KINIBIZ In the past few months, Malaysians have been paralysed by fear. People scuttled home from work and bolted their doors. Children stayed away from schools. Shops shut down early. Trains and buses were half-empty. Looming in the dark was a big bad monster, its deadly claws ready to pounce.

Scary scenes from the new dinosaur epic Jurassic World?

Worse. It was the dreaded Fitch Ratings.

The influential credit ratings agency was breathing down Malaysia’s neck, waving its big axe ominously. Fitch was threatening to downgrade the country’s creditworthiness due to various economic and political uncertainties.

Many ordinary, hardworking men and women in Malaysia were, however, quite simply perplexed by Fitch’s various predictions of doom and gloom. Some still saw the brighter side of things.

“Adoi. Why is Fitch so pessimistic. We still have plenty of oil money, what,” said Ali Bubba, who sells ayam golek at a Ramadan bazaar. When reminded that even mighty state oil company Petronas is cutting its budget and expenditure due to the oil crisis, Ali let out a significantly longer refrain of “adoi”.

“Alaa… chill man, don’t let Fitch frighten you. We still have hundreds of thousands of acres of valuable oil palm what,” said Jimmy ‘Daft’ Phang, a popular DJ at 1FM radio station. 

When told about the troubled plantation giant Felda Global Ventures and its plunging share price, ‘Daft’ Phang’s casual “alaa” turned to a more tense “alamak”.

“Don’t worry. Worst-case scenario, we have our government agencies to help us out and boost small businesses,” said Dudley Saravanan, a real estate agent who flips properties for profit.

When told about the brewing Majlis Amanah Rakyat property scandal in Australia, Saravanan himself promptly flipped and slapped his forehead several times.

Some, although ambivalent about Fitch’s rationale and motives, are staunchly against the rating agency’s potentially damaging actions against Malaysia.

For the full story please go to KINIBIZ .

This article was written by Khairul Khalid.