Michael;
<<Stitch, Any comment on Jess's outlook for Malaysia ?>>
Which were:
<< For what its worth, late last week I listened to another economic idiot, Mahatir Mohammed, Prime Minister of Malaysia say that his country was going to turn down IMF bail-out money rather than implement IMF mandated reforms. My prediction is that within a year, and probably much sooner, Malaysia will be worse off than Indonesia.>>
I sense and share Jess' frustrations and suspect my previous posts reflect that. My first written response to your question was along the lines of right on! In it I vented my spleen pretty well. Words cannot tell my sense of frustration over Mahatir's tact over these last few months. But the truth is I think Jess is forgetting that this is a coalition government, albeit one extremely slavish to Mahatir at the moment. And there is a growing sense of frustration here among ALL the people. In addition the Chinese amount to 30% plus of the population. I doubt that we will see things here reduced to the levels of civil unrest, food shortages, inflation, business failures and bank collapses in Indonesia. I am not saying it cannot happen. I just do not predict that it will. But it is going to get much worse before it gets better and their could be political changes in the offing. Depending on how bad it gets I may end up buying Jess a beer in the good old USA and steering my Malaysian wife and son through a culture they have yet to fully experience or learn about.
Best,
Stitch |
