Postcard from Shenzhen
By YinEe Kiong

Happy Birthday!
Shenzhen was 30 yesterday. (6th Sept)

It’s also my second anniversary (okay late by a month plus) in this city.
So what do I think? Take away a groan here and a moan there, it’s great! The city changes from day to day and mostly for the better. Even in one short year I have seen improvements.

I have shared many of my observations with you but I hope you don’t mind if I repeat some of them (for the benefit of those who have not read my postings and the amnesic).

Infrastructure

Shenzhen has a very sophisticated public library system. You can borrow and return books through automatic kiosks which are sited in different parts of the city. The public library is a huge thing – 6 floors( ?). City Hall decided to promote reading in Shenzhen and once the policy was decided on they did what needed to be done to implement it.

They have done a lot to reduce pollution and also traffic congestion even in the one year I have been here. They have introduced electric taxis and buses. I suppose diesel and petrol buses and taxis will eventually be phased out (it will take a few years at least). Buses are now equipped with cameras which can take pictures of the vehicles in front which can be relayed to the police station. The idea is to keep the bus lanes clear of other traffic espy during peak periods.

Here’s something which I have not seen before in other places – buses are given ‘stars’ up to five stars. If I am not wrong ‘star’ buses are those whose drivers have earned it (five star – for excellent drivers) and who have kept their buses in top condition. A casual observer will find that these buses are much better maintained and cleaner (not that the ‘no-star’ buses are not) and the ride much smoother (some of the ‘no-star’ drivers can be a bit reckless). This is one way to encourage their drivers.

Public transport is cheap and efficient. You can get anywhere by bus or metro or if you are in a hurry, by taxi (which is affordable).

But they are not finished yet. They are improving the public transport system in Shenzhen all the time. The metro line will soon cover most of SZ. But what is a revelation is that they are now talking of a ‘straddle bus’.

What is a ‘Straddle Bus’, you may well ask.

This Chinese invention (at last they are inventing and not just copying) is a new type of bus which is 4.5 meters (14.85 ft for the non metric amongst us) high. It will run on special tracks (like trams). Because the bus is raised and is wide enough other vehicles can pass under it. It can carry up to 1,400 passengers and travel between 60 and 80 km (approx 40 to 50 mph per hour, I think).

It is claimed that this can reduce traffic congestion by up to 30 percent. The big advantage is the cost. It is estimated that it will cost USD7.35 million per km to install, about ten percent of the cost of building a subway line over the same distance. It will also be three times faster to build than a subway system.

The way Shenzenites drive you need to get as many people off the roads as possible.

By the way, a friend who only just passed her driving test got into an accident on her first outing (and she was only in the compound of her condo – apparently the other driver had only been driving for six months). Her 400,000 yuan Audi incurred a dent – the first of many to come I suspect. By her own admission her’s is a ‘kopi-lisen’. Anyway her husband insisted on buying a posh car. Mian Zi, the quintessentially Chinese trait of needing ‘face’ meant he as the head of dept had to have a posh car even when he does not have a driver’s licence.

I think there are a thousand over parks in SZ (I read somewhere). SZ contrary to the common perception one has of an industrial city, is very green. Many of the roads are tree-lined. They have also built over 300 km of dedicated bicycle lanes (to reduce pollution) and last month they introduced free bicycles in Shekou. You can borrow these bicycles for use in the area and return them to designated parking areas.

There is a laundry list of infrastructure improvements made to the city.
No need to bore you with the list. Aside from the tangible improvements there are other changes which make life much better for Shenzhenites.

Social

There is not much crime here (for a city of 15 million) - the papers are not filled with rapes or murders or even robbery. Yes there are pickpockets but this is concentrated in certain areas (where laowais – foreigners gather). Overall it is a peaceful place.

The law is applied strictly – I stopped counting the number of buildings which have been demolished because they don’t have building permits. They take corruption seriously. SZ’s ex-mayor is now in jail and so are a few billionaires, police chief and judges – not just your run-of-the-mill petty crooks.

Compare this to what is happening in Malaysia, where bag snatching is a daily affair, empty houses are vandalised and stripped and killings are not uncommon. Where corruption is rife and illegal buildings are allowed depending on who you know. And the corrupt go unpunished.

The government is talking about minimum wages – probably the Fox Con suicides have brought this to the fore. In the Fox Con case the workers’ wages have doubled and their living conditions vastly improved. It shows how underpaid the workers have been –rather than the generosity of the company. The company has not gone bankrupt because of this.

Other companies (Honda for instance) have also improved their workers’s pay and conditions.

At home the government is still blind to the exploitation of the workers by businesses. As long as they can tap into the cheap labour our neighbours provide businesses will be against minimum wage and the government will abet their exploitation. Meanwhile Malaysian workers remain unemployed because the pay is too low to survive on.

Commercial

The city government knows very well that Shenzhen has to stay relevant in order to stay competitive.

In this regard it has taken certain measures:

To tap into the Hong Kong market they are developing a huge coastal strip in the Qianhai suburb (where we live actually) into a financial and services centre. They invited proposals worldwide. An American company won it with it’s proposal which is both aesthetically pleasing and also ecologically sound.

The artist impression of the project is impressive.

No such thing as keeping it amongst their cronies. I can imagine if this was done in Malaysia it would have gone to a crony firm which will then employ a foreign firm to do it – the old renter mentality – thus inflating the cost which ultimately the rakyat have to bear.

Shenzhen needs expertise in order to compete. Not satisfied with scouring China for new talents it has decided to establish four recruiting centres in North America, Japan, Europe and Australia to recruit experts. The first to open will be in the Silicon Valley. They reckon they need at least 2,600 experts immediately for the various industries – both local and foreign owned.

Chinese high tech and high end service industries need high calibre professionals and they have gone out to get them.

At home we are not just facing a brain drain but many of the brains that are still there is left is sidelined by a racist policy. How do we propose to compete?

Political

I have found a greater measure of freedom here than would be expected of the stereotypical communist state. The papers here are fairly critical of the government and issues are discussed openly. Often proposed policies are flagged before implementation – inviting public comments. I know, I have participated in it (I write regularly for the Opinions Column in the Shenzhen Daily) – for instance the policy of banning electric bicycles was widely discussed in the SZ Daily (and I suppose in Chinese language dailies too).

Many times I have been critical of the government . . . no one has knocked on my door at 3 am yet.

You will find that the papers are not filled with the comings and goings and pronouncements of Hu, Wen or other party big shots (unlike at home).

Unlike in Malaysia where you are not encouraged to criticise the government, Wen Jiabao has called for the “changing of the country’s political system, as well as creating conditions for people to criticise and supervise the government”. He also asked for “more effective supervision on over-concentration of government power”.

Is this a communist country?

The mayor of Shenzhen has called for a ‘civil society’ – inviting residents to take a bigger role on social issues. It is unclear how far the city government will take this idea.

For instance will it allow the more contentious organisations? (That’s what I asked in my column).

Whatever it is, the residents here seem to have a greater say in how their city is run than a supposedly democratic country like Malaysia where local government elections is forbidden.

Shenzhen is a test bed – not just for commercial or social experiments but also for political ones. SZ is reinventing itself all the time. The government is not afraid to change – probably not having to face an election helps. But really the position of the top guys are not guaranteed. If they don’t deliver they go.

With greater wealth has also come greater freedom. They are talking about a Socialist Democracy with more freedom for the people.

We on the other hand have less freedom than when we started as a nation.

Of course SZ is not perfect – which place is? But everything considered it is a very livable city. People who have been to Shanghai say how rude and indifferent people are there, in SZ people are nice and helpful. I don’t think this is just in SZ, in my travels I have found the Chinese a nice people.

There are many good things about SZ but there are also lots which I don’t like. I still can’t get used to the habit of people spitting everywhere. Smoking probably adds more to air pollution than vehicles. There are laws against smoking in public places but no one cares – because implementation is weak. The place while not a pig sty, could be cleaner especially in the poor areas. Drivers are discourteous – pedestrians have little rights, and the police do nothing (probably because this is a new problem for them) You only have cross over to Macao to see how civilised the drivers there are.

Social changes take time but it will come as more Chinese travel and are exposed to foreigners here. Already the dreaded public toilets of which I heard so much about before I came, is a thing of the past. I can say without reservation that their public toilets (malls, cinemas, airports, restaurants and even city managed ones) are definitely cleaner than those at home. Soon they will be talking about our dirty toilets just like we talked about theirs.

And food . . .

At last something that we trump them. We have the culinary legacies of three great cultures – thank Allah, they have not wrecked that yet.

Shenzhen’s GDP has grown 24% every year compared to the national average of 9.8%. SZ has the highest per capita GDP in China. (Official figures). But there are still too many poor people and the wealth gap is growing. That is the government’s worry because this will lead to civil strife. Now the focus is on the rural areas. Many industries have moved inland to take advantage of lower costs. And the government is beefing up the infrastructures there.

China is the second largest economy in the world but it’s not a big deal here. No one talks about it. The truth is China is still a poor country with a per capita income 30 times lower than Japan’s and probably lower than Malaysia’s too (but for how long – the rate we are going).

Well enough for now, I am going to collect my free phone card (worth 100 yuan) – a gift from City Hall to every SZ resident to celebrate 30 years of success.

What did Bandaraya Ipoh ever give me?
I hope you didn’t forget your Merdeka gift!

There will be those who will be peeved at how scathing I have been about my tanah air. “Go to China then” the unthinking will say. In any case some of them are already calling us lain lain to return to where our forefathers came from.

Imperfect as it is Malaysia is still home – even if it is not the home I knew as a boy – so pardon me if I have been brutally honest about how bad things are there when I see how far others who were once so far behind, have come.

I am just an angry old man!

HIDUP MALAYSIA.

(All “Postcards” are written off the cuff – unedited, so please bear with any typos etc )

Copyright ã 2010 Yin Ee Kiong