Who da Man?

23rd June, 2018

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The new tag team of Dr. Mahathir and his finance minister, Lim Guan Eng took their positions on the back of tremendous national euphoria at the ousting of a deeply unpopular BN government. While Dr.Mahathir’s track record speaks for itself, the new Finance Minister also joined after a successful two terms as Menteri Besar of Penang.

Mr. Lim started with a bang announcing that the national debt was a trillion ringgit and that if not for PH winning GE 14, the national debt could have tripled under another term for BN. Malaysia has apparently now been ‘saved’, but citizens can also do their part by contributing to the Tabung Harapan fund to help pay off the national debt. 

But despite his almost daily revelations about how much trouble Malaysia was in before he showed up, his start and that of his cabinet colleagues has been anything but promising if recent events are anything to go by.

Consider the following after nearly seven weeks of the new government taking power;

More than half of the ministerial posts are still vacant, including external affairs, technology, tourism and industry. There is an unelected committee of eminent persons (CEP) that seems to be running a parallel government with the power to even summon Federal Court judges and demand their resignations.

The only real policy announcement so far has been a rehash of Dr. Mahathir’s 30-year-old Look East slogan and like clockwork followed by the news of yet another national car project after the disaster that was Proton. Apparently, cars are in and public transport is out, with the cancellation of MRT 3 and the high-speed rail project. Foreign cooks are out from January 2019 according to Mr. Kulasegaran, the HR minister, as hare brained an idea now as it was when Mr. Lim introduced it in Penang three years ago, as explained here.

Tabung Harapan is collecting money at an astonishing rate, ostensibly from ordinary people wanting to help the government pay back for the excesses of the previous government, but there is no public information on where the big bucks are coming from. RM 90 million has been collected, but how many ordinary people have contributed? How much has come from GLC’s heads and other companies keen to be the new cronies?

Apparently, the money collected will be used to pay back old debts, but the new government is keen to rack up new debts equally fast, with a three-month complete tax holiday, promises of PTPTN loan repayment suspensions, toll abolition, fuel subsidies and free education at public universities, not to mention what the new Proton will cost.

While the collective joy at getting rid of the BN government is still all around us, people who determine whether our lives will actually get better under the new dispensation are clearly not thrilled.

The FBM KLCI Bursa Malaysia index was at 1846.51 on May 8, the day before the election and the Ringgit at RM 3.94 to the US dollar. On June 22, the KLCI closed at 1694.15 and the ringgit at RM 4.01 to the US dollar. In percentage terms, the ringgit has lost nearly 4% since April and the KLCI nearly 9% of its value since the election. Inflation hit a four-month high in May. Economic growth is forecast to slow to 5.4% from an initial forecast of 5.7% this year, according to ANZ and ICAEW.

However, there is one area of governance and reform that is truly moving ahead apace and that is to do with corruption, clean elections and restoring the independence of government institutions. The vigor with which the new government is pursuing the 1MDB story and its fallout has been truly commendable.

In itself though, that is not particularly surprising because as Mr. Lim himself admitted “The PH coalition was able to bridge political and ideological differences among components courtesy of their shared opposition to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak”.

But if this is the only issue that unites this government, the public honeymoon that Dr. Mahathir and his colleagues are enjoying may well be over soon. Does Mr. Lim endorse the national car project? Are Dr. Mahathir and Mr. Yasin ready to ditch the New Economic Policy (NEP) and affirmative action based on race? What about the relationship of the government with the monarchy?

Very simply put, if Dr. Mahathir thinks that GE 14 was a mandate for a return to Mahathirism, and the rest of PH thinks it was a vote for Malaysian Malaysia, and they try and govern accordingly, this government will not last long. Who da man?

However much 1MDB galvanized the electorate, it was not the only reason BN lost. Anger at GST was really anger at rising costs and stagnant incomes. Bread and butter issues are always important to voters and PH must put forth a broad policy framework agreed to by all its components that shows a clear path to economic progress accompanied by social harmony and equality before the law. What unites PH must be seen to be much more than a collective dislike of Mr. Najib.

Else it is the voting population which will feel shortchanged. And that won’t be pretty for PH, especially since now Malaysia has gotten over its fear of change.