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Malaysians started 2020 by waiting for a transition year in anticipation of former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad handing over power to pending Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. This was intended to go hand in hand with legal reforms and a movement towards a more progressive and prosperous society.
Instead, there has been endless uncertainty and maneuvering on the political front. At the same time, the economy took a huge shock when Malaysia joined the rest of the world in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed at least 1.5 million lives worldwide and 380 in Malaysia.
At times this year, it has almost seemed a cruel joke that the dream of a fully developed nation under Wawasan 2020 has seen Malaysia go into recession after two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
In fact, although the government’s budget for 2021 was planned on the basis of a rapid rebound in the economy with gross domestic product (GDP) growth of up to 7.5 percent, critics say this recession could prove just as bad. lasting and more impactful than the recession of the mid-1980s and the Asian financial crisis of 1997
In recent days, rating agency Fitch Ratings downgraded Malaysia’s long-term foreign currency issuer default rating (IDR) from A- to BBB +, potentially …
