Malaysia is now the second worst country in ASEAN after Indonesia, in the number of COVID-19 daily infections. Malaysia’s failure to manage and contain the surge of COVID-19 has been used as a pretext by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to wrongly advise the King to declare a state of emergency and prorogue(suspend) Parliament.
However foreign investors will not be easily duped by Muhyiddin that the Emergency and suspension of Parliament is imposed to deal with this public health crisis, when they know that the Movement Control Order(MCO) properly enforced is more than adequate. Even before the Emergency was imposed, Fitch Ratings had downgraded Malaysia’s sovereign credit ratings last year, for the first time in 20 years to the same level as Indonesia and Philippines, due to political instability and poor governance.
Malaysia’s sovereign credit ratings was downgraded when Muhyiddin had still not lost his slim parliamentary majority. An Emergency was declared and Parliament suspended after Muyhiddin had clearly lost his parliamentary majority, further exacerbating political instability. Both the Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz and Senior Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali is wrong to say that the Emergency, and suspension of Parliament caused by political instability, will not scare off foreign investor. Are they implying that the Emergency and suspension of Parliamentary democracy will attract more foreign investment?
Further governance in the Government Linked Corporations (GLCs) controlling tens of billions of ringgit in public funds, had deteriorated with the appointment of politicians and revelations of financial malpractices by the Parliament Public Accounts Committee (PAC). How can foreign investors have faith that the suspension of Parliament can contain COVID-19 quickly, when the government has stopped full screening tests of all close contacts of COVID-19 positive patients and abandoned the comprehensive implementation of the 3Ts of testing, tracing and treatment?
Even before the state of Emergency, foreign investors have already relocated earlier to other countries. Hyundai relocated its Asia-Pacific regional Headquarters for 33 countries from Kuala Lumpur to Indonesia. Indonesia outpaced Malaysia last year in foreign investment with notable investments from leading corporations like Hyundai’s RM 4 billion, Toyota’s RM8 billion, CATL(battery) RM20 billion And LG Chemical RM40 billion.
Foreign investors will not be impressed that Malaysia is the first country in Asia to suspend parliamentary democracy, a definite indication of chronic political instability. Therefore, the PN government should stop being in denial, that the state of Emergency and suspension of Parliament will not help to attract foreign investors, when it is an admission of the PN government’s political instability, poor governance and failure to contain COVID-19 infections.