Ever since the first case of COVID-19 emerged on 25 January, Malaysia has been battling not one, not two, but three crises. Firstly, the public health crisis of combating the pandemic and “flattening the curve”; secondly, the economic recession induced by the lockdown measures; and thirdly, a political crisis unfolding in parallel to the outbreak and resulting in a change of government in late-February.
While Malaysia was embroiled in a political turmoil dubbed Langkah Sheraton (the “Sheraton Move”), which saw the fall of the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) government, a tabligh gathering took place with some 16,000 people from across the region. The gathering led to a big cluster of COVID-19 cases, including some overseas. As of 20 May, the tabligh clusters contributed about 3,347 cases, around half of the total cases in Malaysia. Despite this initial oversight in stopping large scale gatherings, Malaysia has in general been quite successful in its pandemic response, not least thanks to the stringent movement control measures in place since 18 March.
Economic crisis
These measures, however, come at a cost. As economic activities grind to a halt, many suffer, especially small business and low-income workers. Many own-account workers, who have been unable to work due to the movement restrictions, rely on government assistance such as the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional cash transfer scheme to sustain their livelihoods. But the monthly payment of RM1,000 (around 200 EUR) for households earning less than RM4,000 (and RM500 for singles earning less than RM2000) was only to last till May. This crisis has shone a light on the economic insecurity of average Malaysians and the lack of social safety nets in the country’s social protection systems.
Workers in the informal sector, which is made up of 10.6 per cent of the workforce (excluding the agriculture sector),are not be able to enjoy the unemployment benefits provided in the stimulus package. A lack of emphasis on wage support also means that many risk losing their jobs, as the wage subsidy programme provided by the government is seen to be insufficient for small businesses to retain staff. It is unclear how much the economy will pick up after the relaxation of the extended movement control order, which is now poised to end on 9 June, with the public having less spending power and global demand for goods most likely still low.
Political crisis
As if that’s not bad enough, the political conundrum has added to the complexity. Even as the pandemic rages, political horse-trading is actively happening in the background. We saw that the Kedah state governmentfell when two state assembly persons switched sides. The government’s serial appointments of political personalities linked to corporations have also been seen as an attempt to shore up political support from allies. Talks about shifting alignments, rumours of more elected representatives crossing over, and the race to get the majority in parliament (i.e. at least 112 seats) have become an almost daily affair and reveal the divides within the coalition. Other events include a series of leaked recordings, one of which was the internal Pakatan Harapan high-level meeting that preceded the political coup, as well as the dismissal of former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir from his own party. In short, the government led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is far from stable; much is still up for grabs.
The unwillingness of the new Perikatan Nasional (National Alliance) government to convene the parliament has in a way restricted its ability to respond. In the only parliamentary session so far, on 18 May, cut short to only half a day, no supplementary bills were passed. This also means that there is no mechanism for checks and balances currently in place to discuss the COVID-19 policies and measures introduced by the government, including the RM260 billion stimulus package. As shown by other countries, the Malaysian parliament could have adopted the practice of virtual conferences or restrict the number of members present in plenary. Instead, all 222 members of parliament were flown into the capital to listen to the royal address and then swiftly dismissed. The short session, it seems, was merely to fulfil a standing order stipulating that not more than 60 days should pass between two sittings of parliament.
More tellingly, the general public has not been upbeat about having a more active parliament in this crisis. Despite some campaign efforts to extend the parliament sitting, a majority seems to perceive it as an unnecessary distraction as the government’s efforts should be focused on crisis management. Clearly, people appear to weigh the importance of parliament as a venue for discussing policies pertaining to the people’s well-being differently. Parliament is often equated to political fanfare and the faith among the wider public in the separation of power between the executive and legislative branches seems limited.
Continued uncertainties
The first half of 2020 has been a triple whammy for Malaysia. With the next parliamentary sitting scheduled for July, the drama is expected to last as politicians on both sides will do all they can to gain support and show they have the majority. Meanwhile, the economic recession will only worsen, with a gloomy global outlook, and there’s every risk that the pandemic will strike again if we let our guard down.
More will need to be done to ensure that the government is held accountable for its policies in handling COVID-19. For one, a bipartisan parliamentary committee should be established to discuss related budgets and policies. The government has also just announced the tabling of a COVID-19 temporary relief bill that will include law amendments to address the economic and health situation. Waiting until July might be a little too late. It is important that Malaysia gets its act together before the new normal becomes too much to handle and that parliament retakes its place as an essential service for the country at this time of crisis.
Ivy Kwek Ai Wei is the Research Director at Research for Social Advancement (REFSA), a non-profit think tank in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, established in 2004. She previously served as Special Functions Officer to the Deputy Minister of Defence and holds an MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London, and a BSc (Hons) in Life Sciences from the University of Malaya.
The views expressed in this blog series are not necessarily those of FES.
FES-supported study from Malaysia uses empirical data to illustrate and analyze a fascinating example of a country in Asia, in which the majority…
An analysis of the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 and reform of social protection in Malaysia.
The struggles faced by low-income Malaysia have long been clear. The COVID-19 crisis offers a lifeline: it has firmly brought into mainstream thought…
The most populous country in South-East Asia was initially slow to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the government has stepped up travel…
Bringing together the work of our offices in the region, we provide you with the latest news on current debates, insightful research and innovative visual outputs on geopolitics, climate and energy, gender justice, trade unions and social-ecological transformation.
Since reports emerged that South Korean troops massacred civilians during the Vietnam War, there has been a fitful but determined effort by Vietnamese... More
Trade unions are drivers for transformative change. For sustainable change, gender justice is indispensable. Therefore, trade unions have to transform... More
South Korea's militaristic culture is fuelled by a history of conflict and maintained by a tradition of jingoistic, state-sponsored celebrations.... More
This site uses third-party website tracking technologies to provide and continually improve our services, and to display advertisements according to users' interests. I agree and may revoke or change my consent at any time with effect for the future.
These technologies are required to activate the core functionality of the website.
This is an self hosted web analytics platform.
Data Purposes
This list represents the purposes of the data collection and processing.
Technologies Used
Data Collected
This list represents all (personal) data that is collected by or through the use of this service.
Legal Basis
In the following the required legal basis for the processing of data is listed.
Retention Period
The retention period is the time span the collected data is saved for the processing purposes. The data needs to be deleted as soon as it is no longer needed for the stated processing purposes.
The data will be deleted as soon as they are no longer needed for the processing purposes.
These technologies enable us to analyse the use of the website in order to measure and improve performance.
This is a video player service.
Processing Company
Google Ireland Limited
Google Building Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Dublin, D04 E5W5, Ireland
Location of Processing
European Union
Data Recipients
Data Protection Officer of Processing Company
Below you can find the email address of the data protection officer of the processing company.
https://support.google.com/policies/contact/general_privacy_form
Transfer to Third Countries
This service may forward the collected data to a different country. Please note that this service might transfer the data to a country without the required data protection standards. If the data is transferred to the USA, there is a risk that your data can be processed by US authorities, for control and surveillance measures, possibly without legal remedies. Below you can find a list of countries to which the data is being transferred. For more information regarding safeguards please refer to the website provider’s privacy policy or contact the website provider directly.
Worldwide
Click here to read the privacy policy of the data processor
https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Click here to opt out from this processor across all domains
https://safety.google/privacy/privacy-controls/
Click here to read the cookie policy of the data processor
https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies?hl=en
Storage Information
Below you can see the longest potential duration for storage on a device, as set when using the cookie method of storage and if there are any other methods used.
This service uses different means of storing information on a user’s device as listed below.
This cookie stores your preferences and other information, in particular preferred language, how many search results you wish to be shown on your page, and whether or not you wish to have Google’s SafeSearch filter turned on.
This cookie measures your bandwidth to determine whether you get the new player interface or the old.
This cookie increments the views counter on the YouTube video.
This is set on pages with embedded YouTube video.
This is a service for displaying video content.
Vimeo LLC
555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, United States of America
United States of America
Privacy(at)vimeo.com
https://vimeo.com/privacy
https://vimeo.com/cookie_policy
This cookie is used in conjunction with a video player. If the visitor is interrupted while viewing video content, the cookie remembers where to start the video when the visitor reloads the video.
An indicator of if the visitor has ever logged in.
Registers a unique ID that is used by Vimeo.
Saves the user's preferences when playing embedded videos from Vimeo.
Set after a user's first upload.
This is an integrated map service.
Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Dublin 4, Ireland
https://support.google.com/policies/troubleshooter/7575787?hl=en
United States of America,Singapore,Taiwan,Chile
http://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/