THE Perikatan Nasional (PN) government’s first year in power was a mixed bag of achievements and failures amid the Covid-19 pandemic and continuous politicking to survive its slim majority in Parliament. 

The Malaysian Insight looks back on some of these highlights:

ACHIEVEMENTS

Covid-19 stimulus packages

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced five economic stimulus packages totalling RM320 billion since the start of the pandemic to help the people and businesses.

The first package announced on March 27, 2020 was the RM220 billion Prihatin stimulus package. It was followed by the RM10 billion Prihatin package for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on April 6, the RM35 billion National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) on June 5, the RM10 billion Prihatin Supplementary Initiative Package (Kita Prihatin) on September 23 and the RM15 billion Permai package in January this year.

The packages have been criticised by the opposition and parts of the business sector for failing to help the tourism industry, for ignoring proposals to put monthly cash assistance directly into the hands of low-income earners, and for ignoring calls to extend the automatic moratorium on bank loans.

But for the most part, measures such as wage subsidies, which were expanded to cover a greater number of employees, and rebates on electricity bills, among others, have been well received. 

Allowing EPF withdrawals to ease financial burden

Although controversial because it depletes Malaysians’ retirement savings, the PN government pushed through the i-Lestari and i-Sinar facilities to help people cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.

i-Lestari allows withdrawals of up to RM500 a month from the EPF Account 2 for a period of 12 months until March 31 this year, for members aged 55 and below.

i-Sinar allows members to withdraw up to RM10,000 from their Account 1 savings, if they have RM100,000 or less in their account total. Those who have more than RM100,000 in Account 1 can access 10% of their savings.

Eligibility conditions attached to the i-Sinar facility, such as loss of 30% in income and employers’ non-payment of EPF contributions for two consecutive months, were recently removed, giving access to all 14.6 million EPF members.

It was reported that as of January 4, 2.5 million applications had been approved for i-Sinar, involving withdrawals amounting to RM19.62 billion. Under I-Lestari, RM14.41 billion in withdrawals was approved between April 12 and December 18 last year, involving 4.88 million members.

Free Covid-19 vaccination for all, including foreigners and undocumented migrants

According to the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme handbook, the government has secured 66.7 million doses of the vaccine from five manufacturers, which is enough to cover 109.65% of the population.

A total of RM3 billion was allocated under Budget 2021 for the procurement of vaccines, and the immunisation plan was launched on February 24 with the prime minister being the first to receive the injection.

Vaccination will be free, and voluntary, for all Malaysians, foreigners living and working here, and undocumented migrants.

Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin has given assurance that undocumented migrants need not fear being arrested when they step forward for vaccination.

Signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) 

In November, Malaysia signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement with 14 other participating countries.

The RCEP with its five Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners will prioritise regional economic integration and facilitate cross-border trade, investments and easing of non-tariff measures.

With the RCEP, Malaysia will have access to a bigger market. The Asean region has a population of over 650 million people.

FAILURES

Lack of political cohesion

Muhyiddin’s party is the smaller Bersatu and much of the politics behind the scenes in PN’s one year in government has seen the Umno splinter party try to appease its allies to prevent betrayal.

Although Umno is part of the PN government, it has kept up the pressure for fresh elections to validate Muhyiddin’s mandate. It also refused to join the formal pact with Bersatu and PAS to form PN as an official coalition.

Umno politicians have also fought openly with Bersatu in the media over seat allocations in the next general election. As 2021 began, several Umno divisions called for severing of ties with Bersatu and are against any cooperation with Muhyiddin’s party for the next election.

In early January, two Umno lawmakers – Padang Rengas MP Nazri Aziz and Machang MP Ahmad Jazlan Yaakob – announced their withdrawal of support for Muhyiddin’s government, leaving the prime minister with minority support in Parliament. 

Calling off the high-speed railway project with Singapore

Malaysia and Singapore agreed to cancel the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR project after both countries failed to reach an agreement on the changes proposed by Putrajaya.

While Malaysia cited that the Covid-19 pandemic had made the original conditions for the project untenable, Singapore revealed that it could not agree to Malaysia’s request to remove a jointly appointed assets company (AssetsCo) that would supply systems and operate the HSR service to ensure both countries interests’ were protected. Singapore held that the AssetsCo had been a vital part of the original bilateral agreement signed in 2016, which Malaysia was now failing to honour.

With the cancellation, Putrajaya will have to compensate the city state for work already done. Around SG$15 million (RM45.6 million) had already been paid as compensation, when the previous Pakatan Harapan government suspended work on the project from 2018 to May last year.

Building public trust over Covid-19 crisis management

PN was successful at first in flattening the curve of infections in the early stages of the pandemic last year, and Muhyiddin even saw his personal popularity ratings go up. 

The turning point came with the Sabah elections in late September. The number of infections were already climbing in the state, and the polls caused cases to spill over to Peninsular Malaysia. 

Incidents involving ministers which led the public to feel double-standards were at play also did not boost confidence. Coupled with confusing standard operating procedure (SOP) for the second movement-control order (MCO) that was imposed in January this year, many Malaysians have felt frustrated.

Emergency proclamation and suspension of Parliament

Malaysia entered a state of emergency on January 11 after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah acceded to the government’s request, ostensibly to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

The emergency, which will last until August 1 or end earlier depending on the pandemic situation, saw Parliament and state legislative assembly sittings suspended, and the government given sweeping powers.

Critics, including from Umno, have said the emergency allows Muhyiddin to cling to power and prevent calls for a snap poll. 

On February 24, however, the Agong decreed that Parliament could sit even during a pandemic.

Not gazetting Undi 18

In July 2019, Parliament voted and passed a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18, to allow automatic voter registration and lowering the minimum age to run for public office to 18. The change was spearheaded by youth movement Undi18.

It has been almost two years since the amendment was passed and it still has not been gazetted by the government. Civil society groups such as Bersih 2.0 and Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) have called on the government to stop delaying and immediately gazette the bill.

PN’s commitment to giving youths the right to vote was called into question after Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Wan Ahmad Fayshal said 18-year-olds are not ready to vote without adequate political education, while Dewan Negara president Rais Yatim said the responsibility of deciding the country’s future through voting was too big a responsibility for teenagers.

Lower rank in corruption perceptions index (CPI)

Malaysia dropped six places in the Transparency International’s CPI 2020, to 57th place out of 180 countries. The slide was attributed to stalled institutional reforms and acquittals in a few high-profile corruption cases.

Other factors cited for the drop include limited access to public information on matters of public interest, the imported fake halal meat scandal and limited progress in dealing with high-profile cases.

Crackdown on free speech 

PN has been slammed for investigating international news broadcaster Al Jazeera over its documentary “Locked Up in Malaysia’s Lockdown” that gave unflattering views of the authorities’ treatment of undocumented migrants.

Attorney-General Idrus Harun also filed contempt-of-court proceedings against Malaysiakini in June last year over comments posted by readers which attacked the judiciary. Recently, the Federal Court found the news portal guilty and fined it RM500,000.

In February this year, book publisher Gerakbudaya had its office raided over the publication of former attorney-general Tommy Thomas’ memoir, My Story: Justice in the Wilderness which allegedly insulted and defamed certain parties, including civil service officers in the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

Worst economic performance since 1998 crisis

Malaysia’s economy shrank 5.6% last year, the biggest contraction since the 1998 Asian financial crisis. The contraction was worse than the 4.5% predicted by the Finance Ministry.

The decline is due to restrictions, including travel curbs, as the government scrambled to deal with a third wave of Covid-19 infections. 

Worst FDI drop in region while neighbours improve 

Foreign direct investments (FDI) in Malaysia dropped by 68% to US$2.5 billion (RM10.13 billion) in 2020, according to a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report.

While FDI also fell for Malaysia’s Asean neighbours, except the Philippines, Malaysia registered the biggest drop in the region, compared to Singapore’s 37% fall to US$58 billion, Indonesia’s decline by 24% to US$18 billion and Vietnam’s 10% to US$14 billion.

Globally, all FDI contracted by 42%, going from US$1.5 trillion in 2019 to US$859 billion last year when Covid-19 hit.

But for Malaysia, economists have cautioned that Covid-19 alone should not be blamed, as the country has yet to deal with pre-existing issues that have caused foreign investors to favour other countries. – March 1, 2021.