News
PETALING JAYA: For Malaysians, political and racial conflicts are the major challenges in the country’s economy over the next three years. This was revealed in a survey where 42.8 per cent of Malaysian respondents believe these two conflicts are the major challenges for the economy of Malaysia over the next three years. Another 24.2 per cent of Malaysians see the drastic inflation or slashing of interest rates as major challenge in the economy of Malaysia. Malaysians are less worried about geopolitical issues, China-United States trade war, or the wars in Europe and the Middle East. The survey, entitled 2024 Trend Survey : Public Sentiment in Turbulent Times, was jointly conducted by Taiwan-based Global View Research, Lianhe Zaobao of Singapore, Sin Chew Daily and the Department of Journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University. Malaysians, Singaporeans, Taiwanese, Hong Kong residents and Chinese nationals were interviewed in the survey. Associate Professor Teo Wing Leong from University of Nottingham Malaysia said the conflicts would result in investors – both foreign and local – adopting a wait-and-see approach, which leads to slower economic growth. At the same time, it increases the outflow of talents from Malaysia to other countries, said Teo, who is the head of the school of economics, faculty of social sciences of the university. “Unlike Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, Malaysians see political and racial conflicts as the major challenges for the economy due to the unique racial composition in Malaysia and the political developments back home since 2018,” said Teo. Malaysia is made up of multi-racial community and racial clash is most likely to occur, he said. “We have five prime ministers in six years since 2018. The disparity in racial representation in the ruling coalition and the opposition has led to racial issues being exploited in last few years,” Teo said. He is of the view that Malaysians, regardless of their ethnicity, should embrace diversity and help one another. This will prove to the politicians that people from different ethnic groups are not easily influenced by racial politics. Respondents from Singapore and Hong Kong see major challenges in the drastic inflation and interest rate cut, while respondents from China regard the China-US trade war as a major challenge in the economy over the next three years.
2 w ago
Opinion
Trump in this sense has a complete chokehold of the system. Whether he is able to ride above the proverbial parapet of American bipartisanship, much of it would depend on Trump’s own aptitude and attitude in full. The size of President Elect Donald Trump (hereon Trump)’s electoral victory was not only sweeping but shocking. Not only did Trump take over the White House, again, as the 47th President of the United States (US) but dominated the US Senate and House of Lower Representatives with the Republican Party. While the shock is global this is only the case when one factors into the consideration, which many ignored, that the US has for the most parts been the major power that has turned away from isolationism since 1945, when it cemented itself as the superpower in the world. However, what is interesting about the electoral victory of Trump is the very fact that he himself, once again, was stunned, not unlike November 2016, that he has defied all electoral logic in the US. Invariably to win the popular votes too; a feat which he has failed to do in 2016. But there is more than meets the eye. As a consummate cable network news junkie, often going well into the wee hours of the morning, Trump was stunned by what was reported back. This time around Trump has increased the share of his black African American votes by 20 percent. Even the share of his Asian American votes went up by a single digit although Trump was constantly spewing seemingly anti immigration rhetoric all through 2017 to 2024. To be sure, there are 1.8 million Americans, according to the ex Chief of Communication of Trump i.e. Anthony Scaramuchi,, that remains in jail. This number alone is considered large. Yet to evict 11 million illegal migrants from the US, huge camps and half way stations have to be built. Such a plan would cost the US government anything upward of USD 800 Billion to USD 1 Trillion. To supporters of Trump, this is not something that the US should be intimidated with. Getting the US, a land of immigrants, is more important than allowing illegal and undocumented immigrants to pour into the US, albeit mainly to find their ways into the large cities in the US. While Trump is certain that immigration would be one of the most important issues for him to hit on—-the other issue being the inflation of the US—–the fact is no American presidents have been re-elected into office by focusing so narrowly on this issue alone. Normally, Hispanic voters in the US are against a President who is anti immigration. Yet even here there was another twist. Invariably in an election characterized by seismic shifts. Not least, there was a surge of 13-point in the Latino vote toward Trump, reported Newsweek on November 14 2024. The President-elect’s success also appeared to usher in a new age of political predictions and has again cast doubt on the credibility of […]
14 h ago
