Trumped
SeaDemon Says
A few hours before Hillary Clinton conceded defeat, signs were everywhere that she was heading down the abyss. On Twitter people were talking about moving to Canada while the Canadian Immigration website crashed for reasons not yet known to us. Hillary finally conceded defeat making Trump the President-elect. The next four years of his Presidency is going to be worth watching.
I can understand how the supporters of the Democrats feel right now, my home state of Selangor fell to what was the Barisan Alternatif in 2008 and the first 24 hours was filled with uncertainties. In the end, it was business as usual albeit having to sufer the occasional water outtages as well as incompetent solid wastes collection contractors. Other than that the state runs on autopilot while the politicians in charge of the state are busy giving ceramahs non-stop.
Trump has promised to make America great again. To make America great again America’s military would also be made great. It also means that America’s businesses will be given priority over foreign-owned ones.
How does this augur for Malaysia?
Firstly, the Republican-heavy Congress would not pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement as Trump sees the TPPA as a vehicle that would allow Asian businesses to take over the American economy. If it were to go ahead a major tweaking of the TPPA needs to be done – tariffs would be raised to favour the American economy and that would not go down well with the other potential TPPA partners. Anyhow, with the TPPA still not ratified, Trump is likely to hold to his pledge to withdraw the United States from the free-trade agreement. The good thing from that would be Malaysia’s continued hold on its protectionist policies aimed at preserving the Bumiputra rights as well as the protection for local industries.
Malaysia’s manufactured exports to the US saw an increase by 13 percent recently. With Trump favouring the great American economy, this would be greatly affected since Malaysia’s economy is 90 percent reliant on exports. Nomura Holdings in early July 2016 in a report titled ‘Trumping Asia’ bluntly said that if Trump wins, Asia loses. The Philippines would be the country in the South East Asian region that would be most affected by Trump’s Presidency while Malaysia is fourth after Indonesia.
