I ARRIVED at a client’s office this morning and the first sight I could not help but notice was the sheer amount of property construction activity that was going on in the surrounding area.
Wow, the boom is alive and well in this part of the world where I live and work. It was a long meeting and I asked my client what these all mean to us.
He was not sure about that. “My fears for the future continue to grow, not for me but for my children. I cannot imagine this country surviving in its current form in a world of increasing digitalisation and globalisation,” he said.
Most things always look hunky-dory from the outside. We all know what the local economy is cooking.
There are many people like him who are preparing or making plans to leave to secure a better future pointing to this country’s long, long list of nonsense and the number only looking to grow bigger in the coming years.
Yes, sophisticated investors have been transferring their assets out of the country to protect their wealth from stupidity.
On a side note, I expect the local currency to trade much lower against the US dollar and other currencies in the long-term.
Drumroll, please. You know, some critics have even put Malaysia in the same category as North Korea and Myanmar in terms of governance.
Never mind that some people holding high public offices cannot think and speak beyond a primary school level. I am not referring to Donald Trump. This is not funny.
This client has given up his sanity knowing that some people on the other side are stuck in a cocoon and disconnected from the real world will always blow up anything to protect their entitlements.
Politely speaking, you cannot reason with those on the other side for they have been too comfortable with racial quotas and subsidies for too long.
Instead of working hard together to build this beautiful country, it is always someone’s fault. If they are not under-educated, then they have succumbed to conspiratorial thinking that aliens from another planet are going to wipe out their existence or supremacy.
Those who possess wealth will do anything they can to preserve it including stoking tensions based on racial and religious issues and the dirty trick works all the time.
In other words, divide, conquer, and stay fabulously rich. Meanwhile, the vulnerable voters who are hopelessly uninformed believe that some free stuff is good even if the country is facing economic destruction long-term. They are too lazy to learn or understand anything at all thanks to the dysfunctional public education system.
I know some people who never made it not because they lacked skills or an education. They struggled in a political world infested with racism and discrimination under the guise of populism.
Meanwhile, those who are doing well abroad are not interested in returning home. To attract them to come back to serve the country a lot more things than higher income is going to be required.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the option of moving or migrating to other countries.
The bottom 50% are stuck and will have to work much harder to make sure their families are provided the basics.
I am talking about those who find it difficult to squeeze a few coins out of their savings in an emergency. Please, everyone is affected in this category regardless of race and religion.
Adjusted for real inflation running at 10-20% per annum, there is nothing left even for the middle class.
They have to be getting at least a double-digit pay rise yearly to keep up with the raging inflation. This will either scare you or inspire you to do something out of the box. If you are from an older generation and are looking for a real change, miracles will happen.
How are the millennials doing?
Not everyone is born with a silver spoon. They are saddled with more debt than they can afford to pay with mediocre wages.
Some left the traditional workforce and turned to new technologies to create new income streams. Others are trying out their luck trading cryptos for some quick profits (and losses). Sigh! – Dec 15, 2021
YH Wong is Senior Partner (Asia) at Satori Consultancy (MUR) Ltd and has over two decades of experience in the financial services industry.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
