Mahathir's China diplomatic disaster. Just wasting time there!

From Malaysiakini:

Mahathir then had a joint press conference with Premier Li Keqiang and at the end when Mahathir said rich countries should not colonise others, Li said nothing and the session abruptly ended with him shaking hands with Mahathir with a forced smile. Then he frowned and walked off the stage. Not a word of thanks.

Then the next morning, Mahathir announced the cancellation of the ECRL project, a part of China's prized One Belt One Road initiative, as well as the two pipeline projects.

There is a lot of information to digest here.

I guess it is telling Dr. M is no butterfly in international politics. This is a first class opinion on what seems to be going on.  Very factual.  A few days later a rebuttal by so called "diplomats" seem to be downplaying the issue.  But anyone reading the counter argument is probably shaking their head as the articles fail to disprove any of the facts by the original author.

So Dr. M is officially on the hot seat politically as well.  But this is nothing new as we all know that Dr. M is horrible in international politics.  He did basically tell Beijing that they should not colonise others.

Nothing new here, though I think this trip was a waste of time.  He's no political butterfly and I don't think he achieved his goal to "smooth over ties".  If you suck at this kind of thing, don't bother doing it.  It wastes your precious time as prime minister and makes things worse internationally.  Just stick to the script:  Say Malaysia has no money, and be done with it.

I'm not one to say, but I think this was a simple task to do, and even our PM can screw it up.  Can this PM achieve any goals for Malaysia, Still looking and waiting for the first economic goal that I can say without a doubt: A plus one for Malaysia!  Harapan shows some moves for excellent policy!

I hope I really don't have to wait too long.

Our very astounding and awesome PM finally is feeling the economic heat.

From the star: 

BANK Negara has lowered Malaysia’s economic growth forecast for 2018 to 5% from its earlier estimate of 5.5%-6%. For those in the loop, the move is largely unsurprising.

After all, the country’s economy has expanded below the 5.5%-level over the last two consecutive quarters. In fact, Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been decelerating since the third quarter of 2017, when the economy grew by 6.2% year-on-year (y-o-y).

The softer growth, given the fall in government development expenditure in the second quarter and the lacklustre performance of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude palm oil, meant that the earlier estimates could not be met. Furthermore, global purchasing manager indices and export volumes have been moderating.

Recently, the news in Malaysia on the economic front has been quite horrendous.  From blaming the China -US trade spat, to the poor GDP, to the Ringgit hitting a new low against the USD.  Now I think it is disingenuous NOT to point to our PM. 

Basically our news media is questioning everything but our esteemed Prime Minister and his band of merry men.

I'm just going to quote some facts. 

1. Our ex-PM, the very corrupt Najib, had projects lined up that cost a bomb and were way too expensive and were costing Malaysia tons of money, but I think those projects achieved economic goals for the country.

2. Our current PM, the magnanimous Dr. M. cancelled everyone of those projects, and we will likely never see them again, having been tied to the previous administration.  Our PM's current initiative is to make another national car. 

Now I think is telling that the Ringgit was strong at the height of Najib's power, while the ringgit now is at its worst point in years, during Dr. M's reign.  How can the ringgit be so strong at the time of Najib versus its weakest point now only 3 months into the tenure of our current PM?  Economics performance doesn't take sides, it doesn't care who you are, but can you perform?

PM Mahathir doesn't understand good economics plain and simple.  And it matters. It matter so much that despite the billions of Ringgit plundered from Najib, he was growing the country.  The markets couldn't be damned his about his birkin bag fetishes.  He knew how to achieve things for Malaysia.  The markets basically didn't care what the did on the side. 

PM Mahathir is a great man and well respected but unfortunately is a loser as an economic performer.

PM Mahathir needs to step down and let the next PM take the reigns.  Economics matter, and PM Mahathir, I contend never understood how to achieve economic goals during his time as PM and still doesn't  understand till this day. 

If the ringgit was performing better, then I would not be so hard on Dr. M.  But economic performance matters the most and these 3 months have exposed Dr. M's weakness.

If a corrupt ex-PM Najib can outperform our most storied PM in Malaysian history, Mahathir.  It speaks volumes to how important economic policy and direction is.  It's number one in my book and should be for anybody trying to make a living in Malaysia.