The Unseen Tiger Stripes of A Mono-Religious, Mono-Ethnic Political Party

While many Malaysians (non-Muslims and to a lesser extent Muslims) recognise and call out Parti Islam Malaysia (PAS) for its extreme religious stance,  I firmly believe the present governing coalition (comprising the Pakatan Harapan, Barisan Nasional and the East Malaysian parties) do not  understand enough the great dangers facing Malaysia in the next 5 years.

As an analyst of global geopolitics and economics, I highlight two inter-related dangers (internal and external) that can be turned into a great opportunity for truly unifying and strenghtening the uneasy partnership between PH and BN:

(1) Mono-religious vs a balanced multi-ethnic society: Malaysia as one of the most unique and diverse multi-ethnic and multi-faith society in Asia will be totally weakened economically and politically when it gives way to the dominance of a party (PAS) whose goal is to turn the country into a mono-ethnic and mono-religious society.

(2) Sovereignty vs globalist agendas: Following hot on the heels of the pandemic and the movement restriction orders, Malaysia's economy has reopened this year like many other nations. 

But our sovereignty as a small, South East Asian country is going to be further threatened again by the globalist forces (World Economic Forum agenda on the one hand and the rising monetary influence of the CCP on the other hand).

The globalist agenda is driven by two strategies: 

(a) Divide and conquer: exploiting the ideological divisions, partisan politics and religious differences to further undermine society and transfer the nation's independent rights to a globalist agenda of climate change, central bank digital currencies and non-democratic global governance (similar to the European Union). 

(b) Binary political choices: offer small and powerless nations a false dichotomy of choice: either a chaotic and weak democracy or a global and regional coalition of nations governed by a global government and controls (new viruses and new vaccination programs). 

This is done through the constant biased reporting by and collusion with the mainstream media, big tech (recall how Twitter colluded with the Democrat party and the FBI to censor truthful facts about Joe Biden's son in 2020?) and institutions like the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Given the above facts (supported by a keen due diligence study of global developments), I believe the unity government under Malaysia's 10th Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim can identify and strategise a two fold attack-and-defense strategy against the common enemy, namely ideological polarisation and the submission of our country's sovereignty to global powers (China, U.S. and other emerging superpowers).

The current Prime Minister is well-respected by world leaders based on the congratulatory messages at his appointment. But what is concerning is that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim Prime has built, over three decades, a network of global contacts/friends which tends to comprise a mix of the U.S. Democrats and Islamist leaders (Bill Clinton, Paul Wolfowitz, PLO's Arafat, Turkey's Erdogan and Hamas). 

He has to be well-advised and enlightened that these two forces of ideological polarisation and global deep state are both deeply inter-related and will eventually come into full force undermining every country it seeks to dominate.

Three Local Tigers

In conclusion, the tiger is clearly a national symbol of strength and vitality for Malaysia. 

But there are localised tigers with hidden stripes that are dangerous if they are mishandled and misconstrued to be domestic pets. 

As I said before, the three dangerous tigers are: corruption, racism and religious extremism.

Following the election results of Malaysia's 15th General Election on 19th November 2022, the nation seems to have tamed the tiger of corruption (with the decimation of BN's votes). 

The tiger of racism is still a threat but he is weakened and getting old after six decades of running around scaring the various communities.  

The last tiger of religious extremism (riding on a supposedly conservative wave of going back to spiritual roots) has emerged now as the most hungry tiger.

But his power is being briefly checked by the unity government which was deemed by Malaysia's King as the best solution to Malaysia's unstable political and economic crises (three prime ministers within three years).

My suggestion is that the unity government has to come up with a stronger medicine to tame all three tigers once and for all. 

Setting personal political agendas aside, this is the only approach and mindset that the leaders of the grand coalition have to take to truly bring Malaysia out of its political and social stagnation.

A Tax-Returns Based System For Targeted Fuel Subsidy

A simpler, more cost-effective and less ambitious targeted fuel subsidy program can be based on tax-returns whilst maintaining the same pump prices for all consumers.

For example, if a T20 car owner (earning above RM10k and owns two cars) spends RM4k pa, he/she has to collect all receipts and declare on the tax form at the annual filing to the Inland Revenue.

Assume he ought to pay a flat RM5k to Inland Revenue based on a computation of the subsidy vs prevailing market price of petrol. 

To reduce his tax liability, he has to use his receipts to deduct RM4k from the RM5k liability on his income. Then he is only liable to pay RM1k to the Inland Revenue instead of RM5k (with no receipts declared). 

The key challenge of this system is getting the average annual fuel spending for T20 and M40 consumers right. And this computation can be facilitated by data analytics on household spending, car ownership types and income groups.

The advantages of this system are: 

(a) it is cost effective as there is no need for the government to spend and implement an expensive smart card system. 

(b) it minimises loopholes. The alternative proposals for smart cards can be transferred between relatives. 

(c) Furthermore, even if Touch & Go e-wallets are linked to income groups, it will pose security and privacy issues.

(d) Last but not least, if we have different retail prices for different income groups, Malaysia will be the first to pioneer such an ambitious project. If it fails, the new unity government may be the laughing stock of the world.

However, my tax-returns system may have a few loopholes: 

(a) the authenticity of receipts, which can be duplicated. But why would consumers bother if its for the good of the country? 

(b) it may encourage overspending on fuel in order to reduce the fixed tax liability. However, it is the same cash outflow for the user whether it is for the petrol kiosk or the inland revenue.

(c) only 10% of income earners in Malaysia pay taxes. So this system would have to ensure that the M40 group pay their fair share of the subsidy. The B40 are totally exempt. 

Meanwhile, the former governments' incentives for car buyers to switch to EV (Electric Vehicles) and hybrid cars should be increased to reduce pollution and save money on the petrol subsidy. 

Incidentally, the government's total subsidy expenditure on petrol is estimated to be about RM37.3bil this year. Under the tax-based returns system, the petrol subsidy bill can be reduced by half and the actual amount to be charged on T20 and B40 car owners can be more accurately synchronised with the actual movement of oil prices by the end of the calendar year.

From an economist's principles, there ought not to be any substantial subsidy on petrol over the long term as this distorts the supply and demand dynamics of fuel. 

But from the social-political perspective, Malaysia is a net oil exporting country and the benefit of high oil prices for the overall economy should not lead to higher cost of living for Malaysian citizens.

Eventually, whatever the new subsidy scheme, the current unity government has to overhaul the tax system by rebranding the re-introduction of the Goods & Services Tax (GST) one way or another.