Seize post-election opportunities

With Donald Trump beginning his next presidential term, Malaysia must anticipate the movements likely to occur and capitalise on the economic benefits.

MY friends from the United States are just as passionately polarised in their opinions as they were four, eight, or 12 years ago.

Donald Trump supporters are jubilant at the scale of his victory, while Kamala Harris fans are utterly dejected, not comprehending how so many of their compatriots could have chosen someone so unsavoury to be their President again.

This defeat is compounded by the Democrat loss of the Senate to the Republicans, the likely loss of the House of Representatives, and a continued majority of Republican appointees on the Supreme Court.

There was more unity among Republicans this time, compared to the sizeable number last time – associated with statesmen like the late Senator John McCain – who argued that Trump was not a true representative of the party’s values and ideals, and thus it was acceptable to vote for their traditional opponents. Perhaps, by now, these people who were then derided as “Republicans in name only (RINO)” had already formally left the party for some time.

My Malaysian friends, on the other hand, are ambivalent or dismissive about the result, probably because we’ve already experienced a Trump presidency.

Much also has to do with an assumption that in terms of foreign policy, there won’t be much change. Yet, Trump declared during the election campaign that he would end the Ukraine war (which began during Biden’s presidency) “in a day”. And surely the South China Sea will remain a security priority: one which we should embrace.

Of more emotional relevance to Malaysians is the Middle East, of course. Here, the normalisation of relations in 2020-2021 between Israel on the one hand and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan on the other (known as the Abraham Accords), as well as Morocco, has led to some theories that maybe Trump will manage to achieve what Biden failed to do, in securing a halt to the massacre in Gaza.

There will be much scrutiny of the personalities that Trump intends to appoint to his diplomatic portfolios, in addition to the behaviour of the Arab leaders, who are already under much pressure to respond more effectively to the Palestinian question.

But my more trade and business minded colleagues are cautiously positive about the result. Despite Trump’s rhetoric of “America First” and the proposed imposition of tariffs, it’s possible that opportunities for Malaysia may actually increase if it results in a pro-growth economic policy. And if the US’ trade relationship with China does shift, then Malaysia might again be a beneficiary. What’s important is that we anticipate the movements and seize opportunities: if we do so, particular industries such as semiconductors could actually stand to develop significantly.

Evaluating our attitude towards trade dovetails logically with Malaysia’s application to BRICS, while our chairmanship of Asean presents us with a platform to lead in the region. Indeed this is timely as nations around us also develop their geopolitical and economic significance.

If our small country can continue to thrive as an open economy, with good business policies, a stable political system, an independent judiciary and an intelligent foreign policy, then we can become resilient to these forces of change.

This in turn requires strong institutions based on a shared conviction of what our nation ought to be. Visiting the USA even as a kid – but certainly when working there in 2006 – the American style of explicit patriotism was impossible to ignore. Flags were everywhere, the anthem is seemingly sung more often than in other democracies, and phrases from the constitution’s preamble – “We the People” – are known to schoolchildren.

Yet, it was clear that there were already deep divisions in US society, borne in varying parts out of the combination of its huge geographic scale, racial diversity, and increasingly visible economic inequalities, augmented by the distortions of elite education, themselves seen to create a new kind of inherited privilege.

Certainly the most surprising element (having lived previously in the United Kingdom) is the prevalence of religion in public discourse.

The most pernicious outcome of this was the ability for Americans to interpret and express their national symbols and constitution in starkly different ways, even while saying the same words and singing the same lyrics.

President Lyndon B Johnson, before visiting a kampung in Negri Sembilan (founded three years before the USA) which today bears his name, spoke optimistically about the shared democratic values between our two countries. That may have been emphasised in the Cold War context, but today I hope we do better than the United States of America, in terms of ensuring that all Malaysian citizens, when they say the formula beginning “Maka kami, rakyat Malaysia”, are united in what they mean.

Tunku Zain Al-‘Abidin is founding president of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas). The views expressed here are the writer’s own.