This is a link to a advertisment criticising the economy led under the Malaysian BN government. It maybe a little late to post this since the GE13 is tomorrow, but some things have to pointed out for future reference.
I
should take note that I'm no supporter of any of the both political
groups. The advertisements from BN incite enough emotions but the
real problem is that people get emotional and fail to see that they
are also being misled from the other side.
Note: there might be some discrepancies in the post below and the advertisement. Read the wikipedia article and watch the video first.
Note: there might be some discrepancies in the post below and the advertisement. Read the wikipedia article and watch the video first.
In this
video, there is a comparison of the Malaysian economy from Anwar's
time as the finance minister and Najib's time. I would like to point
out that that was Dr Mahathir's time as Prime Minister and his
various programs has led the country to move towards
industrialization and modernization and thus our economy was booming.
However, the 1997 financial crisis led to a serious rethinking of
Anwar Ibrahim's ability to lead the economy of the country.
“The
financial crisis threatened to devastate Malaysia. The value of
the ringgit plummeted
due to currency speculation, foreign investment fled, and the main
stock exchange index fell by over 75 per cent. At the urging of
the International
Monetary Fund (IMF),
the government cut government spending and raised interest rates,
which only served to exacerbate the economic situation. In 1998,
Mahathir reversed this policy course in defiance of the IMF and his
own deputy, Anwar. He increased government spending and fixed the
ringgit to the US dollar. The result confounded his international
critics and the IMF. Malaysia recovered from the crisis faster than
its Southeast Asian neighbours. In the domestic sphere, it was a
political triumph. Amidst the economic events of 1998, Mahathir had
sacked Anwar as Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, and he
could now claim to have rescued the economy in spite of Anwar's
policies.[63]
“
During
the 1997 crisis, Thailand was attacked before Indonesia. Both the
Baht and Rupiah slumped and both countries opted to adopt the IMF
reforms and economy packages. In the end, both countries had to repay
debts and the countries fell into deep recession as it struggles to
repay the debts to the IMF.
After Thailand and Indonesia, Malaysia was hit next. Anwar opted to follow the economy reforms of the IMF and use their bailout packages. As history and the quote from wikipedia above has shown, such a measure only increased the seriousness of the situation.
“The year 1997 saw drastic changes in Malaysia. There was speculative short-selling of the Malaysian currency, the ringgit. Foreign direct investment fell at an alarming rate and, as capital flowed out of the country, the value of the ringgit dropped from MYR 2.50 per USD to, at one point, MYR 4.80 per USD. “
What
Mahathir did next literally saved the rest of South East Asia from
the speculators who attacked Thailand's, Indonesia's and Malaysia's
currency.
Instead
of continuing using the advice from IMF, Mahathir ripped down the
reforms and instead initiated a economy lockdown to secure the
Malaysian economy. Foreign Malaysian money was freezed and government
spending was increased. Amazingly this measure managed to stop the
economy slump and Malaysia's economy bounced back faster than most of
the other countries, surprising the IMF and other western countries.
However, by 2008, the global credit crunch hit again and even though
the Malaysian economy managed to remain relatively stable, the
current economy has not been able return the pre-1997 highs.
The lockdown measure proved successful. Speculators could not attack the currencies of other ASEAN countries as they would lose money once the country locked down after they attacked. Their method of “selling short” depended on foreign money being available.
Now, imagine if Mahathir had opted to follow the advice of Anwar and Anwar's American aides to give in to the IMF and follow behind Thailand and Indonesia, imagine our current situation.
The video has compared our economy to that of Vietnam. Note that Vietnam was not attacked directly during the 1997 crisis. Not even Singapore was attacked directly. Not only that, they have compared the economy during Anwar's time and now, when Anwar was sacked before he could do real damage to the economy due to his short-sightedness.
The lockdown measure proved successful. Speculators could not attack the currencies of other ASEAN countries as they would lose money once the country locked down after they attacked. Their method of “selling short” depended on foreign money being available.
Now, imagine if Mahathir had opted to follow the advice of Anwar and Anwar's American aides to give in to the IMF and follow behind Thailand and Indonesia, imagine our current situation.
The video has compared our economy to that of Vietnam. Note that Vietnam was not attacked directly during the 1997 crisis. Not even Singapore was attacked directly. Not only that, they have compared the economy during Anwar's time and now, when Anwar was sacked before he could do real damage to the economy due to his short-sightedness.
And
yet, none of the younger generation remembers this part of history
when our country triumphed against western powers who threatened to
hold us as slaves to debt of the IMF.
With
this track record, I simply cannot bring myself to like him, or trust
his leadership, even though I dislike the other side too. I have
heard my friends saying that my various reasons for hating both sides
simply show that I will not care to vote. I agree with that
statement.
Between the devil and the sea, as they always say.
Between the devil and the sea, as they always say.
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