Information technology (IT) is all about innovation. Vish Iyer can’t agree more.
Mobility, social media and big data are all hot-button topics. Cloud
computing frees up people from the desk, so an IT system can be managed
even on the road. “For a bank, it could be payment via Internet banking
or mobile phone,” says the high-flying corporate executive, dapper in a
light purple shirt.
Vish Iyer: 'There is no advantage in having 20 or 30 years of experience unless you are ...very merit-driven and work-driven'.
“For an insurance company, it could mean enabling an agent to get
quotations and conduct transactions on his or her mobile.” For an
airline, pilots no longer carry huge bags with heavy operating manuals.
“We put that on an iPad,” he adds.
Few would believe the president for Asia Pacific at Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS) has neither training in IT nor a background in
engineering. He learns by doing.
Born and raised in Kolkata around the time when India’s first computer
arrived, Iyer graduated from St Xavier’s College, one of the city’s
best-known educational institutions with a major in taxation and
economics.
Now the head of the largest service provider in the Asia-Pacific region
based in Singapore, he manages 10,000 employees in 13 countries
including Australia, Japan, China and South Korea.
The 45-year-old Indian company, whose clients include Microsoft and ING
Group, is the provider of IT services and business solutions, with a
turnover exceeding $12 billion and market capitalization of $45 billion
on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
It is part of the Tata group, India’s largest conglomerate in seven
sectors including communications, engineering and energy, with a revenue
of more than $100 billion in the fiscal year 2011-12.
As a certified accountant, Iyer moved on from the financial field to
other areas including human resources, marketing, strategy, mergers and
acquisition. “I have been a chief financial officer many times,” he
tells China Daily Asia Weekly at the TCS Hong Kong office.
But that didn’t stop him from venturing into new fields after three and
a half decades. Midway through his career, he moved into a new-born
industry in India.
His rationale is: “What matters is how you put your basic training to
use and how you quickly learn from the surroundings. You can do anything
as long as you have a will to do it, and you are determined to work
hard enough.”
He spent a decade at IBM, where he was director of corporate development. IT has since become his longest stint.
He has witnessed the birth of the industry along with the ups and
downs. “The IT industry is very fascinating. Every two to three years
are completely different. In that sense, everybody got to continuously
learn,” he says.
In the IT world, experience doesn’t necessarily give you an edge over
the younger generation. Two-thirds of the company’s workforce has about
three years of experience and the average age of a TCS employee is just
28.
“There is no advantage (in) having 20 or 30 years of experience unless you are … very merit-driven and work-driven,” Iyer says.
“This is the industry across the world (where) everything looks the
same. There is no different standard in the US or Japan. Once you are
inside IT, it is the same. It talks the same language and (has the same)
quality level.”
The capability to locate young talent matters for the industry. To
Iyer, the Chinese mainland not only has a staggering domestic market but
also vast trained manpower resources.
TCS is among the first Indian companies to enter the Chinese mainland
as the first wholly-owned foreign enterprise. The IT consultancy
commenced its operations in Shanghai in 2002, then established a
development center in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province in October of the
same year. Its banking products are used by Bank of China in more than
40 provinces.
Iyer sees the potential to substantially increase China’s TCS workforce
from its current number of 3,000 people, as the company’s sales growth
in China outpaces that in the Americas. TCS now has relations with 20
colleges in China.
“Our business is all about people,” he says. “At the end of the day, we
need to find out where are these talents available for serving our
customers. China is very important from that point of view — as a pool
of talent. It’s equally important for the size of the economy, too.”
“We are very bullish about China,” he said in a previous interview.
“Its full potential has not yet been harnessed … We’re looking to
leverage its position as an innovation center and a hub for the
Northeast Asia region.”
TCS has started to provide a ground-breaking cloud-based service that
enables smaller banks and credit unions to establish their own Internet,
mobile and ATM facilities by paying a monthly fee. “A village bank need
not have an IT department, but the same technology that empowers a
(central bank) is now available to small and medium enterprises.”
The TCS pioneer project has found a home in the world’s second largest
economy. iCity or the Intelligent City, utilizes smart technologies and
collective intelligence to improve a city’s livability and
sustainability.
These cities will be built on cloud infrastructure that makes them easy
to run. Every citizen will own a personalized information page for
health records and blood pressure measurements and even get health
alerts and doctors’ advice.
Imagine buildings that glean energy from the sun and rain, reducing
energy consumption, and embedded software in cars and traffic poles that
automatically monitor local traffic. At the same time, healthcare and
consumer services are dispensed to citizens at home, saving time, cost
and valuable resources.
An iCity project in southern China’s port city of Guangzhou is slated
for a soft launch later this year. More blueprints are on majors’
drawing boards in first- and second-tier Chinese cities, including
Tianjin, Ningbo and Chengdu.
“The Indian IT industry over the last 20 years has done exceedingly
well,” Iyer says. “Works of best quality are from this industry. There
(has been) a lot of proud achievements — so it’s an exciting place to be
in.”
But when asked about the most exciting moment in his life, the
president’s answer has surprisingly nothing to do with his career. “The
day when my daughter was born, and when I was holding her in my hands,”
he says, with a gentle smile.
“Lots of people talk about work-life balance. I think each person has
to find that balance himself … Family influence is a strong support for
the profession I pursue, so there are no conflicts or contradiction.”
Looking back, Iyer has been with his two children — his 23-year-old
daughter and 18-year-old son — through every important step of their
life. “I (accompany) them through every exam, drop them off and pick
them up after classes, and consult their teachers for college
admissions. As long as you enjoy it, you’ll find time for doing it,” he
adds.
Technology has been the savior for this family man with a hectic business schedule with long hours of frequent travel.
“I am on the road 50 or 60 percent of the time. Each month, I am
outside my hometown for 20 days,” he says. “My children have grown up
with me spending a lot of time at work. But this is a world of Facebook,
email and Skype. That’s what we do now,” he says.
What makes his day? Iyer answers professionally without a second of hesitation: “To satisfy a customer in a meeting.”
Then comes the personal bit: “Followed by a relaxing dinner with my wife.”
By jennifer@chinadailyhk.com
Vish Iyer
President of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Asia Pacific
Career Milestones:
2010: Becomes president of TCS Asia Pacific
2008: Serves as CFO of global business operations at TCS
2006: Takes up post as head of corporate strategy at TCS
1996: Becomes director of corporate development at IBM Global Services
1991: Joins Tata Elxsi as executive vice-president
QUICK TAKES:
Hobbies:
Playing golf. The question is not how well you play but whether you
enjoy the time. Whatever I do, I enjoy. It’s a great opportunity to meet
people.
Business philosophy:
I always believe in ... simple communication with the customer and the
employee. There is no point promising things that you cannot deliver.
Whatever you promise, you deliver. Whatever you don’t deliver, you don’t
promise.
If you were to do one thing differently in life?
I can’t think of one thing. I do things that I enjoy doing.
How to kill time on the road:
I spend a lot of time watching movies on the plane. My favorite stars
are Jackie Chan and Amitabh Bachchan, who hosted India’s version of the
game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Born: December 8 in a Year of the Snake
Share This
Saturday 16 March 2013
Chinese smartphone innovators shrug off Android dominance
Local firms elbowing in on smartphone market
In China's booming smartphone market, which overtook the United States as the world's largest last year, a host of domestic firms have innovation on the brain, especially as the industry is on pace for even greater growth.
Within minutes of going on sale online, Xiaomi Technology sold 2.5 million units of its M12 smartphone, which has specifications that, some say, exceed that of the iPhone and retails for less than half the price on the Chinese mainland.
Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi Technology Co., forecast that the company's sales would double this year. In 2012, the turnover of the company founded less than three years ago amounted to 12 billion yuan (1.93 billion U.S. dollars).
Chinese smartphone firms believe that long-term efforts in innovation are required in developing home-grown operating systems and are not concerned by the dominance of Android.
A report published by the China Academy of Telecommunication Research warned that Chinese companies may face commercial discrimination because the Android operation system -- what is deemed as a "core" technology -- is strictly controlled by Google.
The report, released on March 1, urged China's smartphone makers to develop self-innovated systems as the country lacks its own big name, with Android's supremacy in 97.7 percent of domestic smartphones.
Android's dominance is the market's choice, and its popularity is worldwide.By the end of 2012 in China, Google's Android took up 86.4 percent in the market and Apple's iOS 8.6 percent. Home-made systems account for less than one percent, statistics suggested.
Many industry insiders, like Lei, have faith in China's mobile phone market. Big names like Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo have elbowed their way in, hoping to grab a piece of the market.
Statistics from IDC, an IT company and market researcher, show that China's smartphone market could grow by as much as 44 percent this year, with total smartphone shipments approaching 300 million units.
A total of 67.21 million smartphones were sold in China in the fourth quarter of 2012, up 236.4 percent year on year, with domestic brands contributing to 77.9 percent of total sales, according to statistics from the China Academy of Telecommunication Research.
"Domestic makers made great strides in the smartphone market for their abundant manufacturing experience and the cheap prices favored by those using a smartphone for the first time," the report said.
Lenovo, a leading PC firm, emerged as the second-biggest smartphone seller, with 13.2 percent of China's market share last year, following the Republic of Korea's Samsung Electronics, which took a 17.7 percent.
Apple came in third, with 11 percent, and domestic companies Huawei Technologies Co. and Coolpad rounded out the top five, with 9.9 and 9.7 percent of the market share, respectively.
Yang Yuanqing, chairman of the board of Lenovo Group, said the company started developing smartphones and tablet PCs to compete with Apple in both domestic and overseas markets.
The company's star product, the Lephone, is a low-cost smartphone that industry insiders have hailed as a challenge to Apple's iPhone.
At the Mobile World Congress in January in Barcelona, there were plenty of Chinese domestic devices on show, ranging from those costing less than 1,650 yuan to high-end products valued at more than 3,000 yuan.
"We are providing products that cater to each level, from beginners to high-end consumers," Yang explained.
Lenovo's flagship product, the 3,299-yuan K800, boasts a 1.6 GHz Intel processor and a 4.5-inch screen. But it is still based on Android, an open-sourced, Linux-based operating system controlled by Google.
A report issued on March 1 by the China Academy of Telecommunication Research warned that Chinese smartphone makers may face commercial discrimination, as most domestic smartphones are over-dependent on the Android system.
Lenovo's Yang said Sunday that creating an operating system is not as difficult as providing an active platform on which people are encouraged to develop software.
"Developing a system that only offers tedious software development is useless," Yang said.
Yang, who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said, "I am saying it is not impossible to develop a home-made operating system, as the future market is promising with China's homemade brands expanding their global influence."
Behind concerns about companies' over-reliance on the Android system, among others, is a lack of innovation -- the soft spot that has become apparent despite the country's neck-breaking development over the past three decades.
But innovation is not restricted to an operating system, according to Lei Jun, the Xiaomi CEO and a member of the CPPCC National Committee, who says the ways his company develops and markets its products are also innovative.
"Innovations we made included differentiated functionalities in response to various consumers' needs. This sort of innovation is not ground-breaking, but at least it is a breakthrough," said Lei.
Yu Wenqing, an industry insider with China Mobile Research Institute, gives these companies credit for putting a twist on existing technology.
"There were so called micro-innovations in those brands," Yu said, adding that China has to move step by step, as fundamental changes require great time and investment.
Chris Evdemon, a manager with Innovation Works, which invests in seed-stage companies to encourage innovation, called the "micro-innovations" a steppingstone for fundamental innovation.
These initiatives may inject fresh energy to the larger-scale, enterprise-driven innovation that the government is expecting. China has adopted a strategy of building itself up through the development of science and education and boosting the country's core ability to sustain innovation-driven development.
"Everyone has his own dream to pursue," Yang Yuanqing said.
Yang's dream includes seeing all Chinese people living well-off lives and enjoying dignity on the world stage.
"Also, Chinese enterprises will embrace worldwide recognition, not only for scale or sales, but for their capacities for innovation," he added. - Xinhua
In China's booming smartphone market, which overtook the United States as the world's largest last year, a host of domestic firms have innovation on the brain, especially as the industry is on pace for even greater growth.
Within minutes of going on sale online, Xiaomi Technology sold 2.5 million units of its M12 smartphone, which has specifications that, some say, exceed that of the iPhone and retails for less than half the price on the Chinese mainland.
Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi Technology Co., forecast that the company's sales would double this year. In 2012, the turnover of the company founded less than three years ago amounted to 12 billion yuan (1.93 billion U.S. dollars).
Chinese smartphone firms believe that long-term efforts in innovation are required in developing home-grown operating systems and are not concerned by the dominance of Android.
A report published by the China Academy of Telecommunication Research warned that Chinese companies may face commercial discrimination because the Android operation system -- what is deemed as a "core" technology -- is strictly controlled by Google.
The report, released on March 1, urged China's smartphone makers to develop self-innovated systems as the country lacks its own big name, with Android's supremacy in 97.7 percent of domestic smartphones.
Android's dominance is the market's choice, and its popularity is worldwide.By the end of 2012 in China, Google's Android took up 86.4 percent in the market and Apple's iOS 8.6 percent. Home-made systems account for less than one percent, statistics suggested.
Many industry insiders, like Lei, have faith in China's mobile phone market. Big names like Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo have elbowed their way in, hoping to grab a piece of the market.
Statistics from IDC, an IT company and market researcher, show that China's smartphone market could grow by as much as 44 percent this year, with total smartphone shipments approaching 300 million units.
A total of 67.21 million smartphones were sold in China in the fourth quarter of 2012, up 236.4 percent year on year, with domestic brands contributing to 77.9 percent of total sales, according to statistics from the China Academy of Telecommunication Research.
"Domestic makers made great strides in the smartphone market for their abundant manufacturing experience and the cheap prices favored by those using a smartphone for the first time," the report said.
Lenovo, a leading PC firm, emerged as the second-biggest smartphone seller, with 13.2 percent of China's market share last year, following the Republic of Korea's Samsung Electronics, which took a 17.7 percent.
Apple came in third, with 11 percent, and domestic companies Huawei Technologies Co. and Coolpad rounded out the top five, with 9.9 and 9.7 percent of the market share, respectively.
Yang Yuanqing, chairman of the board of Lenovo Group, said the company started developing smartphones and tablet PCs to compete with Apple in both domestic and overseas markets.
The company's star product, the Lephone, is a low-cost smartphone that industry insiders have hailed as a challenge to Apple's iPhone.
At the Mobile World Congress in January in Barcelona, there were plenty of Chinese domestic devices on show, ranging from those costing less than 1,650 yuan to high-end products valued at more than 3,000 yuan.
"We are providing products that cater to each level, from beginners to high-end consumers," Yang explained.
Lenovo's flagship product, the 3,299-yuan K800, boasts a 1.6 GHz Intel processor and a 4.5-inch screen. But it is still based on Android, an open-sourced, Linux-based operating system controlled by Google.
A report issued on March 1 by the China Academy of Telecommunication Research warned that Chinese smartphone makers may face commercial discrimination, as most domestic smartphones are over-dependent on the Android system.
Lenovo's Yang said Sunday that creating an operating system is not as difficult as providing an active platform on which people are encouraged to develop software.
"Developing a system that only offers tedious software development is useless," Yang said.
Yang, who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said, "I am saying it is not impossible to develop a home-made operating system, as the future market is promising with China's homemade brands expanding their global influence."
Behind concerns about companies' over-reliance on the Android system, among others, is a lack of innovation -- the soft spot that has become apparent despite the country's neck-breaking development over the past three decades.
But innovation is not restricted to an operating system, according to Lei Jun, the Xiaomi CEO and a member of the CPPCC National Committee, who says the ways his company develops and markets its products are also innovative.
"Innovations we made included differentiated functionalities in response to various consumers' needs. This sort of innovation is not ground-breaking, but at least it is a breakthrough," said Lei.
Yu Wenqing, an industry insider with China Mobile Research Institute, gives these companies credit for putting a twist on existing technology.
"There were so called micro-innovations in those brands," Yu said, adding that China has to move step by step, as fundamental changes require great time and investment.
Chris Evdemon, a manager with Innovation Works, which invests in seed-stage companies to encourage innovation, called the "micro-innovations" a steppingstone for fundamental innovation.
These initiatives may inject fresh energy to the larger-scale, enterprise-driven innovation that the government is expecting. China has adopted a strategy of building itself up through the development of science and education and boosting the country's core ability to sustain innovation-driven development.
"Everyone has his own dream to pursue," Yang Yuanqing said.
Yang's dream includes seeing all Chinese people living well-off lives and enjoying dignity on the world stage.
"Also, Chinese enterprises will embrace worldwide recognition, not only for scale or sales, but for their capacities for innovation," he added. - Xinhua
Friday 15 March 2013
China newly elected President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang
The handover of power, in the world’s most populous nation.
Xi Jinping is elected as President by nearly 3,000 deputies of the National People’s Congress. Congratulations from his predecessor Hu Jintao.
The NPC has given Xi Jinping the platform to lay out policies to build the “prosperous nation”, “harmonious society”, and “beautiful China”, which he describes in public appearances.
Xi Jinping: Man of the people, statesman of vision CCTV News - CNTV English
VIDEO: LI KEQIANG APPOINTED CHINESE PREMIER CCTV News - CNTV English
Li Keqiang was endorsed as Chinese premier Friday morning at the ongoing session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.
Nearly 3,000 NPC deputies voted to approve the nomination of Li, by newly-elected President Xi Jinping, as the candidate for premier at the ongoing parliament session.
He has been the seventh premier since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, replacing Wen Jiabao who had headed the State Council since 2003.
Li, born in 1955 in Anhui Province, joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1976 and graduated from Peking University with law and economics degrees.
After working as provincial leaders in Henan and Liaoning provinces, he was elected to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in 2007 and appointed vice premier in 2008.
Li was re-elected to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in November.
Related posts:
China all out to rejuvenate the nation
China massive restructuring to boost efficiency, fight corruption
Thursday 14 March 2013
Sulu history and the Chinese
Did you know that the Sulu people could have been Chinese nationals 250 years ago?
Sulu political relations and cooperation with China dated back to the Yuan dynasty (1278-1368). The Sulu missions convinced the Chinese to view Sulu as an equal of Malacca.
Since only foreign countries tributary to the Chinese court were allowed to enter Chinese ports, many countries or principalities in Malaysia sent tribute. Among these was Sulu. Sulu appears in Chinese sources as early as the Yuan dynasty (1278-1368), and a lengthy account of a tributary mission in 1417 from Sulu to the celestial court is recorded in the Ming Annals. Book 325 of the "History of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1643) of China," as abstracted by Groeneveldt, speaks of the Kings (Sultans) of Sulu as attacking Puni (Borneo) in 1368.
Trade with Sulu rule, European powers and the Japanese brought about the massive amounts of silver. Beginning in 1405, Emperor Yong Lo entrusted his favored eunuch Chinese Muslim named Zheng He as the admiral for a gigantic new fleet of ships designated for international tributary missions.
China’s First National Historical Archive, located in the Forbidden City of Beijing, preserves a very significant document presented by the Sultan of Sulu to the Qing emperor in the 18th century. Dated August 1743, it is Sultan Mohammed Amirudin’s appeal to Emperor Qian Long to include the territory and inhabitants of Sulu as part of China. The document was translated into the Chinese classic language.
Qing Shi Lu, the historical annals of the Qing Dynasty, recorded the event in 1754. It said that Qian Long denied the sultan’s request, although he did it diplomatically.
Had the emperor granted the request, then the history of Sulu would have been rewritten. (Najeeb Saleeby records in A History of Sulu "[Sultan Amirudin’s], that "Amirudin’s name is foremost in the memory of the Sulus partly because of his able administration and partly [because] he is the grandfather of all the present principal datus of Sulus." Sulu occupies a unique role in Philippine history. The island is the primary spot where Islam began to propagate. When the Spanish conquistadors colonized the Philippine Islands in 1565, they failed to take over Sulu until 1876.
Sulu also had unique relations with China. It had a rich tributary relationship with China since the early 1400s. Most of us are familiar with the story of Sultan Paduka Batara, who died in 1417 in Dezhou, Shandong province, on his way home to Sulu. This was the sultan’s first tribute mission. His heirs were left in China and are now well into their 21st generation.
At present, the special royal tomb of the sultan, which has two gates, is a huge compound with a mosque and impressive stone statues of horses, lions, grooms, rams, generals, and tortoise.
The Chinese government has proclaimed the tomb to be under the state protection in January 1988 for its valuable and symbolic recognition of friendship between the Philippines and China. “The Chinese local and national governments have alloted Sultan Batara’s Shrine a total of one billion Chinese yuan or equivalent to seven billion pesos for the development, rehabilitation, renovation and construction of new buildings of the Muslim villages of the descendants of Sultan Batara. The project is on-going and expected to finish in two or three 3 years, Tawasil said after the trip.
What we are unfamiliar with are the two "mosts" that Sulu boasts. First, it has the longest tributary relationship with China. Second, it sent the most numerous missions to China. In all, 16 tribute missions journeyed to China, covering two dynasties and spanning 346 years—from 1417 in the Ming Dynasty to 1763 in the Qing Dynasty.
Other islands had sent tribute missions much earlier, such as Butuan in 1003, but these were few and lasted only a short time. The Butuan missions ended in 1011. More often than not, tribute missions to China were discontinued when the places were colonized by the Spaniards. That Sulu was able to continue its relations with China apparently has something to do with its independence from the Spaniards. It had been acting as a sovereign state.
From this detail, we can surmise that China had no territorial ambitions toward the Philippine Islands. Imagine, the Sultan of Sulu had voluntarily offered his territory as well as its people to China, and yet China refused the offer. Compared with the Spaniards and Americans who waged war from tens of thousands of miles away in order to occupy and conquer the Philippines, China was such a good neighbor.
Unfortunately, this historical fact is not well known among Filipinos, even in academic and historical circles. The close relationship between Sulu and China can also be gleaned from the 420 documents compiled in Volume 2 of The Philippines: A Collection of Archives on the Relations Between China and Southeast Asian Countries in the Qing Dynasty. Of these, 73 documents contain materials about Sulu.
Descendants of Chinese migrants are still in Sulu citing the current governor of Sulu Abdusakur M. Tan, who has a Chinese bloodline.
In barter trading, it is between Tausugs, Chinese, and Malaysians.
“There are only two types of foreigners who went to Sulu who did not wage war against the Moros – it is the Chinese and the Arabs,” Loong said, adding that “the Chinese entered Sulu through business ventures.” (Aileen A. Alam)
Souces and references: BO GON JUAN waltokon.org; Neldy JoloTubagbohol.com, Aileen Alam http://zabida.com.ph/news/artist-tawasil-visits-sulu-sultans-tomb-in-china.html#.UUFTyVfgLHe
Related posts:
The former Sulu Sultanate, a foreign problem in history that became Sabah's
The Sultan of Sulu reclaims eastern Sabah, MNLF among invaders
Stop paying quit rent to Sultan of Sulu, it’s time to close the chapter
Filipinos’ Sulu militant group in Sabah must leave Malaysia today
Sulu political relations and cooperation with China dated back to the Yuan dynasty (1278-1368). The Sulu missions convinced the Chinese to view Sulu as an equal of Malacca.
Since only foreign countries tributary to the Chinese court were allowed to enter Chinese ports, many countries or principalities in Malaysia sent tribute. Among these was Sulu. Sulu appears in Chinese sources as early as the Yuan dynasty (1278-1368), and a lengthy account of a tributary mission in 1417 from Sulu to the celestial court is recorded in the Ming Annals. Book 325 of the "History of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1643) of China," as abstracted by Groeneveldt, speaks of the Kings (Sultans) of Sulu as attacking Puni (Borneo) in 1368.
Trade with Sulu rule, European powers and the Japanese brought about the massive amounts of silver. Beginning in 1405, Emperor Yong Lo entrusted his favored eunuch Chinese Muslim named Zheng He as the admiral for a gigantic new fleet of ships designated for international tributary missions.
China’s First National Historical Archive, located in the Forbidden City of Beijing, preserves a very significant document presented by the Sultan of Sulu to the Qing emperor in the 18th century. Dated August 1743, it is Sultan Mohammed Amirudin’s appeal to Emperor Qian Long to include the territory and inhabitants of Sulu as part of China. The document was translated into the Chinese classic language.
Qing Shi Lu, the historical annals of the Qing Dynasty, recorded the event in 1754. It said that Qian Long denied the sultan’s request, although he did it diplomatically.
Had the emperor granted the request, then the history of Sulu would have been rewritten. (Najeeb Saleeby records in A History of Sulu "[Sultan Amirudin’s], that "Amirudin’s name is foremost in the memory of the Sulus partly because of his able administration and partly [because] he is the grandfather of all the present principal datus of Sulus." Sulu occupies a unique role in Philippine history. The island is the primary spot where Islam began to propagate. When the Spanish conquistadors colonized the Philippine Islands in 1565, they failed to take over Sulu until 1876.
Sulu also had unique relations with China. It had a rich tributary relationship with China since the early 1400s. Most of us are familiar with the story of Sultan Paduka Batara, who died in 1417 in Dezhou, Shandong province, on his way home to Sulu. This was the sultan’s first tribute mission. His heirs were left in China and are now well into their 21st generation.
At present, the special royal tomb of the sultan, which has two gates, is a huge compound with a mosque and impressive stone statues of horses, lions, grooms, rams, generals, and tortoise.
The Chinese government has proclaimed the tomb to be under the state protection in January 1988 for its valuable and symbolic recognition of friendship between the Philippines and China. “The Chinese local and national governments have alloted Sultan Batara’s Shrine a total of one billion Chinese yuan or equivalent to seven billion pesos for the development, rehabilitation, renovation and construction of new buildings of the Muslim villages of the descendants of Sultan Batara. The project is on-going and expected to finish in two or three 3 years, Tawasil said after the trip.
What we are unfamiliar with are the two "mosts" that Sulu boasts. First, it has the longest tributary relationship with China. Second, it sent the most numerous missions to China. In all, 16 tribute missions journeyed to China, covering two dynasties and spanning 346 years—from 1417 in the Ming Dynasty to 1763 in the Qing Dynasty.
Other islands had sent tribute missions much earlier, such as Butuan in 1003, but these were few and lasted only a short time. The Butuan missions ended in 1011. More often than not, tribute missions to China were discontinued when the places were colonized by the Spaniards. That Sulu was able to continue its relations with China apparently has something to do with its independence from the Spaniards. It had been acting as a sovereign state.
From this detail, we can surmise that China had no territorial ambitions toward the Philippine Islands. Imagine, the Sultan of Sulu had voluntarily offered his territory as well as its people to China, and yet China refused the offer. Compared with the Spaniards and Americans who waged war from tens of thousands of miles away in order to occupy and conquer the Philippines, China was such a good neighbor.
Unfortunately, this historical fact is not well known among Filipinos, even in academic and historical circles. The close relationship between Sulu and China can also be gleaned from the 420 documents compiled in Volume 2 of The Philippines: A Collection of Archives on the Relations Between China and Southeast Asian Countries in the Qing Dynasty. Of these, 73 documents contain materials about Sulu.
Descendants of Chinese migrants are still in Sulu citing the current governor of Sulu Abdusakur M. Tan, who has a Chinese bloodline.
In barter trading, it is between Tausugs, Chinese, and Malaysians.
“There are only two types of foreigners who went to Sulu who did not wage war against the Moros – it is the Chinese and the Arabs,” Loong said, adding that “the Chinese entered Sulu through business ventures.” (Aileen A. Alam)
Souces and references: BO GON JUAN waltokon.org; Neldy JoloTubagbohol.com, Aileen Alam http://zabida.com.ph/news/artist-tawasil-visits-sulu-sultans-tomb-in-china.html#.UUFTyVfgLHe
Related posts:
The former Sulu Sultanate, a foreign problem in history that became Sabah's
The Sultan of Sulu reclaims eastern Sabah, MNLF among invaders
Stop paying quit rent to Sultan of Sulu, it’s time to close the chapter
Filipinos’ Sulu militant group in Sabah must leave Malaysia today
Wednesday 13 March 2013
Political parties banking on votes from the civil servants, the sacrosanct!
The civil service is sacrosanct, politically speaking. If you are a politician, you better think twice before speaking up against it.
ALTHOUGH more non-Malays are beginning to join the civil service, the fact that Malays make up the overwhelming majority of the 1.4 million-strong public sector remains.(The highest ratio of civil servants in the world)
It is said that nearly every Malay family has someone either in the civil service or the uniformed services.
Thus, the civil service is home to a sizeable percentage of voters. Therefore, their welfare and livelihood is a key priority of the Barisan Nasional Government which likes to project itself as its protector and benefactor.
On the other hand, the Chinese and Indians predominate in the private sector as small businessmen, professionals and wage earners.
They are largely cut off from the civil service. They have little clue how the civil servants, as a unified special interest group, think and respond in a crisis.
This is the reason why some Chinese and Indian politicians and even some thoughtless Malays make insensitive remarks about the civil service and pay a price for their faux pas.
The more seasoned politicians in Umno and other Barisan component parties managed to avoid making insensitive remarks, preferring to work with the civil service rather than against them.
When civil servants die in the line of duty, Barisan gets all worked up. It immediately moves in to comfort and reassure them as it is mindful of the civil services' vote bank.
When security personnel were killed by Sulu insurgents, the Government's game plan changed as well.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak ordered an all-out assault by a combined force of army and police personnel.
Resources were rapidly mobilised, villagers told to move out and security forces encircled the red zone and the shooting war started in earnest.
When Najib announced the decision to attack on March 5 at a gathering of religious leaders at Putra Stadium, he was given a standing ovation.
The civil servants had rejoiced that the initial decision to negotiate was over and that the army and police were on attack mode.
The Opposition, on the other hand, had fallen flat. They had failed to connect with the powerful emotional impact the crisis had on civil servants and the Malay voters.
In fact, they committed a faux pas of the worst kind imaginable when PKR vice-president Tian Chua remarked that the Lahad Datu crisis was a sandiwara by Umno and Barisan Nasional.
His remarks, published in Keadilan Daily on March 1, had riled up the Malay groups, including former servicemen, who vented their anger and demanded an apology and retraction.
Not a day passes by without someone burning or stomping on pictures of Tian Chua and lodging a police report and urging stern action.
At one anti-Tian Chua session, even former IGPs and former deputy IGPs were out condemning Tian Chua and rooting for the Malaysian security forces.
The message out there is simple while the armed forces are risking their lives in protecting the country, Opposition politicians are playing politics.
The civil service is sacrosanct, politically speaking. If you are a politician, you better think twice before speaking up against it.
Former Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo had angered civil servants when he gave out a broom as an “award” to two underperforming local councils in Novem-ber 2007.
While he wanted to improve the service, the civil servants saw it as demeaning and felt slighted. They took it out by spoiling their votes when the general election came, contributing to the fall of Barisan in Selangor.
In more recent times December 2011 Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua was forced to eat humble pie after he announced that Pakatan Rakyat would slash the civil service by half, if it takes power.
Pakatan leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had to step in and assure the civil servants that Pakatan would do no such thing if it is in power.
Even Pua, who stands in an overwhelmingly Chinese seat, was forced to clarify that he did not mean “slash by half” but reduce its numbers through synergies.
The civil service is overwhelmingly Malay and largely pro-Barisan, who is their protector and benefactor; although PAS and, to a lesser extent, PKR are making a dent.
However, it is not big enough a dent for the supposedly neutral civil servants to change direction as yet.
Related posts:
Malaysia world's No.1 highest civil servants-to-population ratio! Its tenure of service legally vulnerable but notoriously difficult to dismiss!
Malaysia Flip Flop: The highest ratio ofcivil servants in the world
ALTHOUGH more non-Malays are beginning to join the civil service, the fact that Malays make up the overwhelming majority of the 1.4 million-strong public sector remains.(The highest ratio of civil servants in the world)
It is said that nearly every Malay family has someone either in the civil service or the uniformed services.
Thus, the civil service is home to a sizeable percentage of voters. Therefore, their welfare and livelihood is a key priority of the Barisan Nasional Government which likes to project itself as its protector and benefactor.
On the other hand, the Chinese and Indians predominate in the private sector as small businessmen, professionals and wage earners.
They are largely cut off from the civil service. They have little clue how the civil servants, as a unified special interest group, think and respond in a crisis.
This is the reason why some Chinese and Indian politicians and even some thoughtless Malays make insensitive remarks about the civil service and pay a price for their faux pas.
The more seasoned politicians in Umno and other Barisan component parties managed to avoid making insensitive remarks, preferring to work with the civil service rather than against them.
When civil servants die in the line of duty, Barisan gets all worked up. It immediately moves in to comfort and reassure them as it is mindful of the civil services' vote bank.
When security personnel were killed by Sulu insurgents, the Government's game plan changed as well.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak ordered an all-out assault by a combined force of army and police personnel.
Resources were rapidly mobilised, villagers told to move out and security forces encircled the red zone and the shooting war started in earnest.
When Najib announced the decision to attack on March 5 at a gathering of religious leaders at Putra Stadium, he was given a standing ovation.
The civil servants had rejoiced that the initial decision to negotiate was over and that the army and police were on attack mode.
The Opposition, on the other hand, had fallen flat. They had failed to connect with the powerful emotional impact the crisis had on civil servants and the Malay voters.
In fact, they committed a faux pas of the worst kind imaginable when PKR vice-president Tian Chua remarked that the Lahad Datu crisis was a sandiwara by Umno and Barisan Nasional.
His remarks, published in Keadilan Daily on March 1, had riled up the Malay groups, including former servicemen, who vented their anger and demanded an apology and retraction.
Not a day passes by without someone burning or stomping on pictures of Tian Chua and lodging a police report and urging stern action.
At one anti-Tian Chua session, even former IGPs and former deputy IGPs were out condemning Tian Chua and rooting for the Malaysian security forces.
The message out there is simple while the armed forces are risking their lives in protecting the country, Opposition politicians are playing politics.
The civil service is sacrosanct, politically speaking. If you are a politician, you better think twice before speaking up against it.
Former Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo had angered civil servants when he gave out a broom as an “award” to two underperforming local councils in Novem-ber 2007.
While he wanted to improve the service, the civil servants saw it as demeaning and felt slighted. They took it out by spoiling their votes when the general election came, contributing to the fall of Barisan in Selangor.
In more recent times December 2011 Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua was forced to eat humble pie after he announced that Pakatan Rakyat would slash the civil service by half, if it takes power.
Pakatan leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had to step in and assure the civil servants that Pakatan would do no such thing if it is in power.
Even Pua, who stands in an overwhelmingly Chinese seat, was forced to clarify that he did not mean “slash by half” but reduce its numbers through synergies.
The civil service is overwhelmingly Malay and largely pro-Barisan, who is their protector and benefactor; although PAS and, to a lesser extent, PKR are making a dent.
However, it is not big enough a dent for the supposedly neutral civil servants to change direction as yet.
Comment by BARADAN KUPPUSAMY
Related posts:
Malaysia world's No.1 highest civil servants-to-population ratio! Its tenure of service legally vulnerable but notoriously difficult to dismiss!
Malaysia Flip Flop: The highest ratio ofcivil servants in the world
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