The original KLEPTOCRATIC regime
KTEMOC KONSIDERS
Before Mahathir looks to the future he must exit the past
by William Pesek – 04 June 2018
But investors came to distrust his autocratic tendencies, anti-capitalist rhetoric and the ways of a regime that critics denounced as kleptocratic.
They took the opportunity to flee amid the 1997-1998 Asian crisis.
Today, at 92, Mahathir seems downright warm, fuzzy and business-friendly. In an uncharacteristically calm voice following last month’s surprise election win, Mahathir said: “We strive to be a trading nation. A trading nation means markets and you do not quarrel with your markets. You try to be friends with them.” […]
But the bad news is that Mahathir has yet to articulate plans to overcome the biggest challenges facing Malaysia.
The most immediate is impressing investors. Mahathir’s initial priority is reining in government finances he says are in a “horrid state.” How, though, can he reconcile the bevy of populist handouts he promised voters with his fiscal disciple pledge?
As Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng told the South China Morning Post a few days ago, “we want to be a ‘what you see is what you get’ government.'”
It is hard not to see that Mahathir’s pledges to cut taxes, renew fuel subsidies, write off farmers’ debt and dole out cash bonuses to civil servants and pensioners will be impossible to meet.
Plans to scrap the 6% national goods-and-services tax alone makes meeting 2.8% fiscal deficit target for 2018 (from 3% in 2017) seem fanciful.
