- 7 weeks ago
What does a progressive political economy look like in 2026? Join Ibrahim Sani and policy analyst Ooi Kok Hin as they unpack Malaysia’s economic outlook and the politics shaping it.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Thanks for joining us. This is The Economy. I'm your host, Ibrahim Sani.
00:11Well, 2026 is well underway. And of course, while we're still trying to figure out what is to expect from 2026, we might want to do a review of 2025 as well.
00:22And a quick recap here to talk this and more is Oiko Hin, the political and policy analyst. Ko Hin, thank you very much for joining us.
00:30Let's talk a little bit more in terms of what you think 2025 worked and what didn't work.
00:37And if you had to sum up Malaysia's economy and governance landscape in 2025 in one sentence, what would be your review on this?
00:43Thanks, Ibrahim. I think maybe the question, for me, the sentence would be a year of experimentation.
00:49You are seeing that the government perhaps increasingly confident with its majority and they start to take some experimentation.
00:55For example, we see Bully 95, the fuel subsidy rationalisation that is, you know, hopefully rolling.
01:03It's something that multiple governments, consecutive governments have been talking about it, all the Prime Minister talk about it, but to actually execute it is a different matter, right?
01:12I think the government is slowly implementing steps, putting mechanism in place to ensure that if and when the time comes, they can roll out that rationalisation.
01:23I would say, you know, if you look at SARA as well, the RM100 monthly aid for Malaysians through the IKASE, extremely poor households, I think that is a good policy as well.
01:35Of course, it's questionable. I think some critics have mentioned that if there's one-off announcement, RM100 to everybody.
01:42I think if such a universal blanket policy, if you have a broad tax base, you boleh lakukan.
01:49Universal tax benefits, universal basic income.
01:52But if you don't have a broad tax base, it may make sense to limit it, target it to, you know, let's say, for example, the B40 and maybe give them more than RM100, for example.
02:01Rather than you give RM100 to some T20 people, which is not even enough to fill their very expensive cars and so on.
02:09However, I understand the rational to do universal banklet policy, where in some countries, they tax the rich quite high.
02:17And this is what they get returned because it's a society, everybody gets the benefits.
02:21But we don't have that in Malaysia. Our tax rate is quite low.
02:24Our corporate tax, inheritance tax, for example, capital gains tax and sebagainya, amat kurang lah.
02:32So I think the government is struggling with that tax revenue as well.
02:35Now, we saw the slew of announcements made by the Prime Minister at the start of the year, mostly positive reviews.
02:44But there are detractors that say things like along the lines of these reforms come at a time when his political base is currently wavering.
02:55There's also other detractors saying that of all the political reforms, these ones, while it's nice to have,
03:02there are much more critical reforms that need to be done.
03:06And of course, DAP, for instance, have said after the Sabah elections that they might pull out or they might rethink their position if no reforms are done in six months.
03:16How do you read this situation when it comes to PMX issuing these kind of reforms, including term limits for the Prime Minister and many more?
03:25Yeah. I think that's the interesting things about political reform.
03:29You would think that, okay, let's say a political party, a coalition that comes to power, campaigning, promising reform will implement reform.
03:35But actually, reform doesn't happen like that. What you see in real life is reforms happen when, let's say, a government or a political party is feeling unsure about its political stability and sebagainya.
03:48Contoh, we had Ismail Sabri who came in in the time that, you know, when Tan Sri Muhyiddin just lost its majority after UMNO pull out.
03:57Again, we are having, relieving this drama again in this time.
04:01But Ismail Sabri managed to sign an MOU with the Federal Opposition at the time, Pakata Harapan, to implement several major reforms,
04:09including UD18 constitutional amendment and implementation and so on.
04:13You also have the anti-hopping law done during Ismail Sabri's time, right?
04:17He didn't come in as someone who promised reform, but he implemented it because that was the situation.
04:22Coming back to 2025, you see that as well in when you mentioned DAP and Pakata Harapan after the Sabah State election.
04:30There is now the urgency to act.
04:32And I think that has been missing in the first two or three years of the Madani government, right?
04:37It's, okay, how do you hold together this fragile majority?
04:41It's not a very forward-looking thing.
04:43I think in their third year, they are starting to, like I mentioned earlier, take some risk, experimentation.
04:48I think with that Sabah State election result, I think that kind of pushed them over the edge a little bit in the sense that,
04:55okay, we cannot be comfortable anymore.
04:57We have to do things like whether we do or do not do things, the political situation is always changing.
05:03So, might as well, we try to push for the reform that we want.
05:06And, you know, in a way, it's either like you live or die by your own sword, right?
05:10Yeah.
05:11Rather than if you talk about apa-apa, you die anyway, right?
05:13So, I think there's that coming to terms with that political reality.
05:18And I think it's a good thing that this is the new political reality of our country.
05:23There's also other political reforms that was announced that I would assume there wouldn't be any friction towards it.
05:31For instance, separation of the AG and the prosecutor.
05:34There's also elements of trying to widen the universal base income that we speak of.
05:42One off seems to be the situation now, but the Prime Minister did not rule out further disbursements of income as well.
05:53Do you feel that?
05:54That also is another element of him trying to push forward some ideas on widening the tax base
06:01These reforms take time, but do you feel that there's no bite towards coalition partners trying to make these reforms?
06:18Because only Pakatan Harapan wants these reforms, but other members within the unity government might not necessarily have that kind of feel for these kind of reforms?
06:25Yeah. So, I think we are addressing several things at the moment.
06:28So, let's take a step back when we talk about AGPP separation.
06:30I think a lot of members of the public may not be fully, you know, be aware of support this thing.
06:35Oh, what is this about, right?
06:36Actually, it is a big change.
06:38Because you're talking about separating the government's lawyer, which means the lawyer that will act on behalf of the government.
06:44When it comes to, let's say, somebody sued the government, or the government is trying to, you know, wrestle Batu Putih, for example.
06:49And the role of Pendawak Raya, which is the private prosecutor.
06:53The very clear case of why this is important is when certain political leaders were charged in court, and then when they win power, they instruct the, you know, as the government lawyer to drop the case.
07:07So, that's when you happen to the conflation of the two roles.
07:10So, separating it is a big step towards institutional reform strengthening.
07:14Of course, the devil is in the details.
07:16We do not know exactly what the provision of the bill will be, but this is a major step towards reform if done right.
07:23And I think we have to credit the Madani government for, you know, willing to bite the bullet on this.
07:28On the tax and fiscal and so on, you were right when, you know, I think during Prime Minister Najib's time, he implemented at least GST, right?
07:35It's a broader tax base, although some people will criticize, it's not very progressive, because everyone kena.
07:41Whether you're poor or not, you're balini pun you kena, sebagainya, right?
07:44But there are also other forms of tax that we can look at.
07:48Capital gains tax, inheritance tax, for example.
07:51I think if you earn, let's say, you know, like 5,000 ringgit a month, right?
07:54Working, and then your annual income is what, probably 60,000 ringgit, you get tax.
07:59But if you inherit property worth millions of ringgit, suddenly you don't get tax or tax very little.
08:04I think that's a form of wealth inequality.
08:07That means inequality doesn't occur through your labor income, but through the assets and wealth that you own.
08:13And that's where I think the government have to look at as well.
08:16I think it's also, I would caution also looking at certain political party or actors sebagai, oh, they need progressive.
08:23They are pushed for certain tax reform, but others don't.
08:27Actually, it doesn't work like that in real life.
08:29There is some people or institution that we would think as progressive, but in the back scene,
08:35they're actually the one resisting certain form of, let's say, tax, wealth distribution.
08:39These things are real, and I think the, perhaps what's needed is a concerted effort among the, you know, the progressive
08:47and different faction party to come together and say, okay, we need to push this jointly in different our own parties and sebagainya.
08:53We'll go for one short break.
08:55When we come back, we'll discuss a little bit more with Oi Kuk Hin.
08:59Thanks for staying on with us. I have in the studio with me, Oi Kuk Hin, political and policy analyst.
09:19Let's talk a little bit more about the decision shift. If 2026 could be defined by one decision shift in Malaysia's development path,
09:27and that path must be changed, what would it be, either politically, institutionally or even culturally?
09:33My wish list is to move away from neoliberal policy regime. And what do I mean by that is, I think since the time of Dr. Mahathir 1.0,
09:45you're starting to see Malaysia shifting towards less, less public government spend less public money and let private sector and sebagainya
09:53to take over certain form of investment. I'll take one issue which is perhaps for me, PTPTN, student debt reform, higher education financing.
10:03So in the past, when you go to university, actually it's very heavily subsidized. You get a lot of derma siswa and sebagainya to go to university.
10:11We see it as a public goods, right? Maksudnya, semua orang ada hak untuk menikmati pendidikan tinggi. But after the 90s, you see a creation of a loan regime
10:21di mana it's the individual responsibility, bukan state responsibility to provide education, but it's on you to get a loan and then, you know, you pinjam RM50,000
10:31to finance your four-year study and after that, you may not even get a job or a proper paying job after your education, kerja, grab, dan sebagainya.
10:39But Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced in budget 2026 a shift from that thinking, which is very minor and pilot step, I would say.
10:48But it is quite major in terms of what its implication is. So what Prime Minister announced is the government will allocate basically free education for B40 students.
11:00That means if you go to a public university and you are from a hardcore poor background, confirm free education.
11:08I think they are benefitting about 5,000 recipients in the first year. And this is quite major. This is basically saying, you know, it's not about whether you can afford it or not, but we believe that this is a public goods education.
11:21If you have a public goods education, your kewangan you shouldn't be a barrier for you to enjoy education. So that's a major step. Another one I want to mention is the program called Siswa Sulong. I think this is a credit to not just Anwar but the previous government under Ismail Sabri and so on.
11:38This is a program where they support first generation college students. Di mana if you are the first in your family to go to college or university, the government will financially support you. Not through loans which you have to pay back, right?
11:51Loans is very, you know, like individual responsibility. So I think this is a very good step towards, okay, what kind of society you want to be, right? If you are poor, if you need based family, then the state, the society can support you to move out from your poverty and so on.
12:08I think, I don't think anybody would disagree with education and providing all the external support for that. But this is an example of a social economy where the state needs to be well endowed to begin with.
12:26So it doesn't work in vacuum where, you know, you want to help out people but you don't tax people at the same time or you can't, you know, find a way to increase your revenue.
12:36But in Budget 2026, we've seen how the revenue has actually quite dropped from year on year, either from tax collection or from other forms of revenue such as paper plus dividends, for instance.
12:49So this does provide some sort of a fiscal pressure towards the government in terms of trying to be a little bit more attentive towards helping the people but at the same time trying to increase their revenue while ensuring that the economy grows in a stable way.
13:06My fear is that we might see a situation where, while we're trying to, say, reduce the deficit by, you know, 5% or something to 4% or even 3% next year or this year now,
13:18the hit will be on the development side, you know, the building of institutions, the upkeeping of the institutions rather than trying to grow revenue from the top side.
13:31This is what I worry. Do you have that kind of view as well or do you think that the government has what it takes to actually achieve all these various possibilities?
13:41Increasing revenue, maintaining fiscal deficit or target, i.e. to reduce it, and to increase welfare state and get more people to benefit from this?
13:53Yeah, I mean, you're on the right track completely. I agree with you. You know, in the US, for example, other than whatever crisis they're going through at the moment,
14:01the US punya right-wing actors, when they want to reduce the tax and sebagainya, they don't say that we are, you know, we are not for, you know, ending poverty and sebagainya.
14:14They will, in fact, go to the tax thing that you mentioned, which is you reduce the capacity of the state to run this program.
14:21You don't go after the program themselves. You reduce the state capacity to provide this program.
14:25And that is where they come up with terms, for example, like tax relief.
14:29If you compare tax breaks, for example, they did like a, they run labs and experiments and so on.
14:35How do we convince people to support the tax breaks for the rich, right?
14:39So, if you say tax break, it does feel like a bit cheating, like, you know, the rich is getting a break.
14:44But you package it balik sebagai tax relief, for example.
14:49It's like, tax is being seen as a pain, a burden imposed on, you know, rich people who deservedly got their wealth dan sebagainya.
14:57So, this kind of discourse, you know, I'm sure it's happening in Malaysia as well.
15:01And perhaps they do have more significant veto power over our policymaking, right?
15:06I think maybe this is the conversation that needs to happen in 2026.
15:10In fact, maybe the second half of this decade, right?
15:13Now, we are practically looking at 2026 to 2030.
15:15The second half of this decade, I think we need to look at how do we broaden revenue for the state
15:20in able to provide the kind of programs, benefits that we want the society to be.
15:28I can tell you with certainty that that part is already there in RMK 13 to broaden the base.
15:36All eyes are on execution and implementation now.
15:39And I think that while the plan is nice to have, do you think that that execution can be done in this administration
15:45or whatever government comes after the general election that is certainly everybody's talking about it now already?
15:51Do you think that that is the risk that you are looking at?
15:54Yeah, I think there is definitely that risk.
15:56And I do want to talk about the whole transition of government power.
15:59Okay, if you look at Japan and Australia, for example, would you consider develop countries
16:05with relatively functional governments?
16:09Japan and Australia have so many frequent turnovers of prime ministers, even more than us.
16:14We have four prime ministers in eight years.
16:16We are like, oh, it's a lot of people, politically unstable and so on.
16:19But in Japan and Australia, that's normal.
16:21And in fact, if you serve six, eight years, it's considered one of the longest ten words, right?
16:27But they have functional governments.
16:29And I think maybe this is a new reality that perhaps Malaysia can embrace, right?
16:33Change of prime minister government doesn't need to lead to political instability and sebagainya.
16:38As long as we have functional institution and competent civil service, public service.
16:43I think, you know, you mentioned about execution.
16:45I think we need that sort of like competent civil service dan juga institutions that are independent
16:51and autonomous that can run things regardless of the political change of the day.
16:58Having said that, of course, it's important that whoever is elected has the mandate to change things, right?
17:02Otherwise, why bother with elections if I'm voted in power and that so-called deep state will decide everything, right?
17:08I think we need to balance both sides, which is there needs to be the ability of continuity regardless of who is in power
17:14and the mandate of the people to be able to elect the kind of government they want and the policy they wish to implement.
17:21I think that's a very aspirational way of looking at things.
17:25Are you optimistic that Malaysia will achieve that kind of balance in the near future?
17:33I wouldn't say it's an achievement of a state.
17:36It's more of an equilibrium where you can, my tarik-tali, you have to achieve a certain equilibrium.
17:43Whether if you are moved too much in one side or the other, it's not good.
17:47You know, I think in the, again, bringing back the US example, if you move too much to the political side,
17:52then they are undercutting a lot of bureaucracy that are important to ensure certain, for example,
17:56welfare benefits is run, certain science programs, space programs is run.
18:01When you just cut it across the board, there are unintended consequences dalam economics we mentioned.
18:08That, you know, the ripple effect and sebagainya.
18:11That, for example, I think very, very simple one, the tariff, right?
18:15US tariff.
18:16When the imposed tariff coming on from China, they actually U-turn,
18:19but they realise that actually it undercut their own industry and sector, right?
18:24It's not, you're not going to target the Chinese punya ni as it they intended.
18:30Let's talk about the aspirations that you have for the people.
18:34Malaysia is a very diverse country.
18:37We're not homogenous by any means and measure.
18:40Do you think that from language to culture to people to economic development status to geography,
18:51because of this diversity, do you think that it might be hard to get the kind of will from the people
19:00to ensure that everybody gets the most of what they want instead of just targeting a certain group of populace
19:07that might have a stronger say through the political means that they elect?
19:11I think that would be one of the key tests for Malaysia, has been since 1957 or 1963,
19:19depending on how you count, is that whole pro-society thing, right?
19:23I know I was just at a government event recently, and before they start the event,
19:27they made us all recite the preamble to Rukun Negara.
19:30And in the preamble to Rukun Negara, there is a word that lets membina masyarakat yang progresif dan liberal.
19:36And I feel like, wow, like, liberal has now become like a negative connotation word in today's Malaysia,
19:42but back then, it is an aspirational thing.
19:45Like, we should aspire to this, we as a country.
19:47And I think, you know, progressive liberal diversity,
19:50we perhaps have to take back those terms and recast them in a more positive light, right?
19:55Like, this is not something against our tradition.
19:57In fact, this is who we are as a nation since the beginning.
20:00And I think it's up to, you know, so-called progressive actors to package that narrative effectively.
20:07Okay, maybe I will share just one story, right?
20:09About diversity and, you know, unity.
20:12Back when I was young, which is not quite, I mean, quite long ago already,
20:16I remember reading something by a professor, the late professor Ku K. Kim.
20:19He said that when you are a true Malaysian, you often feel very lonely.
20:23And I resonate with that quote as a teenager,
20:26because I feel that, you know, when you have diverse group of friends,
20:30you know, in Malaysia, in most places in Malaysia,
20:33you're actually quite alone in that context.
20:35Well, people will normally just mingle among the ethnic group.
20:38But as I go to, you know, college, metrokrasi, university, work and play,
20:42so I realise that maybe that perspective is not entirely true.
20:46Because if you grew up in Kelantan, for example,
20:48and your 99% of your friends is Malay,
20:51that doesn't make you any less Malaysian.
20:53Similarly, if you grew up in somewhere in, I don't know,
20:57Ipoh or somewhere where, you know, 60%, 70% Chinese,
21:01that doesn't make you any less Malaysian as well.
21:04So the diversity part, we have to perhaps recast it as well.
21:09There's more than one road to Malaysian-ness,
21:11and there's more than one road to being a Malaysian society.
21:15We don't have to force everybody to be homogenous.
21:17Speak more on that, please.
21:21Because I think that people forget that those are the origins that we came from.
21:26Do you think that the ability for us to take back the ownership of those terms
21:32and imbue that from the people who hijack it,
21:37is that an active thinking that we must have now?
21:43Yeah, absolutely.
21:45And I think that, you know, Prime Minister Anwar or Madani government
21:48or any future leaders of Malaysia,
21:51maybe should look up to how Tun Razak managed to do this big vision thing.
21:56So Tun Razak, like, he created new economic policy,
22:00which, you know, today, some people might see as very ethnic punya policy.
22:06You know, it's a, you know, Dasar Bumi Putera and sebagainya.
22:08But it didn't start out as just that, right?
22:11It's not an ethnic supremacist argument.
22:14The argument is for class restructuring, poverty elimination.
22:19And to do that, he brings together very different people.
22:23He has some Malays nationalists on board.
22:25He has some Harvard professor on board, Jas Valen.
22:27He has some socialist minority Indian, James Putucherry, and so on, on board.
22:34In fact, Tun Razak was a member of the Fabian Society with the Labour Party
22:39back when he was a student in the UK.
22:41And that doesn't compromise his Malay nationalist credential.
22:46And I feel that this is perhaps the spirit that we need today
22:49to be a nationalist, but also one that is rooted in egalitarianism.
22:55It's not in ethnic, religious, whatever.
22:58Am I making sense here?
22:59Yes.
23:00Yeah, so I think you need that kind of vision building embodied by Tun Razak
23:03and also someone who can bring different people together
23:06and has a clear direction of where he want to go.
23:09You know, like, whether it's MARA, NDP, apa lagi.
23:12Mention all the major institutions in Malaysia.
23:14Actually, this will bring, branch out of Tun Razak.
23:18And he actually was PM for only like six plus years.
23:21You don't need, you know, PMX just announced a term limit for Prime Minister, right?
23:25You don't need 10, 20 years to be a consequential leader of this nation.
23:31Are you feeling that we are deprived of such leaders that comes out from our fabric of society?
23:39Yeah, I mean, definitely.
23:41But to be fair, if Tun Razak were Prime Minister today,
23:44he may not have done those things as well because the context has changed.
23:47The power that is in the Prime Minister is less now,
23:51whether it's, you're talking about political fragmentation and sebagainya lah.
23:57But I think also, we don't start from a clean slate anymore.
24:01I think Tun Razak has a more blank canvas to draw, so to speak lah kan,
24:05compared to, basically we are path dependent lah.
24:07Kalau dalam academia, we call it path dependent.
24:09You dah set satu track, you are here now.
24:11You don't start from here.
24:12So you can't draw from scratch anymore.
24:14But I, yeah, I mean, there are parallels definitely.
24:19Tun Razak started Barisan National, right?
24:22From, what was it, Perikatan back then?
24:26So he started Barisan National.
24:28He even offered the DAP, but DAP didn't join.
24:30But today you have unity government.
24:32There's definitely parallels involved.
24:34And I think, let's not forget, Tun Razak is also quite good at cultivating apprentices.
24:39So when you talk about Tengku Razali, Mahadeh,
24:42back then all very young, Musa Hitam and all that, he cultivated them.
24:46And I think people often forget, Tun Razak was only in his late 20s,
24:50I think, when he was Menteri Besar of Pahang, or one of the leaders lah.
24:54And early 30s when he became the Timbalan President UMNO,
24:57and basically number two lah in the country.
25:00Nowadays, if you are in your 30s, you'll be assigned to some pemuda role, you know.
25:04And by the time you get to talk leadership level at 50, 60 years old,
25:10you're already bought in with the system.
25:13You're thinking semua the status quo, right?
25:15You're a bit absorbed by the need.
25:16Usually, I would think people in their 30s and 40s, not to be ages here,
25:20but from my own personal experience, they tend to shake things up.
25:24In your teenage years, early 20s, you are just learning the ropes.
25:28In your 30s and 40s, you gain enough confidence.
25:30You have enough leverage relationship to shake things up.
25:34And I think, you know, that's why it's so exciting to see people like Saad Sadiq
25:37when he become minister, full minister at the age of, I think, 25, 26, right?
25:42And that basically shake up the status quo,
25:46the manner we expect people to be, be in your line, wait for your turn.
25:50But when you have a full minister at 25, that's something else, right?
25:53It's a learning curve for Sadiq or anyone else for that matter.
25:56Today, we have Akma as the menteri taking over Rafiq's portfolio.
26:01We have Taufik as well, KBS.
26:03He's a young guy.
26:03I think he's not even 30.
26:05Yeah, yeah.
26:05And, okay, I have to mention this as well because all the names we mentioned is men.
26:09Yobi Yin.
26:10When she was minister in 2018, I think she was only in her early 30s, right?
26:14And then she was pregnant on the job and everything,
26:16handle basically equivalent to three ministry portfolio.
26:19She did really well, I think, you know, to handle that.
26:22I mean, she wrote an entire book about it as well.
26:24And I think you're looking at people who want to do things usually in that age.
26:31Whether you're in your 50s, 60s, you are already, you know,
26:34I don't want to say past your prime,
26:35but you are not thinking in terms of innovation anymore, right?
26:41We have to bring this or land this conversation.
26:45Are you optimistic, not just about 226,
26:48but the direction of the country,
26:50both politically as well as economic wise,
26:53do you think that while it goes without saying that there's a lot that needs to be done
26:58and there's a lot of institutional reforms that needs to be instituted,
27:01but are we moving towards a direction that you believe is the right way?
27:05When you look at so-called radical reformers,
27:10whether it's Martin Luther King,
27:12whether it's Malcolm X,
27:14ataupun orang-orang yang dianggap radical,
27:18people like Aruh, for example, in PSM in Malaysia today, right?
27:21When you talk to them,
27:22although they always say about what's wrong with our society and all that,
27:26but they're actually very optimistic in person
27:27and you almost have to be that way as an activist and sebagainya
27:31because you believe another world is possible.
27:34It's using taglines,
27:36a left group,
27:37another world is possible.
27:38And I feel we have to embrace that mindset in this year and also beyond.
27:44What I see,
27:45one of the dangers is a lot of people,
27:47when reform don't happen at the pace that they want,
27:50they just become jaded and cynical and take a back seat.
27:53And I think that's a very self-defeatist,
27:55almost like self-fulfilling prophecy.
27:57If you think the system don't work
27:58and then you just give up,
27:59then of course it doesn't work.
28:01You have seen in New York City
28:03where Zioran Mamdani basically energize new groups of people
28:07to be active in the political process
28:09and that leads to significant change.
28:11I think we need that mindset as well in Malaysia.
28:14There will not be one miracle in which
28:16if you do this,
28:17you are in this in the long haul.
28:20And I was reading this book called Moral Ambition,
28:22by Radger Bregman.
28:24Fantastic book, I would recommend it.
28:26There's a superb quote in that that says,
28:28it's not what you believe,
28:30it's what you're willing to do about it.
28:32So if you believe in a progressive society,
28:35inclusive Malaysia,
28:36ekonomi yang lebih sama rata,
28:38a poor person,
28:40whether you are a poor Indian girl
28:42or a Malay Bumibutra in Sarawak,
28:45you can come up to the very top.
28:47If you believe in that kind of society,
28:49what are you willing to do about it
28:50to bring about that society?
28:52to reality?
28:54That requires a lot
28:55by the person.
28:57Instead of just
28:57going about and
28:59and whinge about the situation,
29:02we take charge and institute
29:04that kind of change ourselves.
29:06That is my
29:07aspiration as well.
29:08Because I don't like
29:10people complaining
29:11if they haven't done anything
29:12themselves.
29:13In fact, that is my
29:15exasperation,
29:17I'd rather people do something
29:20and fail
29:20rather than
29:21whinge and not do anything.
29:23Or not do anything
29:23and just whinge.
29:25So do you think
29:26that that is a mindset
29:28or cultural shift
29:29that we have to espouse
29:30to everyone right now?
29:31If you want the change
29:32that you dream of,
29:34it's you that has to do it.
29:36Do you feel that
29:36that is the moment
29:37of time right now?
29:38Yeah, I mean
29:39almost 20 years ago now,
29:41a young person
29:42used to say to us,
29:43be the change
29:43that you want to be.
29:44Yeah.
29:452008.
29:46So I think
29:47that mindset,
29:49you know,
29:49basically shifting
29:50from a passive actor
29:52whereby things
29:52just happen to you
29:53to a more proactive actor
29:56in your life,
29:57right?
29:57Regardless of
29:58your role in society
29:59but also in your life,
30:00right?
30:01Ni macam self-help
30:01pula pula kan?
30:02You know,
30:04it brings about
30:04the society
30:05that you want to see.
30:06Whether it's a,
30:06it doesn't have to be
30:07very big, right?
30:08It can be something
30:09you do in your
30:09neighborhood scale
30:10for example, right?
30:12And so on.
30:13So I think
30:13it's something that,
30:15you know,
30:15you be the change
30:16that you want to be,
30:17do even small things
30:19that will hopefully
30:20create a chain of effects.
30:23What a way to end
30:23this conversation.
30:24Of course,
30:25it's a new year,
30:26new you,
30:26new me,
30:27and there's plenty
30:28of conversations like this
30:29that can be found
30:29on astroawani.com.
30:31But while the message
30:33is easy to say,
30:36it is very hard to do.
30:37But of course,
30:38if indeed you want
30:39to be the change
30:40that you are,
30:41then perhaps
30:42this is a good
30:43new year's resolution
30:44to have.
30:45Until then,
30:45thanks very much
30:46for watching.
30:46You just heard
30:47from OE Koh Hin,
30:48the political
30:49and policy analyst.
30:50If you want to learn more,
30:51head on to our website
30:51and find out more
30:52of these conversations.
30:53You can find there as well.
30:54Until then,
30:55thanks for watching
30:55and goodbye.
31:01I'll see you next time.
31:03I'll see you next time.
31:04I'll see you next time.
31:05I'll see you next time.
31:07I'll see you next time.
31:08I'll see you next time.
31:09I'll see you next time.
31:10I'll see you next time.
31:11I'll see you next time.
Comments