Unless you have been living under a rock in these past few years, you might have noticed that the United States had elected Donald Trump as the new president-elect. This event in addition to the events of Brexit earlier this year has represented a large shift in political views around the world.

Much has been said about Trump’s personality. The Liberal-leaning media painted him as a racist, a xenophobe, a maniac and a liar. However I want to put this discussion away from Trump’s questionable personality, but rather more towards how the American election and global uncertainties (as a consequence of the election) will affect us ‘Penangites’.

Many news outlet have reported that Trump’s victory in this election have highlighted the disconnection between the media (which many had analysed, leans more towards the liberals) and the majorities of blue collared workers (mainly whites) in the United States. As a former blue-collared worker myself I can understand the pressure of being squeezed out of a job when factories were outsourced to other lower cost based countries.

When Acer moved some of its manufacturing operation out of Malaysia, I, too, suffered the same fate as many who had lost their jobs (due to outsourcing) in the United States. However, my life did not end there and I continued to reinvent myself by taking up courses and became a self-employed trader.

‘So now how does this election connect to Penang?’

I will explain this both in political and economic terms. Politically, Malaysia is still less matured compared to many of our democratic counterparts. We have largely been more or less been close to a dominant-party system (debatable, I know) in this country. Whereas Penang represents an anomaly in this system, a beacon of hope, some may say. I would not want to say that this is entirely true or whether Penang is does indeed represent a rebel state in this system.

Pardon my oversimplification, but we are now similar to the Californian state in America as the Republicans now hold the House, the Senate and the Presidency. This made the Democrats-majority Californian state in a similar political standing in America as what Penang state is in Malaysia.

Like the Californians, we as ‘Penangites’ have a lot of pride for being different and more open than many other states in Malaysia. We are also proud that Penang’s economy is very open when compared to Malaysia’s economy in general (Trade as GDP 460 percent to 494 percent over the last few years). In fact we stand to gain more (like the open economy of the Californian state) under the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) that Malaysia has signed into.

However the results of this election have thrown TPPA into a serious doubt. Large infrastructure projects that were supposed to (or partially supposed to) support this, such as the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) will without doubt be affected to a certain effect should the United States under Trump decided to pull the plug from the plans. Manufacturing and trade, which has been the hallmark of Penang economy, can also be affected by this global change.

‘Selective infrastructure investments’

In the midst of global uncertainties (no thanks to the United States presidential elections), Penang needs to evolve from the traditional-thinking base that all forms of infrastructure investment are going to deliver high positive risk-adjusted returns. Investment efficiency is also required if we as Penang state want to continue our growth as a state that we are proud of.

Efficient capital investment in infrastructure can only be achieved if it leads to improvement in Penang’s overall wellness (social, economic, psychological, civil, security etc.).

Speaking about overall wellness of ‘Penangites’, I am heartened to see that Chris Lee Chun Kit’s (city councillor with the Penang Island City Council) article, which can be found here, states that Penangites “call for a better quality of life is something we have to provide as a responsible government.” As such I urge for efficient investment in infrastructure to achieve this target.

A good example presently will be China. Much of its immense growth from the 1980s to 2010 are largely thanks to the large investment in infrastructures that support its opening up in its socio-economic policies. However there is also a point that its general economy cannot always be maintained and sustained as evident in the slowdown of its economies in the recent few years.

Unfortunately, large infrastructure capital investments were still made in the hope that these investments will lead to further growth. This lead to diminishing returns that these investments provide to China as the slowdown of its economies cannot maintain that its new investments are going to be efficient.

Thus I urge the Penang state government to be careful with its selections of infrastructure investments to be made in Penang. The uncertainties of TPPA and the slowdown of China’s economic (China is Malaysia’s biggest trading partner), which has been mentioned above, has shown the need for careful selections of investment to be made for Penang to prevent similar case of diminishing returns (or even negative returns) on its investment.

‘Talents to make efficient plans’

Having personally not educated with a specialized nor high tertiary education, I personally feel that I am absolutely not qualified to look into and understand into every policies that the Malaysian and/or Penang state government have made or planned to implement.

As a patriot for Penang (and Malaysia) it pained me, to say that there are many talents from Penang that had migrated or are based overseas right now. Thus in light of the fact that we need more precision and effective planning for Penang I urge ‘Penangites’ all over the world to lend us a little bit of the global views that you are exposed to and lend us those views to better facilitate in helping Penang make those plans.

I came across several articles that was written by Roger Teoh, another DAP member, which can be found here, here, here and here. Teoh, a ‘Penangite’ PhD student in UK had given some insightful analysis on PTMP, an upcoming infrastructure project in Penang. Unfortunately he had pointed out several pitfalls, which many of us, including me, had not considered in the beginning.

I felt that this is a step towards the right path to be selective of our investments in infrastructure to prevent wastage of efforts, money, time and opportunity costs. I strongly encourage our readers to have a look in his articles and join the discussion.

This had shown that there are still ‘Penangites’ overseas who hold Penang dear in their hearts and I hope we who are still staying in Penang can reach out our hands to welcome back these people in order to build ourselves a better Penang in the midst of global uncertainties.

I applaud that these people make up the new generations of people who are using their existing knowledge to open up progressive discussions that were previously less seen in Malaysia or more specifically in Penang. We are perhaps very concentrated on focusing on corruption issue that many of our daily life needs can be considered as secondary priority for discussion.

In the midst of the upcoming Bersih campaign, I hope these conversations can continue after the campaign is over.

Hopefully this discussion can be backed up with proper data analysis without selectively favoring their respective sides. After all we ‘Penangites’ and the state government are different from the other parties or state in Malaysia.

An outright denial in data analysis is similar to Michael Gove urging the British to ignore experts with regards to Brexit. Look at the potential pitfalls Britain is getting right now, with the older demographics (that made up the big chunk of their population) outvoting the younger demographics that reject Brexit. Who will get affected most by this decisions, the future Brits.

We would like to show to the world that we are better than that and we will make informed decisions because they are right and not because they are popular. Lets show that we can rise to the occasion and step towards a modern Penang.

PETER TAN is a self-employed trader and a concerned Penangite.