Since July last year, Anwar Ibrahim has included billionaire Elon Musk in his name-dropping portfolio, as Malaysians are hyped over the prospect of Tesla investing in the country.
Musk's name was trumpeted several times by Anwar, the first during an event in Seremban, hinting that Musk wanted to come to Malaysia because of the success of Anwar's government.
As it is for Anwar, every time good news is to be announced, there is an overblown excitement propelled by the state's propaganda machine. Even his meeting with Musk, which we all thought was a physical meeting, turned out to be an online one. It was known later that Musk was on X, cheerfully tweeting while the session was still on.
Anwar's penchant to be associated with someone powerful and credible is not unknown. The two names he never failed to mention all this while were Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the late Egyptian Islamic scholar, Dr Yusuf al-Qardawi.
But this time, that strategy may not be so prudent. Anwar had jumped before the proverbial gun with his promise of investment with thousands of job opportunities from Tesla and a supposedly factory/ manufacturing plant to be built here.
Still, Anwar will have to roll back on his Musk-Tesla hype. Tengku Zafrul, the MITI Minister, had already washed his hands by telling reporters to go 'ask Tesla' on the report, even though he was one of the key persons attempting to bring Tesla's investment. According to him, Tesla had never planned to set up a manufacturing factory here.
But Anwar's reputation is the least of our concerns. What is it that Musk wanted to achieve in the first place?
By creating a hype over his 'investment', he has already secured tax exemptions for his CBU cars, including import, excise, and sales taxes, until 2025. The Malaysian government has also issued a license for Starlink under SpaceX to operate in the country, making it the 60th country to be served by the company. Both Tesla and SpaceX are allowed 100% foreign ownership.
All of these are given to Musk's companies without even a single 'investment' coming in. Selling cars and satellite services does not count as investment, if anyone tries to put a good spin on this.
Of course PM Anwar gets defensive. He said that Tesla is facing losses and competition from Chinese EV manufacturers.
But the bigger picture is this: Anwar must stop his casual vaunt, if he were to save his credibility. His initial announcement suggested a more immediate and substantial commitment from Tesla, including plans for manufacturing facilities, which did not materialize.
Instead, Tesla's focus appears to be on developing a supercharger network rather than establishing a manufacturing base in Malaysia. This discrepancy indicates that the expectations set by Anwar's announcement may have been overly optimistic.
This seems to be a repetitive syndrome, as it also happens elsewhere in his administration. The most legendary is when Communication Minister Fahmi Fadzil had prematurely announced to the media that good news would be announced by Anwar, when it was just about a 3-cent drop in egg price.
It is time Anwar's government deals with more substantive, structural issues rather than taking cheap shots for feel-good headlines. Over-inflating the hype over unrealized gains, just like Anwar loves to parade the amount of approved investment, will not help his already plunging popularity.
As PM Anwar faces cynics over this blunder, he must do away with his name-dropping obsessions once and for all.
Ahmad Mustakim is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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