Challenges in Reviving the Malaysian Economy from the Impact of COVID19

The main challenge for the current Perikatan Nasional (PN) government to implement the plan of reviving the economy due to the impact of COVID19 is political stability. Since the current Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhiyidin Yassin took the job in March, he has yet to prove his government’s majority in Parliament. The question of whether he has enough majority support from the Members of Parliament (MP) is still not answered yet. That question can only be answered if the Parliament meeting is able to be held as normal. Based on the fact that full parliament meeting will allow the opposition party to propose non-confident vote against Tan Sri Muhiyidin Yassin in the Lower House of Parliament. One cannot be imagine, how Perikatan Nasional will be able to handle the impact of COVID19 towards the Malaysian economy without holding a strong position as the government.

The impact to the economy caused by COVID19 is more serious compared to the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997/98. During the Asian Financial Crisis, the government lead by Dato Seri Dr Mahathir was a stable government with 2/3 majority in Parliament, even though was faced pressure from the Reformasi movement. In that position, Dr Mahathir was able to be more focused to find a solution to resolve economic impact of the Asian Financial Crisis. All the economic plans were successfully able to achieve the goals recovering the economy due to the political stability. Logically, since the impact of COVID19 is worse compared to the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997/98, a stronger government is needed to carry the responsibility in facing the impact of COVID19 towards the Malaysian economy.

Therefore, forming a strong government is very crucial for Tan Sri Muhiyidin Yassin in order to execute Perikatan Nasional’s planning to revive the Malaysian economy post COVID19 outbreak. Based on the experience of the Financial Crisis in 1997/98, without a strong government, the Malaysian economy will not be able to revive from the impact of COVID19 outbreak. The 6R (Resolve, Resilient, Restart, Recovery, Revitalize and Reform) economic recovery plan strategy introduced by Tan Sri Muhiyidin Yassin’s team to revive the Malaysian economy is currently at the recovery stage. The successfulness of the implementation of the first 3R (Resolve, Resilient and Restart) is now being tested in the recovery stage, whether all the business and industries are able to recover or not will be known at this stage.

As we have witnessed, Tan Sri Muhiyidin Yassin’s team has been working very hard and show their capability in handling the COVID19 outbreak through the implementation of Movement Control Order (MCO) and introduced several economic stimulus packages. But the continuity’s of his team planning is very much depending on their political stability as a government. A lot of hard work and cost was spent on the war against COVID19 outbreak by Tan Sri Muhiyidin Yassin team. Now their planning at the stage recovery to see whether the first 3R was success successful or not will be ensure at this staged. Recovery stage is crucial and needs a lot of effort’s as well as focus to make sure it can be execute as being planned. But, Tan Sri Muhiyidin Yassin government is currently facing tough pressure from the opposition party. Opposition party which now known as Pakatan Plus seem very active in doing the political manoeuvre to topple the current government. However, in Pakatan Plus are also having their internal problem to name the Prime Minister candidate, either Tun Mahadir or Dato Sri Anwar Ibrahim. 

Even though Tun Mahathir only has a small team from Bersatu with him in Pakatan Plus, but he still has a powerful influence to challenge Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the Prime Minister candidate. This is indeed a strange situation whereby PKR is the dominant party but Tun Mahathir with an only a small team is able to influence the decision of Pakatan Plus to make him as Pakatan Plus’s Prime Minister candidate. Some PKR leaders and supporters are dissatisfied with that situation and they insisted that PKR’s way forward is never to let PKR and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim “be taken for a ride ever again”. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim seems not only not get firm support from his old friends from DAP and Amanah to be Prime Minister candidate but that is also get pressure from inside his party from ‘Azmin’s people'. With the principle of democracy, we can see a lot of new fractional political parties being established, which made a lot of negotiation and compromise needed to form a coalition, fragile coalition.

All this political scenario indicate that political stability in Malaysia far to achieve. It also shows that the struggle to gaining power among politicians will always continue nor matter in what the situation is. Everyone calls for united in their definition, when are they in power, they define united as working together with them and stop going against them. When they are not in power, they define united as a struggle to build a better country and topple the corrupt government. Then, there is no ending going against each other and unity remain a fantasy. Therefore, there is no hope that we are able to have a better life under capitalism and democracy. The tough life we face now will continue and will sure became tougher if our lives are still managed by the same system.

That is the design of the political system of democracy used in our country today. Day by day it shows its weaknesses and limitations. The main problem is the system itself. Democracy is a system designed by human, of courses, it is full of weaknesses and limitations. The best system to manage human life must be from Allah and the system is Khilafah.