Anwar Ibrahim's Vision for Malaysia: Part One

Someone sent me this manifesto by Anwar Ibrahim called script for a better Malaysia, an empowering vision and policy framework for action outlining what he sees as the best path for Malaysia. Now I haven't actually finished it yet, but I'm about 50 pages in and I just wanted to share some initial thoughts. Now, SCRIPT, s c r I p t stands for sustainability, care and compassion, respect, innovation, prosperity, and trust. All of which are buzzwords that you find frequently in materials of the World Economic Forum or corporate brochures. So that's an immediate red flag for me.

As someone in the PR business, I can recognize cloaking language when I see it. All of these terms, are objectively likable. People like those terms. They have a positive connotation, but they are vague enough that they allow for a wide range of interpretations and the devil is in the details. It also bothers me that this is not original language.

Anwar is following, if you'll forgive me, the script of western elites. Now, Anwar tries to tweak these terms and put them in a Malaysian context by talking about what the conventional definition is for these terms and what his definition for these terms or what he says is the Malaysian definition for these terms. But that's kind of like putting Klaus Schwab in a baju malai. You're taking the ideas and terms of the West and just packaging them for a Malaysian audience. The first four sections of Anwar's manifesto more or less blend into one another.

There's the introduction and then there's a section on his vision which doesn't really elaborate on anything that he said in the introduction. Then there's a section on the script narrative which is more of the same. And then there's the script policy framework in which he sort of outlines the dimensions, which he would like to see aligned with sustainability, care and compassion, innovation, prosperity, and trust. Again, I'm 50 pages in and it's quite scant on specifics, but I'm sure he'll get to that later. Here, would just like to comment on the whole issue of environmental sustainability, climate change, carbon footprints, and all of this Because there's a big problem with this issue being used to advance a new form of colonialism in the global South, which we can refer to as carbon colonialism.

Organizations like the World Economic Forum and firms like McKinsey want to sell to Malaysia the idea that they can make a lot of money selling carbon credits to the West. Now carbon trading is a very dubious system whereby countries with relatively low emissions and plentiful green spaces, which is to say countries that offset global carbon emissions by their own comparatively small carbon footprint and the natural capacity of their environment. These countries can sell credits to countries and to industries that have higher carbon emissions, thereby allowing those countries and those industries to exceed the carbon emissions that they are allowed by law. In other words, it's the financialization of carbon. It's the creation of a new market because it turns out everything can be financialized.

Now the effect of this, when you get right down to it, is that it makes the global South the enabler of the lifestyles of the global North, of the West. And it pushes less developed countries to remain less developed so that they can maintain a low carbon emissions level, allowing them to have a greater capacity to sell carbon credits to subsidize already developed countries. So the countries that have the least carbon emissions are sacrificing their own development in order to benefit the developed countries that have the most carbon emissions. So right off the bat, this is unfair. But further, this is a ludicrous economic plan if you wanna talk about a sustainable economy because the whole system is allegedly designed to help advance the net zero emissions objective.

Meaning, the more the carbon credit system works, the less profitable it will be. Because if the net zero goal is to be believed, then it means eventually no one is gonna buy your credits anymore, your carbon credits. And this whole new sector of your economy that you've been relying upon instead of development, this whole sector of your economy will just disappear. Now personally, I don't believe that anyone in the global North, anyone in the West is even remotely serious about achieving net zero carbon emissions. So, yes, theoretically, this system of carbon credit trading could go on indefinitely, but at the expense of much more potentially profitable development.

So, yes, Anwar talks about reducing carbon emissions. It talks about the net zero goal, talks about climate change, and all of these types of things. And frankly, I don't think that that needs to even be a priority for Malaysia. But if Malaysia does want to make this a priority, then really, it should fall primarily within the realm of foreign policy because the worst offenders responsible for climate change, those offenders whose lifestyles are wreaking havoc in the environments across the global South do not live in the global South. But then domestically, within Malaysia or any country, if we're being honest, carbon footprints is a class issue.

The richest 10% of any given population emits roughly four times as much greenhouse gases as the remaining 90% of the population combined. So I don't see why the average low or middle income family should have to reduce their already tiny carbon footprint just so that the rich can have yachts, mansions, and private jets. So if you want to take climate change seriously, then you will treat it as the class issue it is. So, yeah, when I see Anwar parroting the script of western elites on climate change, it's a major red flag. Now I will continue to read the manifesto.

I'm sure it will get better inshallah, but I just wanted to share some of my initial impressions from what I've read so far.