2022 has been an eventful year teeming with not-so-happy incidents from the start of the year right till the very end, when earthlings spent their days worrying about their future.

In under 48 hours, the New Year bells will be tolling. Just as we are heading towards the closing hours of the year, it is inevitable that we tend to look back at the sad year about to pass, as we look forward to a glorious year ahead with due optimism.

2022 has been an eventful year teeming with not-so-happy incidents from the start of the year right till the very end, when earthlings spent their days worrying about their future.

Let’s start with the Russia-Ukraine conflict that broke out on February 23 which we thought could end very soon. We also optimistically thought that the war happening 8,400 km away would not have the slightest impact on our beloved country Malaysia, and that Russia would be brought to its knees by international sanctions.

Things didn’t happen the way we had wanted, and the war cruelly reminded us what our so-called “global village” was all about. We then came to realize that our planet was actually spherical, and any arrow released would very much come to hit us from the back in no time.

Because of military assistance from the West, the war has kept burning with no prospect of ending soon.

As a consequence of economic sanctions, embargo on Russian oil, natural gas, coal, fertilizers and cereals, supply chains of major commodities have been badly disrupted, causing worldwide food shortage and skyrocketing goods prices that have since triggered a globalized inflation of unseen proportions in many decades.

To stem runaway inflation, the US Federal Reserve has tightened its monetary policy over the last seven months, hiking the interest rates from a low of 0.5% all the way to 4.33% last week, forcing the rest of the world to follow suit.

Unfortunately, even such drastic moves have done very little to tame the globalized inflation of an intensity last seen more than 40 years ago.

Owing to strong US currency, the ringgit — and other world currencies for that matter — has taken a beating, as the world is slapped with smothering “imported inflation” as a result of a strengthening greenback.

Both the IMF and the World Bank have been downbeat about global economic prospects for 2023, with the much feared “stagflation” looming.

Unless the war between Russia and Ukraine is slowed down and sanctions on Russia lifted, 2023 is not going to be any better than 2022!

Another potential geopolitical crisis is the trilateral relationships between the United States, China and Taiwan.

Over the past one year, Taiwan has been exploited by Washington as a chess piece to test Beijing’s bottomline.

On August 2, then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan for a visit perceived by China’s communist regime as a highly provocative move in support of the island’s independence. The military drills that took place around Taiwan afterward sent regional tension to unprecedented levels.

The latest announcement to extend mandatory military service to beef up the island’s defense by president Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday showed that Taiwan had prepared for a war with China in the worst-case scenario. But of course we all hope this day will never come!

The Taiwan Strait conflict will not only impact the global Chinese diaspora but the world over, as it can be far more serious than the Russia-Ukraine war if it slips out of control!

Back to the home front, the drastic depreciation of ringgit and the ensuing runaway inflation, along with the unexpected outcome of the 15th general election and the installation of Anwar Ibrahim as the country’s 10th prime minister are all major local events of 2022.

The country’s official inflation rates for this year have been put between 3.5 and 4%, far below the 8-12% experienced in the West. Nevertheless, the palpable inflation felt by most people in the street is definitely much more than this.

Other than petrol and utility tariffs that have remained flat throughout the year, prices of all day-to-day stuffs sold at supermarkets have gone up by not less than 10%!

A recent CPI report by economic minister Rafizi Ramli showed that food prices went up by 7.3% in the last one year, and the quantum was 9.6% for takeaway cooked food (such as mixed rice).

Imagine what that means to the B40 community who have to spend a big part of their monthly paychecks (40% or higher) on food!

Will the inflationary pressure take a breather next year? The prospect is not looking good! It should count as a major achievement for the new government if it manages to keep prices in check, goods supply steady, and arrest the ringgit’s downward trend.

To remarkably ease the palpable inflation, the unity government will have to try to control the cost of living of the country’s B40 and M40 communities, and keep prices steady.

In the meantime, the government must strive to boost economic development and the people’s income in a bid to mitigate the mounting inflationary pressure.

Talking about last month’s general election, the landslide win of PN and the thumping defeat of BN were out of most people’s expectation. Apparently PN has emerged as the choice of young Malay first-time voters.

If PAS and Bersatu continue to win big in the six state elections slated for mid next year, we can deduce that their exceptional performance in GE15 would not have come by accident. And if they manage to win the administrations of more than half of the states, there is a very strong likelihood we will see new faces taking charge in Putrajaya after the next general election.

Although Anwar Ibrahim has managed to put up his cabinet smoothly, his unity government will need to put up a good show over the next couple of years in order to win over the hearts of young Malay voters.

We only have less than half a year to go before these six states will go to the polls. These are going to be very crucial battles that will determine who will rule the country five years down the road.