from ethnocultural nationalism in pursuit of national integration. The challengers, reflecting the Malay community’s response to the Prime Minister’s vision, took a strong ethnocultural Malay nationalist stance. The successful mobilisation of the Malay community by ethnocultural Malay nationalists contributed to the policy shift towards ethnocultural nationalism in the 1970s. In the 1987 dispute, Mahathir’s economic policy, which moved away from ethnocultural nationalism, was challenged by Razaleigh’s ethnocultural nationalist argument. After the dispute, Mahathir could only mobilise the community by tactically employing the rhetoric of ethnocultural Malay nationalism. In the 1990s, Mahathir’s attempt to define the national identity of Malaysia by constructing a civic Malaysian nation, Bangsa Malaysia, relieved the tension surrounding the ambiguous national identity of Malaysia. It was facilitated by rapid economic growth that ameliorated ethnic contests over limited economic resources. However, the collectivist-authoritarian aspect of Mahathir’s nationalism raised another nationalist question concerning the subordination of individual liberty and rights to the collective community’s will and interests – a nationalism that justified his authoritarian rule. There was tension between an increasingly confident civic Malaysian society and Mahathir’s collectivist-authoritarian control of the society. The 1998 UMNO dispute was a clash between Mahathir’s collectivist-authoritarian nationalism and Anwar Ibrahim’s individualistic-libertarian nationalism. The latter attempted to mobilise Malaysian society with his nationalist position (the Reformasi movement) which was expressed in the demand for liberal political reform. After the dispute, Mahathir was able to regain lost political ground through the politics of fear. It seems, however, that the fundamental question remains unresolved. This unresolved tension between the demand for individual liberty and rights and authoritarian control by state elites is likely to shape the ideological arguments in future UMNO factional disputes.

Zugl.: Darmstadt, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2008

Zugl.: Hamburg, Univ., Diss., 2008

Thesis (doctoral)--Technische Universität, Darmstadt, 2001.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of South Carolina, 1995. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 327-334).