International reaction to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s keynote address at the 13th Invest Malaysia Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday came quick and fast – that it does not buy the Prime Minister’s latest PR exercise to trot out the Malaysian government’s handling of the political economy in very upbeat and promising terms while trying, for the first time for any Malaysian Prime Minister, to demonise the Opposition, which includes the longest-serving former Prime Minister and two former Deputy Prime Ministers.

This international reaction came in the form of an Opinion piece in yesterday’s South China Morning Post by William Pesek in his article: “Why Mahathir Mohamad is Malaysia’s best hope, and Najib’s worst nightmare”.

The depth of failure of Najib’s “Punch and Judy” speech at the 13th Invest Malaysia conference could be gauged from the fact that the article by William Pesek, author of “Japanization: What the Wolrd can Learn from Japan’s Lost Decades” and columnist/journalist on Asian and global economics, business markets and politics, came out within 24 hours of Najib’s speech with the following six thrusts: Read the rest of this entry »

William Pesek
South China Morning Post
26 July, 2017

OPINION

William Pesek says the newfound Mahathir-Anwar Ibrahim coalition could lead Malaysia out of economic stagnation and, even if Najib Razak plays tough, the good news is it can no longer be business as usual

Twenty years after the financial crisis that devastated Asian economies, Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad still hates currency traders. But the deputy prime minister he fired, and later jailed, during that chaotic period? Not so much.

Mahathir’s 180-degree turn on Anwar Ibrahim is as disorienting as any bromance Asia has seen. What otherworldly force was enough to reunite the 92-year-old firebrand who ruled Malaysia for 22 years and his nemesis? A shared disgust for current Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose corruption scandals have Malaysia in the global headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Since 2009, Najib hasn’t just tarnished the national brand at every turn – he has pursued an agenda ensuring a lost decade for a resource-rich economy that should be booming. Cronyism isn’t new to Malaysia; there was plenty during Mahathir’s 1981-2003 tenure. When Malaysia hit a wall in 1997 along with Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea, its culture of patronage, political ties over merit, and weak institutions sent currency speculators, including George Soros, pouncing on the ringgit. Read the rest of this entry »