Do You Think Najib Needs A New Mandate?

Hantu Laut

Never trust the economists, one day it's over, next day it's not.

I believe the global economy has started its recovery from middle of last year.A few months ago our Prime Minister warned of a slowdown in economic activities for the 2nd half of this year. That should not be the case as the global economy would have attained a good momentum the rest of the year.

UK declared it has come out of the recession beginning this year and the US as this article mentioned has emerged out of the recession middle of last year.One should not discount a 'double dip' recession as the the recovery is still fragile.

While the Western economies are showing recovery the East Asian economy may see a slowdown particularly China which I believe is overheated and unsustainable in the short term.

China over indulgence in supply more than demand would eventually weaken its export.China's export showed substantial decline in 2009 and would continue to do so.China defy the global slowdown because of the massive government stimulus package of more than $1 trillion.

Malaysia economic slowdown may come about not because of a global slowdown but of its political upheaval. Both foreign and domestic investors are taking a wait and see attitude and holding tight on to their wallets.

Malaysia's political instability is not superficial, it's real, and a real cause for concern for investors. It is not seen as politically matured in sustainable policies as in countries like Japan, US and Western Europe where there would be continuation of policies even if the government changed.

Investors biggest fear is witch hunting which is common in many developing countries when government changed hand and Malaysia is not seen as an exception.The current political atmosphere is not conducive to a stable economy. The opposition would continue to chide the government and expose its wrongdoings, which, unfortunately, were not all untrue.

The scale of the scandals at PKFZ, Felda and now Sime Darby is mind boggling and many other unexposed corruptions and breach of fiduciary duties would come on the pipeline as the oppositions with the help of whistle blowers continue to expose wrongdoings of the government.

Najib's ambiguous and ambivalent relationship with Perkasa does not help either."You are either with us, or against us" should be the stand. Najib needs to be specific, he is with Perkasa or not? No two ways about it.

Prime Minister Najib may need to call for an earlier general elections to put an end to the political embroglio.

In everything we do, we win some,we lose some, you can't win all the times.