Koon Yew Yin, 24th Nov 2023

Today is an auspicious day for me to write about Unity Government’s first year performance.

The Unity Government was founded in Malaysia on November 24, 2022, after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim led a coalition of parties from Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional (BN), Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) to form a government and end the political impasse that followed the 15th General Election.

Some of the achievements and setbacks of Anwar’a first year in office are:

He focused on addressing the cost of living and the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. He announced a stimulus package of RM100 billion to help the affected sectors and individuals.

He appointed two deputy prime ministers, one from Barisan Nasional and one from East Malaysia, to ensure stability and representation in his government. He also reduced the size of his cabinet to 25 ministers, compared to 32 under the previous administration.

He faced challenges from the opposition, especially from Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), which won the most seats of any single party in the election. PAS rejected his offer to join a unity government and accused him of being a puppet of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his former mentor and rival.

He initiated several reforms, such as strengthening the anti-corruption agency, restoring judicial independence, and abolishing the controversial National Security Council Act. He also pledged to repeal the Sedition Act and the Printing Presses and Publications Act, which have been used to stifle dissent and media freedom.

He improved Malaysia’s relations with its neighbours and the international community. He visited Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Brunei to enhance bilateral ties and cooperation. He also attended the ASEAN Summit, the APEC Summit, and the COP26 Climate Change Conference, where he advocated for regional integration and environmental sustainability.

Based on various surveys and polls, Anwar’s first year performance and his rating are mixed. Some people praised him for his vision, leadership, and reforms, while others criticised him for his lack of decisiveness, consistency, and inclusiveness. His approval rating ranged from 45% to 65%, depending on the source and methodology.

GDP growth rate is the most accurate method to measure any Government’s economic performance. With Anwar as Prime Minster, Unity Government’s GDP growth rate has improved more than the previous Government.

According to the IMF, Malaysia’s GDP growth reached 8.7 percent in 2022/23, driven by pent-up domestic demand and strong export performance.

Malaysia exports more than imports:

Based on the projections by MIDF Research, Malaysia’s export is expected to grow by 9.2 per cent to reach about RM387.5 billion, while import is expected to expand by 9.5 per cent to reach about RM317.7 billion. These projections are based on the assumption of a gradual recovery in global demand, stable commodity prices, and the implementation of free trade agreements such as RCEP and CPTPP. Malaysia export Rm 387.5 billion and import Rm 317.7 billion.

The main export products were electrical and electronic products, mineral fuels including oil, machinery including computers, animal and vegetable fats, oils and waxes, and optical, technical and medical apparatus. These six product groups accounted for 74.9% of the total exports value. Malaysia’s main export partners were Singapore, China, the European Union, Japan, the United States, and Thailand.

The main products imported by Malaysia in 2022/23 were electrical and electronic products, petroleum products, chemicals and chemical products, machinery, equipment and parts, and iron and steel products. The main sources of Malaysia’s imports in 2022 were China, Singapore, the US, Japan and Thailand.

According to the web search results, Malaysia’s GDP growth rate has improved since the Unity Government took control of the country in 2022. The GDP growth rate for 2022/23 was 8.7%, a significant increase from 3.09% in 2021 and -5.53% in 2020.

Why Malaysia is still not classified as a Developed Nation?

Not so long ago, Malaysia was the biggest tin and rubber producer in the world. Currently, including palm oil produced by Malaysians in Indonesia, Malaysia is the biggest producer of palm oil. Moreover Malaysia is the 16th biggest petroleum producer in the world. Yet, Malaysia could not be classified as a Developed Nation. Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea are classified as Developed Nations. These 3 countries do not have all the natural resources like what Malaysia has.

Since the Unity Government with Anwar as Prime Minister, has performed better than the previous Government, Malaysia should become a Developed Nation soon. Anwar’s anti-corruption policy is very effective.

In January 2021, Anwar launched my 2nd book “New Road Map To A Developed Nation”. Based on Anwar’s excellent performance record, I believe Malaysia will soon be a Developed Nation. Nevertheless, Anwar should be aware of the weaknesses in the Unity Government.

How to improve our economy faster?

The poor quality of Malaysia's education system is more worrying than the level of debt in its households, said a World Bank senior economist in Kuala Lumpur. This is because the country's substandard education system would affect the pool of skilled talent it needs to grow its economy to become a high income nation, while high household debt is not necessarily a problem if the economy continues to grow and citizens are gainfully employed. Dr Frederico Gil Sander, who is senior economist for Malaysia, said Malaysians should be "alarmed" that their children were doing worse in school than children in Vietnam, a country that is poorer than Malaysia.

"Rural Vietnamese students do better than Malaysian students," said Sander, when met a forum that is part of the Global Malaysia series organised by the Economic Transformation Programme. Sander was referring to a world student performance assessment test called Pisa which had measured how students in 65 countries did in mathematics, science and reading. According to Pisa's 2012 results Malaysian students scored below average or ranked 52 out 65. In contrast, Vietnamese students ranked 17 out of 65.

Malaysia's poor Pisa results spotlighted the weakness of Malaysia's school system, despite the fact that education gets the largest share of funds every year from the national budget.

Critics have pointed out that the Pisa results contradicted the government's insistence that Malaysia had a world class education system. Critics have also questioned the real worth of the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) which produces many students who scored As, but who can't compete with their peers from Singapore, China and Taiwan.

Unity Government must improve the quality of education. For a start, issue instruction to all our schools to teach all subjects except Bahasa in English.

Reduce the number of civil servants:

Malaysia has 1.71 million civil servants for 33.94 million people and almost all of them are Malays. Malaysia has the most civil servants per capita in the world, with one civil servant for every 19.37 people. 5% of Malaysians are civil servants.

This is higher than Singapore’s ratio of 1.5 percent, Hong Kong’s and Taiwan’s 2.3 percent. Some sources suggest that Malaysia’s large civil service is a result of the country’s affirmative action policy for the ethnic Malay majority, which has led to inefficiency, corruption, and low productivity.

Managing the country is similar to managing many large business operations in every town and city in Malaysia. The government must reduce the number of civil servants to reduce management cost.

Unity Government must plug all the loopholes of corruptions.

The biggest corruption loopholes are:

1. Land is Government’s biggest asset. Government must not sell land without open competitive tender.
2. All land reclamation from the sea contracts must be open to competitive tenders.
3. All Government procurement contracts such as construction of infrastructures, highway and buildings or buying essential products such as military weapons, motor vehicles etc must beopen competitive tenders.
4. All issues of new licenses or permits must be more transparent to prevent trade monopoly and avoid corruptions.
5. Government must not allow civil servants or politicians to negotiate any contract or deal to prevent corruptions.
6. All Members of Parliament must declare their assets to prevent corruptions.

To remain in power, the Unity Government must be aware of the weaknesses such as:

Corruption is still a big problem. A study by UUM found that corruption has a negative impact on the macroeconomic variables in Malaysia, such as inflation, unemployment, and foreign direct investment. Transparency of corporate governance is one of the ways to reduce corruption and improve the economic performance of the country.

Some of the other weaknesses of the unity government in Malaysia are: The challenge of managing the diversity and compatibility of the different parties involved, each with their own interests and agendas.

The lack of clear and coherent policies on various issues, such as combating systemic corruption, poverty, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pressure from the opposition and the monarchy, which could undermine the government’s legitimacy and stability.

The difficulty of balancing the representation and rights of Sabah and Sarawak, as well as the dual role of some parties at the federal and state levels.

Deputy PM Ahmad Zahid is facing 47 criminal charges. If Deputy PM Ahmad Zahid is jailed, will UMNO pull out of the Unity Government???

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