The UAE (United Arab Emirates) is the third-richest country in the world, behind Qatar and Luxembourg on a per capita basis. Contrary to popular belief that Saudi Arabia is the richest Gulf state in the Middle East, it’s actually Qatar and the UAE that are wealthier.
Dubai is more popular than Abu Dhabi despite the fact that both are part of the 7 richest emirates in the UAE. While Abu Dhabi has over US$1 trillion worth of assets, accounting for about two-thirds of the roughly US$400 billion UAE economy, Dubai’s wealth relies on revenues from trade, tourism, aviation, real estate, and financial services. Oil production contributed less than 1% of Dubai’s economy.
Source: https://www.viator.com
Dubai is a city of skyscrapers, ports and beaches and it is where serious business takes place alongside sun-seeking tourism. Why? It adopts liberalism. The UAE is one of the most liberal countries in the Gulf, with other cultures and beliefs tolerated. Without economic liberalism, there would not be night clubs, discos, and other late-night entertainments.
Like it or not, without a very tolerant Emirate that respects the needs of non-Muslims, expatriates and foreign investors would not choose to live and work in Dubai. That has transformed the Emirate. That is exactly what Saudi Arabia’s “liberal” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to duplicate.
In Dubai many hotels, restaurants and bars serve pork and alcohol. Unlike Malaysian Muslims, somehow the 10 million Muslims in the UAE know how to read “pork” being served in hotels and restaurants, and they would happily ignore the forbidden meat. But not in Malaysia.
And unlike Malaysia, which is getting more radical, extremist and racist, the UAE has been getting more tolerant at creating a model of religious coexistence. Dubai actually declared 2019 as the year of tolerance. It’s mind-boggling that a conservative UAE recognizes the importance of tolerance, while a multiracial Malaysia promotes religious intolerance and bigotry. After the award-winning “Timah Whisky” fiasco, the government of Ismail Sabri has banned the sales of alcohol in sundry shops, grocery stalls and even Chinese medicine outlets in Kuala Lumpur. Now, Malaysia’s northern Kedah state, governed by extremist Islamist party PAS, has taken another drastic step to deny – and destroy completely – non-Muslims’ rights by banning licensed gambling.
The Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) announced that it would not renew licences for gambling operators, in addition to the sale of alcohol. Kedah’s notorious Chief Minister, Muhammed Sanusi, who had previously mocked and insulted Indians (calling them “drunk on toddy”) and demolished Hindu temples, said gamblers eager to buy lottery tickets can go to neighbouring state Penang.
Sanusi was the same Muslim who threatened to cut the water supply from Kedah to Penang, unless he is paid RM50 million annually. The ban on alcohol and 4D lottery numbers are clear interference and encroachment of non-Muslim rights in the country. The Chinese business owners were merely selling the products to the Chinese community, not to the Muslims.
Like Timah Whisky, which had nothing to do with Prophet Muhammad’s daughter, the sale of alcohol and lottery tickets too had nothing to do with Malay Muslims in the country. In fact, Muslims are not allowed to buy alcohol or lottery.
The above developments explain the reticence of local and foreign investors to Malaysia. IBM had closed down its Global Delivery Centre (GDC) in Cyberjaya and relocated to Singapore. Shell moved its IT operations from Cyberjaya to India. Citigroup exited retail banking in Malaysia, where Citi has been in for more than six decades, and shifted to Singapore. German IT company T-Systems sold its business in Malaysia and quit the country.
Instead of Malaysia, Toyota Motor Corp invested US$2 billion to develop EVs (electric vehicles) in Indonesia from 2019 until 2023 starting with hybrid vehicles. Likewise, Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk has agreed to explore investment opportunities in the electric car battery – and even space launch station – in Indonesia following a talk with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Facebook, Lazada, Tencent, ByteDance, Alibaba are some of the big names that have made Singapore as its regional hub, strategic location or data centre hub, leaving Malaysia behind. Indonesia, the Southeast Asia’s largest digital market, has attracted investments from four American tech giants – Google, Microsoft, Facebook and PayPal.
Zoom Video Communications has chosen Singapore over Malaysia for their first R&D center and new data centre in the region. To make matters worse, Google and Facebook had bypassed Malaysia for the Apricot 12,000-km internet subsea cable project due to the unresolved cabotage policy.
Years before Malaysian internet entrepreneur Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling founded Grab (originally called MyTeksi) and moved its head office to Singapore, “Sugar King” Robert Kuok and gaming giant Genting Berhad have moved their business head office to Hong Kong and Singapore respectively.
By forcing non-Malays to give up 51% of their business, it simply means the owners (mostly Chinese), who have been working very hard for decades building their businesses, can no longer control and run their companies.
The radical path towards extremism will spook investors, both domestic and foreign – of threats to economic liberalism which ensures individual liberty, equality, pluralism and tolerance. There’s no guarantee how far the PAS extremists will go after Kedah’s stunt. One thing is sure – it has made the country more extreme and hostile to the business community. How can the “cake” grow when the leaders are bent on acquiring rather than creating an enabling environment? If Singapore cannot be a benchmark for Malaysia, please use Muslim Dubai as your model!
Reference:
Interfering non-Muslim rights who pay 90% of national income tax – why PAS alcohol and 4D ban will do more damage to the country’s economy, Finance Twitter (https://thecoverage.my)
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