Why are 3 Laws Being Rushed?

 

Justice delayed is justice denied, but justice rushed is justice crushed - William Gladstone, former British Prime Minister

 Recently, three (now may be only two) major laws; the Urban Renewal Authority Bill (is deferred to a later date), the Gig Workers Bill, and the Government Procurement Bill 2025 were tabled in Parliament at a speed rarely seen in Malaysia’s legislative process. On paper, they represent reforms few would oppose modernising urban redevelopment, protecting gig workers, and bringing transparency to public procurement.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law

 

Yet, instead of appreciation, these bills have triggered a wave of resistance across Parliament, civil society, and affected communities. The backlash was unusual not because Malaysians oppose reform, but because of how these laws were drafted and rushed forward.

MPs complained about compressed timelines. Residents feared forced evictions under the URA Bill’s lowered consent thresholds. Gig workers felt sidelined as definitions and protections were finalized without real co-creation. SMEs warned that procurement reforms might favour large players if compliance costs went unchecked. 

What makes this particularly striking is that Malaysia already has a system to prevent exactly this kind of situation. The National Policy on Good Regulatory Practice (NPGRP) requires every ministry to conduct a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) for new laws, with clear problem statements, evaluation of policy options, cost-benefit analysis, and at least 30 days of stakeholder consultation before any bill is tabled. The process exists to ensure laws are not only technically sound but also socially legitimate. 

Globally, governments face tight timelines. Scotland mandates a 12-week consultation period for major legislation. New Zealand requires Regulatory Impact Assessments before a bill even reaches Parliament. The EU goes further, obliging governments to publish public feedback reports showing which recommendations were accepted or rejected and why. These practices do not slow reform; they make it stronger, reducing the risk of amendments, court challenges, or public resistance after laws come into force. 

Malaysia can adopt similar safeguards without paralysing the legislative process. A minimum consultation window, fast-track parliamentary committees for complex bills, and pilot programs for high-impact reforms could all strike a balance between speed and substance. The key is transparency: publishing consultation feedback and RIA summaries would show citizens and businesses how their voices shaped the outcome. 

Reforms only work when people trust them. Laws passed in haste risk weak enforcement, constant amendments, and public suspicion. Malaysia needs urban renewal, gig worker protections, and procurement transparency but it also needs to prove that reform is being done with people, not around them.

Reform done right takes time. Reform done wrong takes forever to fix. These are not the reforms for a Unity Government. It creates disunity, lack of transparency and poor governance. 

Reference:

Rushed Laws, Silenced Voices: How Three Bills Shook Malaysia’s Parliament,

Wan Md Hazlin Agyl (Wan Agyl) Wan Hassan CMILT, 28 August 2025

 

13MP Structural Issues Not Addressed

 

The 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP), covering the period from 2026 to 2030, is a comprehensive blueprint that aims to transform Malaysia's economy and society. While it sets out ambitious goals and strategies, many have raised concerns about structural issues that are not be fully addressed or could hinder the plan's success.

 

Source: https://www.thevibes.com

 

Key structural issues that may not be adequately addressed by the 13th Malaysia Plan include:

 

·        Underemployment and Low-Quality Jobs: While the plan aims to create new, high-value jobs, it may not effectively tackle the issue of underemployment, where a significant number of workers are in insecure, low-paying jobs that do not utilize their skills (2 million currently). That’s also related to education.

 

·       Quality of Education: Quality is low in national schools – PISA scores attest to that. Brightest talents work abroad, over 280,000 professionals in Australia, US, UK and Canada. Only 4,673 talents are back between 2011 and Jun 2025. We love mediocrity and not meritocracy.

 

·        Inadequate Retirement Savings: Concerns have been raised that the plan does not have strong enough measures to address the problem of inadequate retirement savings for a large portion of the population, a long-standing issue.

 

·       Healthcare Underfunding: The plan's allocation for healthcare, while substantial, may not be sufficient to fully address the underfunded public healthcare system and its systemic challenges.

 

·   Environmental and Governance Gaps: While the 13MP mentions the green economy and sustainability, some environmental groups are concerned about a lack of firm legal and financing commitments to protect nature and biodiversity. There are also concerns about a lack of accountability and transparency in the implementation of projects, with the risk of patronage and inefficiency.

 

·        Execution Deficit: A recurring criticism of past Malaysia Plans is the gap between ambitious goals and their actual implementation. We meet 70% of targets!

 

·        GLCs and GLICs: Preponderance of their role in the economy. Over 42% of the economy is controlled by GLCs and GLICs. NEP objectives are met but we continue to talk about the shortfall – all the time.

 

·        GERD below 1%: The Gross Expenditure for Research and Development to GDP has been at (or below) 1% of GDP. Many other countries have it at 5% or at least 3%. South Korea and Israel are at the high end. 13MP suggests 2.5% of GDP by 2030. But this was the target to achieve by 2025. So much for plan and execution!

 

·        Plight of Indians: The B40 Indian group contributes 72% of all gangsters in the country. The pittance allocated is not going to change their plight. Apa lagi India mahu? They want education, employment, entrepreneurship, empowerment, and an endowment (like ASN/ASB). Is that too much to ask?

 

In summary, while the 13MP is seen as a step forward with its focus on digitalization, sustainability, and social well-being, its success will hinge on its ability to overcome long-standing structural weaknesses, particularly in governance, social protection, and environmental policy, which some critics believe are not fully or adequately addressed in the current blueprint.

Has Power Hit the Roof?

 

Rooftop solar is becoming a critical component in Malaysia’s clean energy transition. Unlike large-scale solar farms that require vast tracts of land and long development timelines, rooftop systems work through panels on the roof of buildings, offering a quicker and more decentralised way for households and businesses to generate electricity. Despite its benefits, adoption remains low, representing only around 13% of Malaysia’s 269-gigawatt solar resource potential. 

One of the early initiatives to support rooftop solar adoption was the Net Energy Metering (NEM) scheme. Introduced in 2016 with a quota allocation of 500 megawatt up to 2020, the initial uptake came mostly from commercial and industrial sectors. These users had larger rooftops, higher energy usage and more financial capacity to invest in solar PV systems.

 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

Subsequent revisions of NEM, namely NEM 2.0 in 2019 and NEM 3.0 in 2021, introduced targeted categories to better support residential adoption, with the government recognising that commercial uptake alone is not enough to meet Malaysia’s carbon reduction goals. 

Collectively, rooftops across homes represent a vast, under-utilised solar real estate. Countries like Germany, Australia, and the United States show that broad residential participation is key to cutting carbon emissions. 

In Malaysia, users with solar panels under NEM could export excess electricity back to the grid and receive credit to offset their electricity bills. This made solar adoption financially attractive for residential users. 

With NEM 3.0 fully subscribed as of June, the government is expected to announce a new scheme by the end of August (still to be announced)! 

The government has been proactively introducing new initiatives such as Self-Consumption (SelCo), the Community Renewable Energy Aggregation Mechanism (Cream), and the Clean Renewable Electricity Supply (Cress). NEM’s success is due to its simplicity and accessibility.

Currently, many homes struggle to optimise solar usage since peak generation occurs during the day while most consumption happens at night. While battery storage could solve this mismatch, it significantly raises the cost and payback period for homeowners. However, panel prices have recently begun to climb, partly due to policy shifts and supply constraints in China, which is the world’s largest solar manufacturer. 

This may add cost pressure to both consumers and installers. To help ease the burden of upfront capital expenditure, many companies are now offering credit card instalment plans, making it more manageable for homeowners to invest in rooftop solar. 

Upfront costs remain a major deterrent for many small and medium enterprises. While rebates and leasing models provide some relief, they don’t fully close the affordability gap, especially for businesses with tighter cash flows or limited access to financing. 

On the Cream initiative, which involves leasing rooftops to energy companies that install solar panels and sell the electricity to nearby green consumers, it needs to strike a balance between homeowners and off-takers. While it taps into residential rooftop space, homeowners don’t get to use the power themselves. The scheme also requires aggregating multiple households, coordinating with different owners and securing a willing buyer within a 5km radius. For the average homeowner, NEM was much more straightforward. 

Can we do a mixture of personal income tax rebate, cost subsidy and NEM 4.0? If the residential market is fixed substantially then we could relieve TNB of more planting-up and they could then dividend-out more to their shareholders. 

Reference:

Power hits the roof? Gurmeet Kaur, Star Biz7, The Star, 25 August 2025

Can We Give RM100 Million to Gaza?

 

PMX stood at Dataran Merdeka recently and announced an additional RM100 million in aid for Gaza. The move drew thunderous applause from the crowd. But beneath the cheer, a quieter question lingers: what about the struggles of those at home? 

PMX means well for the people of Gaza, but here’s the reality check: Malaysia’s public healthcare system is collapsing. Between 2021 and 2023, more than 3,000 contract doctors resigned, while house officer appointments plummeted by almost 50% from over 6,100 in 2019 to just 3,271 in 2023. Even specialists are leaving, with resignations spiking by 57% in recent years. A staggering 62% of permanent healthcare staff say they’re considering quitting.

 

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org

Patients are literally dying in hospitals because there aren’t enough doctors or nurses to care for them. So the obvious question is this: how do we suddenly find RM100 million for Gaza when our own rakyat cannot even get proper healthcare? 

This isn’t about opposing aid to Palestine. Compassion should have no borders. But leadership is about priorities, and priorities reveal truth. Our economy is grinding under tariffs, SMEs are bleeding, civil servants are drowning in debt, and yet the government finds ample funds to send abroad while locals wait for basic relief. MITRA allocations remain “under negotiation.” Indian Malaysians are still waiting. Meanwhile, 72% of all gangsters are Indian. 

Let’s look closer at what ordinary Malaysians are going through. 

Food prices are spiralling. Rice, cooking oil, chicken, and eggs the staples of Malaysian households are becoming luxuries for the poor. Even the M40 are feeling the pinch. Parents quietly skip meals so their children can eat. Housewives cut back on vegetables and meat because every ringgit must stretch. When charity abroad overshadows survival at home, it breeds resentment. 

Fresh graduates face an unforgiving job market. Youth unemployment hovers at around 12.3%, far above the national average. Many end up driving Grab, delivering food, or running small online shops just to stay afloat. This is a wasted generation talented young people boxed into underemployment because the government hasn’t created opportunities. While our youth hustle for RM2,000 a month, we have promised Trump we will buy RM86 billion of US goods. 

Small and medium enterprises are part of Malaysia’s economy, making up 97.2% of businesses, nearly half of all jobs, and contributing 38.2% of GDP. Yet many shop lots are shuttered. Rents are high, consumer spending is weak, and loan repayments crush small traders. From tailors in Brickfields to kedai runcit owners in kampungs, the song is the same: business is dying. These are the people who actually fuel the local economy, and they are left to sink while Putrajaya talks about generosity to the outside world. 

Even government servants, who once had stable careers, are living pay check to pay check. More than 40% of them reportedly face financial strain, and bankruptcies are rising. Teachers, clerks, police officers they are not asking for luxuries, just a decent wage that matches the rising cost of living. Instead, they see their tax money packaged as humanitarian gestures overseas. 

Young Malaysians cannot afford homes in KL, Penang, or Johor Bahru. Even small condos are out of reach, with down payments and loans locking them out of the property market. The frustration is real: we can talk about rebuilding homes in Gaza, but our own rakyat can’t even secure a roof over their heads. 

Farmers struggle with low returns on their crops, fishermen with shrinking catches, and Orang Asli communities remain marginalized with poor access to education and healthcare. Their needs are urgent, their voices quiet. But the message they hear is that their suffering is secondary to international posturing. 

After all, this is the people’s tax money. We pay expecting it to fund healthcare, infrastructure, and national well-being. If the government can freely give it away to outsiders while neglecting citizens, then why should the tax rate remain as it is? If charity abroad comes before survival at home, the logic is dumb. 

The government’s message is clear: international posturing sells. It rallies crowds, wins headlines, and elevates Malaysia’s moral voice. But leadership is not about applause; it is about bread and butter. And right now, bread is expensive, butter is scarce, and hospitals are short-staffed, and in schools’ students and teachers are bullied! 

Reference:

OPINION | Anwar’s RM100 Million for Gaza: Charity Abroad, Neglect at Home,

Annan Vaithegi, https://newswav.com, 29 August 2025

Survey: Competency Test for Elderly Drivers?

 

A recent Newswav poll of nearly 4,000 voters shows that Malaysians are divided on whether senior citizens should be required to undergo competency tests when renewing their driving licences. The largest group, 38%, said no testing is needed regardless of age, while 53% supported testing after age 70. The results reflect mixed public sentiment on a proposal being studied by the Ministry of Transport, which is considering assessments for older drivers to ensure road safety.

 

The debate over senior drivers’ competency has been gaining attention. This is especially after the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) highlighted that age-related declines in vision, reflexes, and coordination could affect driving ability. The Transport Ministry has said it welcomes the discussion but stressed that further study is required before any policy is introduced. 

The idea is not to penalise senior citizens but to ensure they can continue driving safely. Countries such as Japan, Singapore and the UK already require medical or competency checks for older drivers, and Malaysia is exploring whether similar measures are needed. 

The poll results suggest that Malaysians recognise both sides of the debate. Many agree that testing could help prevent accidents among seniors with reduced capabilities, while others believe age alone should not determine driving competency. 

For example:

·      Supporters of earlier testing argue that checks on eyesight, coordination, and basic driving skills from age 50 onwards could ensure all drivers remain competent.

·      Others suggested introducing medical or vision tests every few years, rather than relying only on age as the benchmark.

·      Some also felt that stricter rules should apply to drivers with repeated traffic offences, regardless of age. 

On the other hand, many respondents believe that reckless driving is more often linked to younger motorists rather than seniors. Comments pointed out that older drivers may be slower, but they are often more careful on the road. 

The poll shows that Malaysians are far from unanimous on this issue. While many see competency testing for seniors as a reasonable step for road safety, an even larger share believes driving ability should not be judged based on age alone. The study does not cover how many accidents are caused by senior citizens and its proportion to total number of accidents. In many families, younger family members will stop parents from driving if they know their medical condition may impact lives on the road.  Unless the problem is significant, it is not worth pursuing. That’s from a senior citizen. 

Reference:

Survey: Nearly 40% Say No Competency Test Needed for Elderly Drivers, Newswav,
20 August 2025

 

1MDB: Malaysia Has Recovered RM29.7B!

 

The Malaysian government has recovered RM29.7 billion (S$9 billion) in funds relating to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and its former unit SRC International since the establishment of the Assets Recovery Trust Account, according to the Finance Ministry. As at end-July, RM42.17 billion has been channelled to 1MDB to finance debt repayments and fulfil the company’s commitments. 

Of the amount, RM15.44 billion was from the Finance Ministry and the Minister of Finance (Incorporated) in the form of shareholder advances or loans, while RM26.73 billion came from the proceeds of 1MDB’s asset recovery. 

1MDB, a state investment fund that took shape under former prime minister Najib Razak. Najib has been convicted of crimes linked to 1MDB and is seeking to spend the remainder of his term under house arrest. His detractors are calling for those who “miss the Bossku era” to repay the 1MDB debts amassed by him. He is expected to be released in 2028. 

There are many in the anti-Bossku faction who feel that the family has not suffered much. How can taxpayers’ money be used to settle 1MDB debts? Then remember that his son owes RM1.7b in tax arrears to IRB. 

As expected, Bossku’s sympathisers would defend their idol by likening the 1MDB debt to “bank loans” to finance projects that benefit the country, i.e. the TRX Exchange. Some even diverted the attention to questioning why fugitive financier Jho Low @ Low Taek Jho who is often described as the mastermind of the 1MDB scandal is still on the loose while Bossku serves his sentence. 

The point is did he or did he not work with parties to siphon RM42b of rakyat’s money? For now, the courts think so. Do we tolerate white collar crime, with the argument that if one returns a portion then we should go easy on the sentence? This development will not help this nation. One standard for the poor who steals a tin of Milo and another for a PM who steals billions with no remorse, contriteness or apology! 

References:

Malaysia has recovered $9b in funds linked to 1MDB, The Straits Times, 14 August 2025 

“Don’t burden 1MDB debts repayments on taxpayers; get Bossku’s sympathisers, glorifiers to settle them”, Focus Malaysia, 18 August 2025

 

Iman Research and Young Malays’ Attitudes

 

Despite assumptions, Malay youths polled by think tank Iman Research have indicated that they are more supportive of pluralism. They are calling for reforms of ethnic-based policies such as the New Economic Policy (NEP).

Presenting the findings of it “Orang Kita: The Politics of Acknowledgement and Resentment” study, Iman’s research director Aziff Azuddin said young Malays generally believed in a multicultural Malaysia and did not want non-Malays excluded from the economic process. Many participants called for the NEP to be reviewed because they wished for the economic benefits be extended to all Malaysians.

 

Source: https://www.wikiimpact.com

The policy as originally designed to equalise the economy after the bloody racial riots of May 13, 1969, but over time it had evolved into something that benefitted the connected and the elite. The report noted that many young Malays associated pluralism with justice and fairness across communities. 

Most participants agreed that multiculturalism was something to be celebrated as a part of what it meant to be Malaysian. Diversity was seen as a positive asset, and many stated that the perceived harmonious relationship (outside political polarisation) between the different ethnic groups was something to be grateful for. Many participants shared experiences of their relationships with non-Malay friends or colleagues, detailing their respect and understanding for each other. 

Education was a factor in shaping attitudes towards pluralism. Respondents described Malaysia’s schooling system as socially divisive, with students separated from a young age and unable to share the same realities. Universities, however, were cited by respondents as places where Malays had their first positive interactions with non-Malays. 

The report concluded that young Malays saw dismantling race-based policies and promoting pluralism as essential for building a fairer Malaysia. The study employed focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with Malay youths in several states between July 2023 and March 2024. It also drew on desk research and a review of existing literature. 

Looks like there is still hope for Malaysia! Only politicians try to incite old baggage of race and religion. Can’t we look after each other and share what we have? The world needs love and more of that than hate, kill and destroy! 

Reference:

What Iman Research’s study reveals about young Malays’ attitudes towards a plural and more economically just Malaysia, Muhammad Yusry, Malay Mail, 21 August 2025