There are probably hundreds or even thousands of people out there who have ideas on what we need to do to save this country. I have no idea what you all will have in mind, but these seven things lying below are amongst those of what I would like to see happen.

The first two ideas work together, and until the day comes when we see them as reality, I would not say the job is done. The other five are among the areas of improvement needed to bring us to a position from where the first two ideas will work properly.

No idea can change society wholesale, but they can and will change individuals. So the biggest change has to start with ourselves; to expect society to change while we remain static is to hope for a miracle, or worse, accept personal stagnation.

When I began writing this, the ringgit was at 3.93, 48 hours later it has already breached 4.00. Time is no longer a luxury we have.

1. Stable money

Money is a measure of value, amongst other things.

Imagine a carpenter. One of his major rules will be, ‘measure twice cut once’. Now give that carpenter a ruler or tape measure, where the numbers keep moving every which way. Can you expect that carpenter to create anything of real beauty, or even reach his lowest level of competency?

The same rule applies, in a much subtler as well as substantial way, with the economy, and entrepreneurial activity in general. We have now a currency in freefall, and this uncertainty of what its future value will be is affecting economic activity in ways we will feel over the next few months and years, whether we want to or not.

From a currency trading perspective, using one of the more commonly used technical indicators on the US dollar to Malaysian ringgit charts gives the following five values as where the ringgit may find some temporary or even final support against the dollar in the next few years - RM4.22, 4.85, 5.01, 5.81, 6.30.

Does this mean we need an immediate peg? No. To peg the ringgit now will bring the real wolves out. The currency will be hammered to near oblivion if we attempt to defend it now, and may even push us into bankruptcy as a nation.

The same return to stable money will also have to happen globally. The experiment with fiat currencies and its underlying economic theories are reaching their culminations. Bittersweetly, we can steal the march on a big part of the world by getting there earlier. The fall of the ringgit has us ahead of a lot of the pack. Once the ringgit reaches its final low, we should be well ahead of most currencies in the never ending race to zero.

What will replace fiat currencies? Most probably some form of Gold Standard, or quasi Gold Standard.

Options:

A. Embrace the Islamic monetary system of dinars and dirhams. But we lack the precious metal reserves for outright coins. Paper currency backed by precious metals does not actually need vast metal reserves, which brings us to B.

B. Hire an expert to formulate the transition to a stable form of money. My first choice will be Nathan Lewis, an author and regular columnist for Forbes magazine. In fact, the first two ideas are actually his, it’s his sacred mantra. In its entirety the mantra is only four words long, so that even politicians can memorise it.

2. Low taxes

Low taxes will help stabilise the value of money, and spur entrepreneurial activity which is the lifeblood of any economy.

One of the countries which has implemented a low flat tax and stable money policy is Georgia, where taxes were brought down to a flat 12 percent back in 2005, from 20 percent. Georgia was named top reformer by the World Bank twice, in 2006 and 2008. They have since brought their rates higher in 2011, but remain one of the star performers in Europe and the world.

The mantra has worked, and continues to work for many countries. Is there a better way? Perhaps, but I have not found evidence of anything that has worked as well yet.

Combined together, the mantra of Low Taxes, Stable Money can transform even the most mismanaged economy, provided the mismanagement is stopped before these two measures are put in place.

3. The elimination of corruption

Now we come to the elephant in the room.

Corruption (what an apt word for both the disease and its most terrible symptoms):  an utter corruption sometimes beyond redemption, like in this country’s case, of the system that engenders it. This is important, the corruption that we have, and the way it has spread through all levels of all the branches of government and civil service is something we have created on our own.

Thankfully, corruption is also one of the easier diseases to bring under control. See China, see Singapore, see multiple Nordic nations.

In Malaysia’s case we can probably expect one of the following outcomes to pay out in the next few years:

i) No change occurs. We continue to slide until we are called the Asian Zimbabwe, and a couple of years after that once we take top spot, Zimbabwe becomes known as the African Malaysia. We enter the global lexicon forever as an example of how corruption can destroy the future of even the most promising nations.

ii) There is a change of personnel but no change of the system. Improvements begin to appear in how business is conducted, but the pace of change is too slow as the already corrupt systems are still either fully or partially in place.

iii) There is a change in the system. Most probably with an interim form of government with a view on the vonarchy, as well as possible secessions from the federation.

iv) There is strife and turmoil, and we hit the bottom faster than imaginable.

Now comes the painful part. We normal folk walking about greasing palms to get out of traffic tickets, and facilitate business, have got to stop. If we do not stop giving, do not expect anyone, whether high or low, to stop taking.

If you want to fight corruption, it starts with you. Otherwise you are just a bag of hot air.

4. Right to identity, right to citizenship

We can consider the three cardinal roles of any government to be as follows :

i) Maintain the security of its borders.

ii) Protect its citizens from crime against themselves or their property.

iii) To allow each family unit access to economic space in order to sustain themselves.

I think we can safely conclude that we have failed in all three as a nation. But my primary focus is now on points ii and iii, as the neglect of the third will always cause the second to become a real problem.

Imagine this scenario. A civil servant comes up to you, and removes all rights you have to an identity and citizenship. That means he will destroy your birth certificate, identity card, passport and any other document that identifies you as so and so.

Subsequently, you will also lose your job, educational certificates, possessions, savings, access to healthcare and security (I doubt you will walk out of any police station in the world as an individual with no name, identity and citizenship). You will be nameless, homeless, incomeless and stateless.

Now imagine being in that same state since birth. What will your options be? Begging on the streets, selling yourself, be dead, or outright crime as a way of life sum it up?

We have loads of people like that. Illegal immigrants, victims of human trafficking, unregistered births, and citizens made stateless by the system.

If we do not allow those unfortunate ones economic space, do not complain if we see crime continue to rise.

To save this nation will require everyone or nearly everyone except the terminally ill and criminally insane, to contribute positively in one way or another. Intelligence and ability are not doled out by race, religion or creed. If we don’t allow just one child born of this soil and its family the opportunity to even have an identity in this country, that will be one too many.

Citizenship rights for all regardless of origin may sound abhorrent to some, but we are out of time as it is, and to spend even a day in cleaning up the underbelly of society off future criminals, where we force them to be, will be a luxury we cannot afford both in time and effort, and the outcome with any sort of highhandedness will be worse.

Citizenship will offer hope to the hopeless, so that if the next idea is not achieved, the repercussions to ‘mainstream society’ as it is, will hopefully be less.

5. Food security

No, we do not have it. Not yet anyway. There have been multiple warnings given by institutions and academics for our country to address our food security issues over the years. Little seems to have changed; you should not be surprised to know.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recommends a stock to use ratio of 18 percent for food security. Malaysia had 26.97 percent in 2011, 24.79 percent in 2012, and 24.08 percent in 2013. In 2013 Indonesia had about 10 percent, Myanmar had 9 percent and Vietnam had 12 percent. So essentially, any supply shock will see aid go to those countries first, and Malaysia will be up the proverbial creek with no paddle, no?

The corruption of our system also brings doubt to both the veracity of the Malaysian figures above, as well as the ability of the various authorities to ensure that these reserves are utilised correctly in times of need.

APTERR, the Asean Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve was created to help address any food shortage issues in the covered region, but has only two days of reserves versus the rice consumption for the population covered, so that is also really inadequate.

Basically, any supply or price shock with food staples will affect the poorest and most marginal sections of society first. And no one should relish the thought of seeing a few million hungry and angry migrant labourers, with their families, joined by our very own poor, on the streets.

We have no idea how many will suffer as food prices continue to go up. Rising food prices, especially in conditions with accelerated inflation, causes hoarding at every step of the food distribution chain up to the customer, causing shortages, causing hunger fuelled anger to boil over among the poor.

This is also a matter that we can address quite swiftly. Urban agriculture has to become a norm in our society, as it is the urban areas which are at greatest risk of any supply shocks and its potentially deadly repercussions.

Community farms and gardens, as well as commercial and institutional farms have to become commonplace. Imagine turning our abandoned malls, apartment blocks, fallow land, and other actual or potential greenspaces into places where the earth gives us her bounty again.

Another way is to reduce demand via changing our own patterns of consumption. Which is a fancy way of saying that if you fast or go vegetarian once in a while when it’s time for a meal, it will help also.

Again, change starts with you.

From an economic perspective, the world needs more food, and will be willing to pay top coin for that with time. This is Malaysia, plenty of sunshine and rainfall, fertile soil, abundant labour force (especially after point four has been done), do the math. Jim Rogers did say that it is the farmers of tomorrow who will be driving the Lambos. Even cangkul manufacturers may make a little coin if you can see where it’s going.

6. Common education system

I do not think that there needs to be much elaboration about how our children are now too polarised, and the memories that we have of our own multi-ethnic playmates during childhood may be never seen again.

Quick solution: Expand Permata child care to all areas. One in every neighbourhood. Free and compulsory day care and preschool for all children ages three to seven.

Children have an almost limitless ability to learn languages up to the age of seven. The children will learn all three major languages, i.e. Malay, English and Mandarin. They will also be required to learn their respective mother tongues, or one more language to make each of our children proficient in at least four languages.

The value of this to our future economy and stability is incalculable. This will also offset some of the polarising forces acting upon our youth of today.

The long term idea will be to provide free education all the way to post graduate level for any child in Malaysia.

7. The elimination of racism

The other elephant in the room is the entrenched racism in our society,

Discrimination on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, origin, sexual orientation, mother tongue, gender, age or disability must be made to disappear from all parts of our society. The only place a racist should feel comfortable in this country is under his bed in his bedroom.

How do we do this? Starts with you my fellow Malaysian.

This list can keep going on. We also need to look at the civil service, a more efficient and effective economic policy for the upliftment of the poor, et cetera, et cetera.

The seven points above are meant to stimulate thought on these and the other areas where change is necessary for our continued survival and existence as a nation.

A lot of us are intense only in certain areas, like when the football game is on ‘live’. Bring that same intensity into your life as a citizen of this country, and yes, we may have a chance.

Good Luck and God Bless.