Author: Ong Kian Ming, UCSI University

The heart of Kuala Lumpur is usually chock full of traffic on a weekend. But on Saturday 9 July downtown KL was eerily empty of cars.

Police presence, however, was very noticeable, in the form of roadblocks positioned at major roads leading into the city, fire trucks equipped with water cannons, and helicopters hovering overhead. Read more…

Author: Nurhisham Hussein, Economics Malaysia

An interesting experiment is going on in Malaysia. The administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak has embarked on an economic transformation plan that marks a clear departure from the development plans of Malaysia’s past.

In years past Malaysia’s development plans, while ostensibly focusing on economic growth and structural changes, had been in actuality little more than budget priorities for the federal government. Read more…

On 9 July around 50,000 Malaysians marched peacefully in support of free elections, defying a government prohibition and massive police effort.

Police eventually dispersed demonstrators with water cannons and tear gas and arrested nearly 1,700. Several were injured (including the opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim) and one died from injury. Read more…

Author: Clark B. Lombardi, University of Washington

Islamic law is playing an increasing role in the Malaysian legal system. While many celebrate this trend, liberal Muslims inside and outside of Malaysia are concerned.

In particular, liberal Muslims are concerned about the recent application of strict Islamic law to women, Muslims who hold unorthodox beliefs, or religious minorities. Read more…

Author: Andrew Herd, ANU

The issue of asylum seekers is one of the most controversial and difficult political issues Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her Labor government faces.

The difficulty does not arise from the actual number of asylum seekers attempting to get to Australia by boat — the numbers approaching Italy demonstrate that comparatively few are attempting to come to Australia — but from the perception, perpetuated by politicians of both sides, that such actions represent a government failure and the need to restore sovereignty. Read more…

Author: Hal Hill, ANU

Malaysia is one of the developing world’s great success stories. Few countries outside of East Asia can match its development record. Since its independence over 53 years ago per capita incomes have risen more than eight-fold, and absolute poverty has been all but eliminated.

But it currently faces three key, interrelated challenges, some generic to upper middle income developing countries, others specific to Malaysia itself.

The first, how to graduate to the rich-country club, has been clearly articulated by the country’s Prime Minister, Tun Najib: ‘We are now at a critical juncture, either to remain trapped in a middle-income group or advance to a high-income economy … We now have to shift to a new economic model based on innovation, creativity and high value added activities.’

Read more…

Author: Evelyn Devadason, ANU

Malaysia has a total of 1.9 million registered migrant workers, constituting approximately 21 per cent of the workforce, making Malaysia the largest importer of labour in Asia.

Despite the large presence of migrant workers in the economy, the policies and laws regulating in-migration are chaotic. Policies built on the concept of a short-term remedy for labour shortage problems have exposed the failure on the part of policymakers to recognise the critical contribution of migrant workers over the longer term. Read more…

Author: Mahani Zainal Abidin, ISIS

After taking office in April 2009, Prime Minister Najib Razak consolidated his position in 2010 as he introduced plans to transform the economy and the public sector.

Najib’s popularity was further bolstered by Malaysia’s robust economic performance and a foreign policy that saw relations with key countries improve rapidly. Read more…

Author: Peter Drysdale

Malaysia’s recently presented New Economic Model is, on paper, a hugely ambitious strategy for changing the country’s economic and social direction and, hopefully, its economic and political fortunes.

The government of Prime Minister Najib seems inclined to embrace its principles and try to forge a new direction in Malaysian economic and social policy. In the 1980s Malaysia was among the brightest stars in the Southeast Asian economy, with growth around 8 per cent a year and a huge transformation away from its comfortable plantation and minerals past towards a new industrial future, driven by foreign investment and rapidly growing exports of consumer electronics to regional and global markets. Read more…

Author: Shankaran Nambiar, MIER

Malaysia’s New Economic Model (NEM) is a framework that promises to bring the country out of its middle-income status, and push it into the realm of a high-income economy. The NEM proposes to do this through eight Strategic Research Initiatives (SRIs). These SRIs include re-energising the private sector, developing a quality workforce, and creating a competitive domestic environment. Growth is also considered, both in terms of enhancing the sources of growth and ensuring the sustainability of growth. Other initiatives target the public sector, affirmative action and building Malaysia’s knowledge-base and infrastructure.

Given the multiplicity of the SRIs, if one were asked to select the key factors, what would they be? Read more…

Author: Rachel Leow, University of Cambridge

In early 2010, ten Christian churches in Malaysia were firebombed, attacked or vandalised on account of a controversy over the use of the word ‘Allah’ by Malaysian Christians. A Catholic weekly, The Catholic Herald, had been ordered by the government in 2009 to cease publishing its Malay-language edition until the courts resolved the question of whether the word ‘Allah’ could mean the God of the Christian faith, rather than the God of Islam. Claims were made that such usage would confuse Muslims, who mainly spoke Malay.

On 31 December 2009, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled in favour of The Herald. Read more…

Author: Gregore Lopez, ANU

Southeast Asia has seen its fair share of authoritarian leaders. Malaysia’s Dr. Mahathir Mohamed is one who still endures, albeit now on the sidelines. Ascending to the premiership of Malaysia in July 1981, and ruling until his forced retirement in October 2003, he reigned in impressive fashion.

Among the many titles that were bestowed on this poor boy from a Malaysian backwater were ‘respected Muslim’, ‘Third World leader’, and ‘spokesman for developing nations’. Within the country, as overseas, he was both loathed and loved. In his quest to transform Malaysia into a ‘developed nation’ he used all possible means, both domestic and external, to achieve his grand vision. Seven years since his departure, what has been his legacy? Read more…

Author: Shankaran Nambiar, MIER

Malaysia’s New Economic Model (NEM) serves to address two crucial issues that confront the nation. First, Malaysia for some time now has had its feet caught in the ‘middle income’ trap. It is now keen to graduate to a high income status, joining the likes of Singapore, Taiwan and Korea. The NEM takes this role seriously.

Second, the Malaysian economy has just recovered – and admirably, one might add – from the recent global financial and economic crisis. As if in answer to the lessons of the crisis, the NEM constitutes an attempt at designing a rebalancing strategy. Read more…

Authors: Mahani Zainal Abidin and Steven Wong, ISIS

For all the hype about industrial development, technology and markets, there are not many countries in the world that have experienced rapid development on a sustained basis after the Second World War. Malaysia is one such exception. But now it has reached an inflection point where the country must step up to become an advanced economy with an inclusive society and a mature democracy.

When Malaysia gained independence its main assets were its rubber plantations and tin mines, and much was still owned by foreign companies. Read more…

Author: Gregore Lopez, ANU

Historically, Barisan Nasional’s (BN’s) fiscal management has failed in two related ways.  They have displayed no fiscal discipline, and their public service expenditure has been highly inefficient and corrupt. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib’s decision to introduce a Goods and Services Tax (GST) is therefore premature. Before introducing a GST, Najib must first demonstrate to the Rakyat that he has the ability to reform BN by reining in fiscal deficits.

A historic lack of fiscal discipline

There are two conventional approaches to fiscal policy: a balanced budget approach, where the government spends only what it earns or a counter-cyclical approach, where the government accumulates surpluses during high growth periods to use as deficit spending during recessionary periods. Read more…