It was the summer of 1980. I was in Cambridge, Boston, and found myself among a crowd gathered along the Charles River to watch the American Independence Day fireworks. I remember being struck by something that, at the time, I could not quite explain. The celebration seemed surprisingly subdued. America had celebrated its Bicentennial just four years earlier, in 1976. Two hundred years of independence should surely have been an occasion of extraordinary national celebration. Yet here I was, in Boston, one of the most historically significant cities in the American Revolution, watching thousands of people gather along the Charles River. But the atmosphere was different from what I had experienced in Malaysia during Merdeka celebrations.

The recent report that Prime Minister and Finance Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s ministry is studying the possibility of incorporating some features of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) into Malaysia’s existing Sales and Service Tax (SST) has reopened an old and highly sensitive debate. GST was abolished in August 2018. It had become one of the major political issues used by Pakatan Harapan (PH), together with the 1MDB controversy, in the campaign that brought down the Barisan Nasional government. Yet GST has never really disappeared from public discussion. Supporters continue to argue that it is a more efficient and transparent tax system, while opponents remember the impact they associated with GST on the prices of everyday goods. Recent changes have made the debate even more interesting. The government has increased SST rates and expanded its scope, while introducing other forms of taxation. The implementation of e-Invoicing has also prompted some critics to describe it as a “ba...

  Dr Suraya Ismail of the Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) recently made a thought-provoking observation that about 70% of Malaysian households do not appear to benefit meaningfully from the wealth generated by the nation.  The figure deserves careful qualification and should not be interpreted as saying that 70% of households are poor or receive no benefit whatsoever from economic growth. Nevertheless, the broader message is difficult to ignore: there can be a substantial gap between what the economic statistics say and what households actually feel. This gap matters because economic management is not only about producing good numbers. It is also about communicating honestly what those numbers mean to ordinary people.

  Malaysia has experienced a long succession of controversies involving government agencies, statutory bodies and government-linked companies (GLCs). Tabung Haji, FELDA, FGV, Khazanah Nasional, MAS, LTAT, MARA and, most dramatically, 1MDB have at various times been associated with financial losses, questionable investments, governance failures or allegations of misconduct. The political response is often predictable. The latest scandal becomes evidence that the previous government “ sakau ” — plundered — public institutions. There may indeed be cases involving corruption, abuse of power, fraud or criminal misconduct, and such cases must be investigated and prosecuted. But reducing every financial loss or failed investment to “ sakau ” is neither accurate nor useful. The deeper problem is more serious. Malaysia appears to have a recurring institutional failure in the governance, management and oversight of government agencies and GLCs. The country has had numerous audits, investigat...

  The United States has crossed a fiscal milestone that would have seemed almost unimaginable a decade ago. On 18 August 2026, total US national debt reached US$40.047 trillion, according to the US Treasury. The debt has more than doubled from approximately US$19.95 trillion in January 2017.  The significance of US$40 trillion is not the number itself. The bigger question is whether the American economy and government revenues can grow sufficiently to service the debt without requiring progressively larger borrowing. That is the real fiscal test—and it is a question Malaysia should take seriously. The US experience is therefore not a warning that Malaysia is about to face an American-style debt crisis. It is a warning about how a manageable fiscal problem can become politically and economically difficult to correct if structural deficits are allowed to persist for too long.