Incest in the dark, inbreeding effect now in the open?

Many societies, particularly the Chinese, considered incest as one of its most forbidden taboos. Until very recently the Chinese have taken the taboo to extreme measures where people with the same surname did not marry, even though the couple were known not to have family relationships for several generations back. Mind you, this taboo is less observed nowadays provided a check that there is no immediate, close or even tenuous relationship between the couple can be ascertained.

In fact, until a decade ago, three Chinese families with the different surnames of Liu, Guan and Zhang (surnames in Mandarin; could be different in Malaysia) would not inter-marry as they considered themselves to be related. And that was because their ancestors made an oath to be blood brothers in circa AD 200, in a historical age of chivalry known as the Three Kingdoms.

In Moss Robert's translation of the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, those three blokes made their oath of brotherhood in a peach garden by swearing:

We three, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei, though of separate birth, now bind ourselves in brotherhood, combining our strength and purpose to relieve the present crisis. Thus we may fulfill our duty to home and country and defend the common folk of the land. We could not help our separate births, but on the self same day we mean to die! Shining imperial Heaven, fruitful Queen Earth, witness our determination, and may god and man jointly scourge whichever of us fails his duty or forgets his obligation.

That’s how serious the Chinese had viewed brotherhood and incest, which in the above case, had no biological justification; ‘twas only to honour their ancestors' oath that for nearly 20 centuries, the brotherhood and the associated taboo of incest were taken seriously.

I am not sure why incest for some societies started off as a taboo, but I was once informed that perhaps the ancient ones knew incest led to the practice of inbreeding and the biological weakening of a family, producing (physically and mentally) weak progenies.

Well, yesterday I posted Our bureaucracy & incestuous rape. Perhaps I was in a rush because much later I though a more appropriate title would have been ‘Our incestuous bureaucracy & the rape of our nation’.

My post was about the institutionalized monopoly for 4 (originally 3) very favoured companies to corner the supply of electrical light fittings for government needs.

The official Treasury reason or rather the blooming excuse for such an unjustified monopoly was that other manufacturing companies, including bumiputera ones as well, were not supplying locally made goods. It claimed that this practice could be stopped with the appointment of the four companies.

Our good old malaysiakini did its usual bit of consumer investigation and learnt through allegations by the other manufacturers, and some critics of the monopoly include the Malay Contractors Association of Malaysia (PKMM), Malay Electrical and Mechanical Association of Malaysia (Perkem), Electrical and Electronics Association of Malaysia (TEEAM) and Coalition of Malay Economic Bodies (Gabem), that those 4 favoured companies have been procuring imported products.

Well .........

According to malaysiakini, they accused the four companies of ‘giving the license’ to importers to sell imported products for government projects via the former’s respective marketing companies when there are adequate locally manufactured products.

They alleged: “The justification of the monopoly was to ensure that suppliers use local products but it turns out to be encouraging them to import foreign products.”

On top of that unfulfilled Treasury claim (and I ask you, what does that make the Treasury?), one of the most powerful criticisms was that those companies continue to enjoy their benefits as mere vendors with no progress made to become credible manufacturers, basically rent collectors. And of course by allowing these favoured few to monopolise te ebusiness, the government has actually stifled the manufature of electrical lighting in Malaysia.

Please read the rest of malaysiakini article titled Monopoly dims future of lighting industry below:

Under the government's Bumiputera Manufacturing Vendor Scheme, TNB, the nation's largest lighting purchaser, was required to allocate 30 percent of the business to bumiputera manufacturers for a period of five years.

However, the memorandum claimed that TNB did not comply with the above criteria and instead allowed the three companies to monopolise its lighting procurement until now.

Amat Sinar, Permintex Electronic and Muarlite Industries were appointed as TNB’s vendors in 1995, 1996 and 2000 respectively.

“These companies have enjoyed government assistance for nearly 10 years or more and until now they have not graduated (from the vendor scheme),” said a manufacturer.

“If this is the case, how can other bumiputera companies get business opportunities?” he asked.

The manufacturer also wondered if there was a glitch in the assistance provided by the government to bumiputera companies.

“If the policy is effective, the three companies should have graduated from the vendor scheme by now and pave the way for other companies to enjoy the privilege,” he added.

A check with Permintex Holdings’ website revealed that the company, which was established in 1986, had received plenty of business opportunities from government agencies and government-linked companies.

Permintex Holdings is the parent company of Permintex Electronic.

Meanwhile, the Treasury, in a second circular issued in May 2006, required all panel suppliers to obtain Sirim certification for their products.

According to the manufacturers’ memorandum, Muarlite Industries and Permintex Electronic have not fulfilled the above condition.

As I said at the start, incest leads to inbreeding which gives birth to weak progenies.