The Statistics Department disclosed that Malaysia’s unemployment rate for January 2021 rose to 4.9% from 4.8% in December 2020. This news is disappointing when 2021 is supposed to be a year of an economic rebound. Whilst the worst for the Malaysian economy may be over, this does not help workers who have lost or continue to lose their jobs or businesses that have closed or faced imminent closures.
Just like the Cabinet’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 health crisis that made Malaysia the worst in ASEAN in per capita terms, Perikatan Nasional’s management of the economy is one of policy flip-flops, U-turns and broken promises. For example, the projected 2020 unemployment rate, GDP growth rate and budget deficit were projected to be 4.2%, (-4.5%) to (-5.5%) and 6%. Instead the actual figures were 4.5%, (-5.6%) and 6.2% respectively.
Missing targets of unemployment, GDP growth and Budget deficit coupled with broken promises and public distrust does not augur well for investor confidence that Malaysia’s economy is on the right track. Fitch Ratings got it right in downgrading Malaysia’s international credit ratings last year, to the same level as Philippines and Indonesia.
Much will now depend on the success of the systematic roll-out of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme by Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation Khairy Jamaludin to achieve herd immunity of 80% to bolster the country’s economic recovery plan. DAP has set aside political partisanship to fully support the vaccination and immunisation programme for the national interests and economic future of the rakyat.
Depending on the immunisation programme alone is not enough, if Malaysia is to record more than the 7.5% economic growth this year. Last year, the government rolled out a series of PRIHATIN economic stimulus package totalling RM305 billion, to no avail.
In January this year, the RM15 billion Permai economic stimulus package was launched after the government had tabled the biggest budget in history of RM322.5 billion for Budget 2021. However, this did not prevent Malaysia from posting the worst economic numbers this century with economic growth contracting by 5.6%, deficit ballooning to 6.2% and unemployment rising to 4.5%
Therefore, the government must urgently implement an additional economic stimulus package of RM45 billion to create new jobs and save existing ones, slow down business closures, provide rental subsidies for businesses and provide new sources of future growth. The government must also deliver on its promises whether it is the 150,000 tablets and laptops for students, or not investigating past taxes of those who voluntarily participated in the tax amnesty, or increasing the monthly welfare aid to RM1,000 including the unemployed.
The government should not be in a state of denial at the severity of the economic recession on ordinary Malaysians and businesses. So far, no economic initiatives are being proposed to rescue the tourism industry that recorded RM100 billion in losses last year. There can be no recovery this year for the tourism industry with the increasing number of hotel shutdowns. Is the Emergency Proclamation and the suspension of Parliament proposed by the Prime Minister a cunning device to cover-up their failures and mismanagement?