Malaysia S Toxic Umno Gang Wants Another Chance To Make Things Worse

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The teams that cemented the insular, low-productivity, weak-innovation policies hurting Malaysia’s 2021 are all now vying to lead the nation — again.
William Pesek, Nikkei Asia
Crises do not change a government, but reveal its true stripes
The hits just keep on coming for Malaysia’s long-troubled economy.
In the last 30 days alone, we learned not just that net foreign direct investment plunged 56% in 2020 — but why. In March, names like IBM and restaurant giant Chili’s announced exits from what once was one of Asia’s most promising economies.
Meantime, Top Glove’s stock tank after one of the biggest winners amid COVID-19 ran afoul of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials over labor practices. Authorities seized rubber gloves made in Malaysia, leaving the nation’s main industries — gloves and palm oil — under scrutiny at the very worst moment.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin would have you believe these are all isolated incidents — and that the pandemic is to blame. But they are connected and predate 2020. Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a dysfunctional and smug political system to create the business climate hobbling Malaysia’s 2021.
The very headwinds bearing down on the place today were there in, say, 2019 — just easier for elected officials to hide. And the very same folks who either helped generate or enable them are pretending they just arrived out of thin air with the virus.
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