How Politicians Might Distinguish Themselves

I was just looking at some polling data about Malaysian voters and their views and their perspectives and their priorities. And the overwhelming majority of Malaysians today apparently believe that the country is moving in the wrong direction. Their top concern is the economy and, of course, inflation. Young people, are less likely to believe that the country is moving in the wrong direction, which is good. It is a sign that young people have some hope and optimism, which is something you always want in the young people.

Old people tend to be grumpy and think everything is bad. As a PR professional, I just wanted to sort of brainstorm or offer some ideas for any political party in Malaysia that wants to distinguish itself moving towards the general election. Because if you don't distinguish yourself as a politician or as a party, then the way the election will go will just be based on the status quo of which party or which politician currently has the most popularity and support. Here's what will probably happen among political parties and politicians who don't distinguish themselves. It's like there's a grab bag of maybe three or four or five half a dozen policies that everybody is going to advocate, and they'll just advocate them in different order.

The inevitable things that they're gonna talk about will be trying to attract and increase foreign direct investment, FDI. Everybody's gonna talk about that, and everyone is gonna say, I'm the one who's gonna bring the FDI. The other thing that everyone is gonna talk about will be, reforming subsidies, maybe having a targeted subsidy program. Everybody's gonna talk about that. Another inevitable policy that politicians will talk about will be reintroducing GST.

These are policies that everybody's gonna talk about. And if you find people who are only talking about these policies and they just sort of talk about them in different order and just have sort of different various tweaked versions of those policies, and they just present those same policies in the same way, then you know that you're dealing with people who don't really have any ideas. If you're a politician and you or your party are just talking about the same policy ideas that every other party is talking about, then you will not change the inevitable outcome of the election. Meaning, whoever currently has the most popularity and support among the electorate will be the winner no matter what. My suggestion would be that you come up with if you're gonna talk about FDI, for example, don't just talk about I'm the one who's gonna attract FDI as if FDI is just in and of itself the vaccine against economic hardship.

It is not. And very often, FDI is detrimental to the domestic economy. So if you're gonna talk about FDI, talk about some specific policies with regards to FDI that will ensure that that foreign investment in Malaysia will be beneficial for the public, will be beneficial for the population, will be beneficial to the domestic economy, and not just a way of actually funneling money out of the domestic economy into some foreign investors' pockets. Another topic that you need to talk about that may not get talked about very much by most politicians is land reform, agriculture, and food security. These are areas that are absolutely of the most vital and critical concern for any country, as I said before in another video.

A politician who can distinguish himself or herself as being the politician who understands that the status quo is not sustainable and it is not viable in this particular era in which we live today, or rather the era we are entering into today. A politician who wants to distinguish himself or herself should be able to demonstrate to the population that they understand that the world is changing, that the world is in transition, and that Malaysia has to adapt to the changes in the global economy and global power dynamics. That means to a certain extent decoupling as much as possible from crisis struck economies. Decoupling from economies around the world whose economic problems will only be a contagion to your local economy, to infect your local economy. The extent to which they are coupled to those economies, that's the extent to which they are suffering from inflation.

So you need to regionalize your supply chains, focus on regional economic partnerships, and they shouldn't demonize China. China remains a the most viable alternative for the global South as an economic partner, as a source of investment. But that type of investment has to be regulated and what sort of projects for which investment will be sought. For example, you don't need it for mega projects. You need it for infrastructure type projects.

You need it for projects that will benefit the general public. And a politician who wants to distinguish himself or herself should talk about the development of sectors in the economy that do not merely lend themselves to the creation of millionaires and billionaires, but lend themselves to the widespread circulation of money in the market. That's what's good for the economy, and developing agriculture, and giving prestige to working in agriculture, working in food production. Have the message that no job is a low job. There's a free political slogan for you.

No job is a low job. Working on the land, growing crops, producing food for the population is honorable and prestigious and patriotic work. Don't just take the generic policies from the grab bag of policies that all of the other politicians and all of the other parties are gonna use. You have to distinguish yourself. And all of these types of messages can be sort of congealed into a message of self reliance, self sufficiency, independence, regional solidarity, political nonalignment, preservation of food security and food sovereignty, and developing your economy on your own terms.

Not according to the American model, not according to the European model, but according to a model that works for Malaysia. And that means also not neglecting traditional economic sectors like fishing, like farming, agriculture, ranching, these things. And the development of economic sectors that do not exacerbate income disparity in the society, but but economic sectors that reduce income disparity in the society. And the situation in Malaysia reflects the situation in many, many countries in the global South where people are dissatisfied with the direction that the country is going. Why?

Because many countries in the global South have just been following western models, have just been following Western policies, have just been adopting Western strategies and Western ideas and concepts, and whatever they've been told by Goldman Sachs, whatever the IMF says, that's how we'll handle our economy, whatever those economists say, whatever neoliberal economists say. People are not satisfied with the direction that the country is going if you're following that direction because that direction leads to failure. So tap into the optimism and the hope of the youth because the optimism and the hope of young people in Malaysia has to have, at its core, a sense of patriotism, a sense of national pride, and a sense that Malaysia can make its way forward on its own terms. So any politician who has a message like that, I think that would resonate with people. Let me know what you think.