30 Oct 2019

Guan Eng, please don't be 'syok sendiri'

Guan Eng is a happy man, boasting about Malaysia's rise in the Ease of Doing Business Index, from being 15th place in 2019 to the 12th place in 2020. However, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng should get a reality check as Malaysia has also plummeted in various ratings.

Grassroot level of Malaysians feel this the most as they are directly subjected to the market's pressure. Malaysians are now in hot water, faced with goods inflation, withdrawal of foreign investors, while no new investors come to take their place. Faced with this bleak reality, this predicament strikes a stark contrast with Lim's self-praise.

Lim Guan Eng and the Pakatan Harapan are only fans of sweet talk and praises. Research which is positive and uplifting, they will spare no effort in spreading the news; while research which is harmful and dismal, they will claim as inaccurate. This would only cause distrust between the government and its people.

Similarly, on 23 Aug 2019, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights through a press release remarked that Malaysia's claim to having the world's lowest national poverty rate is inaccurate. With this, a torrential flood of ministers came out to deny this accusation. Still, all their arguments withered against substantial evidence, leading to the government admitting the official record of 0.4% to be inaccurate, as it should be between 16% to 20%.

Besides that, on 9 Oct this year, Malaysia's position in the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2019 by the World Economic Forum (WEF), was ranked at 27th, with a score of 74.6. This was a backslide from the previous year's 25th rank. Yet it's not surprising that Lim Guan Eng once again did not bother to address this.

Furthermore, in the GCR, Singapore overtook America as the 1st place, while the latter is ranked 2nd; crowned at the top spot, Singapore also clinched top 10 for 7 of the pillar indicators in the GCR, including: Institutions, Infrastructure, ICT adoption, Health, Product Market, Labour Market, and Financial System, as well as having the most open economy in the world at a score of 84.8 out of 100. The WEF also added that the trade wars involving big powers had benefitted Singapore.

Lim Guan Eng had claimed that Malaysia would stand to gain from the trade wars, but it appears that it was just part of Guan Eng's ego trip.

On the other hand, in the study by the Economist Intelligence Unit on Safe Cities Index, Kuala Lumpur has dropped from 31st two years ago to 35th; This bi-annual report, shows the top three spots remaining the same, i.e. Tokyo, Singapore, and Osaka.

The safety index is calculated based on 4 indicators, i.e. Digital, Health, Infrastructure and Personal security; Also, the prevalence of corruption and organised crimes were also considered. The fact that Malaysia has dropped down in the ranks is evident that PH's dedication to reform is mere propaganda, while in reality, they are too caught up with internal disputes.

Moreover, on the 21 Mar this year, the study by the United Nations on World Happiness Index shows Malaysia tragic fall from 35th in 2018 to 80th in 2019, placing it at 4th relative to South-East Asian countries.

Numerous reports have indicated Malaysia's continued decline. Yet, the PH government's stubbornness and affinity towards good publicity shows that they do not respect the Rakyat, thinking they can get away with such tricks.

Nicole Wong Siaw Ting

MCA Youth National Chairperson

-MCA Online-