What we should focus on is not policy that is interventionist or otherwise, for the sake of it, but rather policy that engineers fair, competitive arenas for firms to succeed or fail.
All in Policy
What we should focus on is not policy that is interventionist or otherwise, for the sake of it, but rather policy that engineers fair, competitive arenas for firms to succeed or fail.
Naturally, it is not easy to translate notions of “transcendence” to the political economy, but these are examples, I think, that I would like to see that demonstrate a growing maturity in our political economy. That, in and of itself, is pretty “expensive”.
Fiction writing is difficult. Figuring out dialogue, making characters seem relatively believable, doing more “showing” instead of “telling”, trying to be more descriptive of scenes; I have all the respect in the world for writers of fiction.
This is Part 2 in a series of fictional articles that I started in September 2025 in The Edge
For the next few articles, beginning with this one, I want to see if I can write a series of fictional short stories that illustrate different views of economic development. This is Part I.
Does it really matter if Malaysia — or any developing country — hits some arbitrary threshold of “high-income”? Or is it more important that we maintain steady, sustainable economic growth and economic development?
It is just that, for a middle power such as Malaysia, we may get far more bang for our buck by focusing on how well we diffuse technology broadly, as opposed to how well we invent the next big thing
Tthe countries that can address the political economy of business in Southeast Asia — historically a family affair — will be best placed to capitalise on the investment story of Southeast Asia
But the broader point is that we need more Malaysian companies whose moat goes beyond “cost advantage”
in reality, Malaysia’s main problem is not so much that costs are getting higher — this is true everywhere. Our main problem is that incomes are not rising as quickly and this is where the bulk of our attention should be
And so, here is a list of eight (completely arbitrary number) “indie” public goods that we think would make Malaysia — or in some cases, at least our immediate neighbourhoods — a better place to live for all.
As such, as the government prepares for the final round of rationalising RON95 subsidies, it would do well to make “good enough” policy decisions — which is how life and evolution work anyway — rather than technically perfect policy decisions