Malaysia: A Year of Introspection

Summary

Nineteen ninety-seven represented a year of adjustment and introspection for Malaysia. The year was heavily dominated by events, particularly in the economic realm, during the second half. After years of rapid and consistent economic growth rates hovering above the 8 per cent mark, the economic slow-down was a rather rude awakening for Malaysia. Malaysians were informed that they must now learn to live with a lower growth rate and exhorted to spend less, be more selective at the supermarket, and buy Malaysian-made and -assembled products. A number of government projects (particularly those that have high import content), including the mega Bakun Dam project, were either scaled down or put on hold. These painful adjustments were necessitated by an unprecedented regional currency crisis that plagued the ringgit and other regional currencies, including the baht, the peso, the rupiah, and the Singapore dollar. While the national focus was understandably directed towards the country's economic slow-down, the year also witnessed several other key developments in Malaysian society including Anwar Ibrahim's two-month stint at the helm of the country, a viral infection outbreak, a regional haze problem, and a debate on Malay morality.

Politics and the Question of Succession

An interesting and important development in the Malaysian political arena in 1997 was the decision by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to give the reins of government to his deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, for a period of two months from mid-May to mid-July. This unprecedented move by Dr Mahathir was a hot topic of conversation from the coffeeshops to the boardrooms of the nation. During his two-month stint, Anwar was concurrently the Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister, acting Prime Minister, acting Home Affairs Minister, and, perhaps most importantly, acting President of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), widely acknowledged as the most powerful post in the country. During the two-month period, Dr Mahathir was overseas promoting the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), Malaysia's latest and most ambitious project to propel itself into the ranks of the developed nations by the year 2020.