Malaysia 2026 Post Covid 19 Narrative

By Author: Premkumar Nadarajan
Total Articles: 32
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Recently, many entrepreneurs of small and medium industries ( henceforth referred to as SMEs’) have been called to pay attention and take up the opportunity and direction and leadership given by the launching and implementation of the AEC ( ASEAN Economic Community) that was signed recently. .
The level of awareness amongst SME entrepreneurs in Malaysia, is quite low, including the knowledge about the TPPA ( Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement ). It is difficult for entrepreneurs to reap any benefit from various agreements and its surrounding circumstances if there is still widespread ignorance about FTAs’ ( Free Trade Agreements), the AEC and the TPPA.
The entrepreneurial spirit is pertinent not only for businesses but also for the various government agencies; no matter whether First World , developing or underdeveloped nations. On its own, a particular SME may not impact the national economy greatly, but if all the SMEs’ are lumped together under a group, they can be seen to be a large component of the total number of organizations in Malaysia.
From existing research SMEs’ are found to play an important ...
... part of the engine to propel the growth of a national economy such as Malaysia. SMEs’ can help improve the earnings of the workers. There is a need to understand in depth the sectors that have great potential in the economic growth of Malaysia. Fundamentally, the SME plays an important role in the economy; namely to stimulate growth and rise in the economy, to aid in reducing poverty levels and to increase the basic standards of living of the people.
An increasingly flat world couples with an internet-set borderless environment seems to , on the face of it, increase and perpetuate the entrepreneurial spirit; a personality which is paid focused attention by the stakeholders of the national economy, predominantly because of the fact that it can be a pertinent driver of the economy without being held back or curtailed by details such as fixed working hours or other constraints of the ordinary working personnel.
Having said the above, there are 2 perspectives with regard to growth and performance of SMEs’ namely from the national viewpoint ie role of government and from the internal or organizational viewpoint.
It is submitted that for both perspectives, there is one answer, namely expansion of the SME business focus in the digital sector; by virtue of the usage of information technology and communication ( henceforth ICT). The expansion of SME territory online would enable further the growth and stimulus of the national economy as well as generate new employment or jobs in the market.
The usage through the internet or digital arena would afford the SMEs’ concerned a wider coverage and at the same time reduce the marketing costs if sales/services are merely done the conventional way.
At present the digital economy is at a good phase; the ICT industry contributing about 22.6% of the GDP in the year 2021, coming to approximately USD 70 billion. . The DM354 ( Digital Plan Malaysia 354 ) is a structured approach to change the digital landscape in Malaysia. . All this efforts are helping set the platform for the online expansion of the SME industry.
To top this, in the recent yearly budget, read together with the Malaysian National Economic Plan , the Malaysian Government had put aside easily more than RM330 billion for infrastructure development ie this would include development ie this would include development of the ICT infrastructure for the improvement and increase of the SME businesses. These monies are to be invested especially to help the Bumiputera community interests who are the predominant force behind SMEs’ , in platforms such as Skills Future Programme.
All this said and done, it is found that there is a basic problem amongst the locals, namely a lack of awareness of the global opportunities afforded to the SME businesses through the digital platform. For example although the rate of penetration of internet lines in Malaysia is currently at an approximate 67% , only about 15% of the 700,000 odd SMEs’ run their businesses in a sustainable manner through the internet in 2013. It is necessary to investigate why this is not helping the SMEs’ and how this should or can be changed.
Why is the internet important for SMEs’? The internet is a great platform to address and cure the inequality of bargaining power of the SMEs. What has worked against the SMEs’ so far is the power of big businesses to invade and pervade as well as control market power by virtue of the notion of absolute property.. Big businesses from First World countries have dominated the global market by legitimization of coerced labour by virtue of standard form contracts and expropriation of property by virtue of lopsided international monetary and land regulations have, to a very great extent, pushed the SMEs’ to a corner with a restricted or small cake of the fruits of a sustainable economy. . An absolute bourgeois society is envisaged by Locke, a renowned philosopher at a project which by virtue of a neoliberal economic concept having the means to fully put this idea or concept into practice with the bitter consequences of marginalization of the poor and middle classes , the predominant groups propelling the SMEs’.
Some would say that the problems described above, summed up in an attitude of lacking awareness as to how to take benefit from the aids available to the SME and a further handicap to existing SMEs’ caused by a legitimization of monopoly or oligopoly power of big businesses against the former ; could be cured or at least improved by better laws; ie international laws such as the recently signed TPPA, by Malaysia and currently being implemented at economic grassroots level in our country .
There seems to be no straight forward solutions on this matter. As mentioned before, the obvious choice is to simply enact and represent “higher” laws such as the TPPA to seemingly ensure greater exposure as well as more leveraged role playing for the SMEs’ in Malaysia. It is submitted here that although the efforts of “big ideas” such as the TPPA is not altogether bad for SMEs’ as order and structure is not to be rejected simply because there is always a basic need for such’ but speaking in the interests of the SMEs’; it could be necessary to rebuild ownership or power – sharing structures from below to benefit SMEs’ . “Big” laws such as the TPPA should not be used as an excuse to culminate in private wealth accumulation at the expense of SMEs’.
A good way of rebuilding ownership from below is to have more or if possible complete democratization of knowledge; this can be seen to be a doctored version of Marxist socialism; ie knowledge being a social product not a property in any one person’s hands .The question now arises as to how, on practical terms to implement this idea of democratization of knowledge in our economy. It is submitted that where the economy is concerned, the law should not just be a superstructure that protects the upper classes but such production of goods from the SMEs’ should be done in view of the common good as the goal and pivot of all economic law . Such democratization of knowledge, being a third way between Marxist socialism and fragmentation of individual knowledge, characteristic of the market; would prevail over casino capitalism ; as macroeconomic planning would not just rest in the hands of big ideas, but the SME would have a more level playing field in the agenda. The SMEs’ would clearly prevail using the concept from the viewpoint of the common good. SMEs’ would be judged of their capabilities for funding from the National Economic Plans as well as the Yearly Financial Budgets using the platform of a work-related productive sphere . This however must not be confused to be an argument for deregulation and more privatization. On the contrary, regulation and planning must be held and placed to prevail, guided by a concern for life and the common good.
The social knowledges’ in a political economy such as justice, otherwise in economic terms known as production in view of the common good, arise when peoples ( here, in the context , the SMEs’) ; bringing their own particular experiences to bear, actively co-operate and communicate in response to the common experience of a dynamic trade melting-pot to which the SMEs’ are exposed to, in view of recent developments such as the TPPA. In general, the Malaysian SMEs’ are unique beings in a culturally diverse multiracial space; brings about a commons that is both interesting and diverse , so as to inform such industries as the SMEs’ that if this need of common good is addressed, the SMEs’ would finally gain an edge in the realm of competition ; albeit in its own form and right.

lecturer at a private learning institution ( UTAR).