heightened political and economic risk

Deputy Prime Minister Muyhiddin Yasin dismisses the Hong Kong-based political and economic risk consultancy (PERC) report in Jan 2010 that Malaysia's risk index has risen up a notch from December 2009 as coming from people who know not about Malaysia. I wish it were so. But with the Anwar Ibrahim trial for sodomy charges and what looks likely will be his eventual conviction next year, one fears for the worse in malaysia. If Anwar is convicted and goes to jail again, one can expect a showdown between Pakatan Rakyat supporters and Barisan Nasional's. All of which is bad news for Malaysia. As things stand, foreign direct investments to Malaysia are at an almost all-time low and there has been a precipitous outflow of funds from between 2008 and now. Bank Negara Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz has brushed aside these concerns and attributed them to the world economic slump. But Malaysia alone has experienced these remarkable outflows. None of our other neighbours who are also affected by the world slump, has seen such outflow of funds. If the political stability which Malaysia has long been credited for has become our past glory sans post-March 2008 general elections, one can see where everything is headed. If there is an Anwar Ibrahim conviction and there are civil disturbances, the government WILL clamp down on civil liberties and use all available means to rein in anyone perceived to be linked to those disturbances. And past experience tells us that they tend to do so indiscriminately and with sledge-hammer blows instead of finely-tuned, accurate and just. It will be an excuse to crack down and for the government to re-assert control and hopefully (for the government) that by doing so, it regains its lost two-thirds majority in Parliament, that psychologically all-important water mark for the government to re-claim its legitimacy. One hopes that it will not come to that. But forces going in that direction have already been unleashed and it is hard to stop them once cut loose. It's a sad but all-too-familiar scenario for Malaysians. Our liberties will be pawned for the benefit of the minority ruling elites. At the end of the day, ordinary Malaysians, whether conscious of it or not, will bear the price for it. And what a terribly steep price it will be.