The story of Malaysia’s Look East Policy is as much about Japan’s postwar relationship with Southeast Asia as it is about Kuala Lumpur’s search for its post-colonial place in the world in the early 1980s. Forty years later, the affinity and friendship between Malaysia and…
Speech by Liew Chin Tong, Johor DAP Chairman, at Johor DAP State Convention 2022, in Muar on Sunday 7 May 2023 May I first thank DAP Secretary-General Sdr Anthony Loke Siew Fook, DAP’s most treasured veteran leader Sdr Lim Kit Siang, and everyone of you…
LABOUR IS FINITE, especially in the context of Malaysia which has not had a demographic dividend since two decades ago. Malaysian employers and policy makers need a paradigm shift to invest in productivity and to be willing to pay for skills. Employers in Malaysia often…
Let me refer back to my conversation with the aforementioned tycoon in part one of my essay. Paying the workers well by making structural changes to the labour market will admittedly require a lot of political will, a strong consensus with capital owners and a…
To deal with economic insecurity, the Malaysian state needs to confront some old assumptions and intervene with the aim to create a virtuous cycle of higher pay, higher technological adoption and higher productivity. A sustainable increase in wages has to be achieved through a sustainable…
Nearly 30 percent of Malaysians polled by Gallup in 2018 felt that they did not have enough money for food, while 23 percent reported not having sufficient money for shelter. These are two very essential measurements of economic security or the lack of. These are…
The Unity Government, led by Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional with the support from Sabah and Sarawak parties, was born out of an unprecedented hung parliament. Despite its messy beginning, the Anwar Ibrahim-led government has the potential of becoming a new political order that could…
If we get it right and at the same time get our acts together, when we look back 10 years down the road, 2023 may be remembered as the beginning of Malaysia’s second take-off. If we fail, our country will continue to stagnate as we…