Foreign views of the Hulu Selangor By Election

Posted by: zakimazlan http://blog.thestar.com.my/

I quote this from the Yahoo! news today (http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100425/tap-oukwd-uk-malaysia-politics-185f4fe.html). Read the one in bold!

Prior to Sunday the Front had lost seven out of nine parliamentary and state by-elections after stumbling to its worst ever results in national and state polls in 2008 when it lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time.

Najib took office in April last year and has pledged to reinvigorate a country that has lost out to Indonesia and Thailand in the race for foreign investment.

After the elections and as the global financial crisis hit Asia's third most-export dependent economy, $61 billion in investment fled the country in 2008 and 2009, according to official data.

Najib has pledged economic reforms to win back investment by dismantling some of the privileges enjoyed by Malays that include preferential company ownership rights, cheap loans and access to higher education.

However, policy flip-flops on ending fuel subsidies and introducing a goods and services tax to shore up public finances at a time when the budget deficit hit a 22-year high of 6.4 per cent of gross domestic product have further unnerved investors.

The Hulu Selangor campaign was characterised by attacks on the character of the opposition candidate, a former law minister and a Muslim who was accused of drinking alcohol, and by handouts worth thousands of dollars to voters from Najib.

Despite the narrow government win, the opposition, led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, will also come under scrutiny at a time when Anwar is facing charges of sodomy in a case that could end his political career if he is found guilty.