Reviewing the manifesto of Perikatan Nasional in Malaysia

With the kind help of a follower of my channel, I have been able to review the main points of Parikatan National's manifesto, specifically with regards to the economy. Now before I get into it, let me reiterate that obviously I'm coming from a certain perspective, a certain viewpoint, and that causes me to prioritize certain things. In my view, as you know from following my channel, the dynamics of the global economic order are undergoing a major transition. Europe is essentially being colonized by a national corporate power and the global South and Asia particularly are being predatorily targeted for exploitation. I've talked about this at length on my channel and this is why I personally, prioritize decoupling as much as possible from Western economies and fortifying every individual nation's food security and their economic self reliance, independence, sovereignty.

The post World War two global order is dissolving before our eyes, and countries in the global South are going to have to adapt to these changes as quickly as possible before they are outflanked by Western private sector power. This is the perspective through which I am evaluating the various manifestos of the parties here in Malaysia and inshallah, I will do the same with parties running in other Muslim countries or in the global South generally. My priority is for preserving and strengthening the independence and self reliance of Muslim populations around the world and non western countries generally. Now, of course, the voters in Malaysia can very well have other priorities, but these are mine. And I'm not presuming in any way whatsoever to advocate for or to oppose any party or any politician.

I'm only commenting on the degree to which I see the policy programs being advocated by these parties, the extent to which those align with my own priorities. So having said that, let's get to Parqatana National's manifesto because there are some interesting things in here. When he revealed the manifesto last Sunday, Tansri Mohdin Yassin said, economic issues such as cost of living, employment, income, inflation, the rise in prices of goods, and other concerning issues will be given main attention by Parikatan. So that's obviously a good start. I mean, these are the most pressing issues for most people in Malaysia, most Malaysians, and in fact, for most people all around the world.

These are these are the issues that they deal with in their daily lives. So to begin with, PN is placing a great deal of emphasis on developing micro small medium sized enterprises, which of course constitutes most businesses in Malaysia and the kind of companies that most people in Malaysia work for. They're promising free Internet for the first year for every new startup and a moratorium on loan repayments for micro and SME businesses, which is something I know that Muhedin has advocated for quite some time as the, National Recovery Council chairperson. Now they're emphasizing the promotion of made in Malaysia goods, which is something I really like. And Mehredin says that he wants to help small, medium sized, and micro businesses develop into mid tier companies and even into multinational companies that are headquartered in Malaysia and owned by Malaysians.

Now I don't know exactly how Parakita National intends to make that happen, but in terms of rhetorical priorities, the importance of this can't be overemphasized. This is a crucial element in securing your nation's economic independence and sovereignty. And making this even a rhetorical priority indicates that at least to some degree, Parikatan National is aware that the global economic order is indeed changing and that Malaysia has to become an economic power unto itself. So you're not just trying to attract western multinationals into Malaysia, you're trying to build Malaysian multinationals that can then expand out into global markets from here. The idea is to not just be a link in someone else's value chain.

Now they also talk about making Malaysia the leader for the regional economy, which I assume means increasing and strengthening and deepening, trade partnerships and cooperation regionally, which is absolutely necessary. The only reliable economic interdependence in the coming decades is going to be regional, not global. Far flung supply chains and distant trading partners is something that only really works, for the profit of already established huge corporate behemoths. Everyone else involved in that system just gets exploited and remains imprisoned in their subsidiary role. If you regionalize the bulk of your economic cooperation, then your companies, your industry, your nation, and the whole hemisphere can develop and prosper, and it will not be preyed upon by western multinationals.

So, yes, this is something I like very much. Now I was also very glad to see, Percocet National addressing the issue of food security. They propose, creating six mega food production hubs in strategic locations that will focus on the manufacturing, preparation, and distribution of food to achieve national self sufficiency. Obviously, this is something that I talk about frequently on my channel, and it's really good to see a party acknowledging the unparalleled importance of food security or rather food sovereignty. You have to be able to ensure that your country is not being fed by someone else, but that they are producing enough food to feed themselves.

Now, they have references in their manifesto about strengthening felder settlers and transforming small scale farmers and fishermen. I don't know what that means. I don't know what transforming them means. And I would have preferred if they had talked about food cultivation and production rather than manufacturing. Farmers, ranchers, fishermen are ultimately the most important producers and providers that any country has, and they should be given support to the maximum.

So I would have preferred to see a bit more emphasis on the promotion of agriculture, but of course if PN actually does intend to make food security a priority, then focusing on agriculture is an inevitability. Now again, there's a lot of other things in the manifesto that I'm not looking at because they're not priorities for me. The economic sovereignty of Malaysia, that's the number one priority in my view. And looking at it, this manifesto does to me seem much more geared towards securing Malaysia's future in practical ways, assuming that there's no devil in the details. In my opinion, PN is putting the focus where it needs to be, and it does seem to me that they are taking global changes in the economic dynamics into consideration with a view to strengthening Malaysia's independence.

Now granted, these are all just promises. There's not a lot of specifics, and it's more or less just rhetoric. But rhetoric in and of itself is not irrelevant. It does indicate to you the way a party thinks, what their priorities are, the way they are evaluating the situation. Now let me just say one more thing.

Mohedin mentioned inflation and the devaluation of the ringgit being concerns for PN and that they wanna do something about that. Well, one of the main reasons that Malaysia is suffering from these two things, these two phenomenon is because of Malaysia's linkage to global western economies and because of their placement in sprawling supply chains that are experiencing ongoing disruption. The approach of cultivating and fortifying economic self reliance and the regionalization of economic partnerships in and of itself will help Malaysia overcome inflation and the devaluation of the ringgit. The central bank can't solve this problem. Simply put, the solution is to decouple as much as possible from volatile Western economies.

Build your own industry, build your own multinationals, build your own manufacturing, fortify, strengthen, and guarantee your food self sufficiency. You need to bring as many elements of your economy under your own control. So from what I have read of the manifesto, it seems that PN to one extent or another recognizes that this is indeed the solution. Now to conclude, let me just reiterate. Whoever wins the general election, any party, any government can be good, can be effective, can serve the interests of Malaysia if the Malaysian people make their voices continuously heard and they help their leaders understand what their needs are and what their priorities are and they hold them accountable.

Ultimately, the people determine the future of their country, not their government, not any individual party or politician. They are public servants, not bosses.