An open letter to MO1 From Tricia Yeoh

Someone sent me this.  Someone by the name of Tricia Yeoh has written an open letter to the moron. Its Saturday and I am in a rush. The "letter" has been truncated by me. If you wish to read the original please go find it yourself.  So what the hell ... my comments in blue. 

Dear Sir,

Last week you gave speech .  . at the Invest Malaysia 2017 conference. 

some of the facts that you quoted would require some further elaboration. 

You said you introduced New Economic Model (NEM) seven years ago 

Perhaps I may remind you that one of the key approaches of the NEM’s economic development plan was to move away from “dominant state participation in the economy” towards “private sector-led growth”. 

GLC disposal and investment exercises from 2011 to 2014 (after the NEM was published) found total acquisition value of RM51.7 billion dwarfs the total disposal value of RM29.5 billion – in simple language, GLICs and GLCs combined have acquired far more than they have sold.
 

Second, you said ringgit is “easily the strongest major Asian currency this quarter”. Anyone who has children studying overseas would know that as recently as January this year, the ringgit had lost about 22% since the start of 2015 and was at that point the worst-performing currency in emerging Asia. 

recent growth momentum strongly related to impending election,  “but what happens after it?”

Third, you said that your government is one that is committed to transparency, accountability and good regulation. 

GLCs .  . are monitored by MACC, which reports to the Prime Minister’s Department. It is difficult to see how any conflict of interest involving your administration could be avoided if the integrity and governance officers were to uncover a certain wrongdoing within their GLCs placements.

Fourth, international bodies praise Malaysia’s glowing economic performance. 

you failed to mention numerous other big, red flags. These warning signs are indicators that not all is perfect. 

you quoted IMF as saying that Malaysia is amongst the fastest growing economies among peers. 

same report highlights our country’s “federal debt and contingent liabilities are relatively high, limiting policy space to respond to shocks”. Second, it also says that our “household debt remains high, with debt servicing capacity growing only moderately”. .  .there are serious challenges that may implode over time if left uncorrected.

you  . ..failed to mention the same report says that risks in the economy “arise from growing threats of protectionism” and that there is a need to “accelerate structural reforms in the economy”. I would advise you to personally read these documents from cover to cover to really understand the conditions of the economy today. In short, there is a need to examine the details and not just gloss over the summaries of these reports, advice I would provide to any investor looking into Malaysia.

Fifth, you deftly talked about how your administration is cracking down on “crony capitalism”, “sweetheart deals” and that there would be no more “national follies kept going to stroke the ego of one man”. 

Let us hope then that the national agencies such as the Attorney General’s Chambers will lend its co-operation to any and all investigations including those from international bodies to assure us that 1MDB will not fall into such a category.

Sixth, you hailed SMEs as the “hallmarks” of your administration as they are the backbone of the economy. You also said that government policies are therefore meant to be business-friendly and pro small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act (PCAPA) is one such policy that is adversely affecting SMEs. The mechanism poses price ceilings on food and household goods sold at mamak and even small sundry shops. The mechanism to calculate the “right” price is so complicated that some shops have just shut down altogether because they could not afford to pay the fine. There are numerous other examples of regulations that are in fact making it very difficult for the business community to operate, which have been raised regularly at public forums but seemingly in vain.
 

Finally, your speech was peppered with many political references, many of which were obviously targeted at a specific individual. . . To have these words uttered at a formal international investment conference ..considered out of place. 

Tricia Yeoh
AUTHOR
 

My comments : Strange things are happening in the "bustling economy". Businesses are closing down. The NST's newsprint mill has shuttered its doors. Plenty businesses are closing down, the latest (to my knowledge) being a jewellery store belonging to a friend in KL.  Some mall has also shut down in PJ, says a reader. 

The "chunky" spending on the MRT, the new railway etc may have boosted up the economic numbers.

The stock market is also strange. The Index remains high but the share prices of profitable and good dividend paying companies are down.  Only the share prices of the GLCs are kept high, no matter what is their performance.

Where the economy is concerned, like many other things, the morons are fudging, fiddling and/or massaging the numbers. I believe a "gotcha" is waiting to bite us in the behind over the economy.

Gotcha !