You should have seen how excited Anwar was when he managed to court Elon Musk and convince Elon to open a factory in Malaysia earlier this year.
Anwar made it sound like it was only because he was such an outstanding guy that Elon Musk gave him and Malaysia the time of the day.
Even before a brick had been laid in the country, Anwar was already crowing for weeks in all corners of the country, about how great it will be for Malaysia that the great Tesla company is coming to our shores.
Even the proverbial Mat Jenin couldn’t hold a candle to how the Madani government was dreaming of all the benefits that Malaysia was going to reap when Tesla was finally ours.
Fast forward a few months later, and the next thing you know, the dream of hosting a Tesla factory on our shores now lies in tatters.
We don’t know what caused it, but could it be that the Madani government’s sudden decision to have all social media companies apply for licence, less they are banned from operating in the country, have anything to do with it?
Tesla’s boss, Elon Musk, is also the owner of X, formerly known as twitter, and he is well known for being outspoken in matters in regards to free speech.
The Madani government is of course saying that no, no, it is not asking social media companies to apply for licence because it wants to stifle free speech, but because it wants to protect the people from misinformation, cyberbullying and cyber crimes.
Ironically however, when just a week after the Madani government announced the licensing requirement, and Meta decided to take down the Madani government’s boss, AnwarIbrahim’s post about the late Ismail Haniyeh, suddenly Anwar and the Madani government was singing a different tune about regulating social media.
According to Anwar’s office, Meta’s actions to take down Anwar’s post, because it deemed it to be against its community standards, was tantamount to “discrimination, a restriction on freedom of speech and an insult to the struggle for basic human rights.”
Now you might be asking, if the Madani government sees its desire to regulate social media as a selfless act to protect netizens from cybercrime and cyberbullying, why does it see Meta’s own attempt to do the same as form of discrimination, restriction of freedom of speech and insult to human rights?
You would think that at least one of our journalists would have posed this question to our government, but you would be wrong. Is it any wonder that Malaysia is ranked 107th out of 180 countries, in regards to press freedom, by Reporters Without Borders?
Anyway, after much brouhaha, the Madani government and Meta finally managed to come to a settlement a few days ago, when Meta agreed to restore Anwar’s post, with the caveat the Anwar’s post will come with a cautionary note attached to it, to warn netizens about how Anwar’s post is still in breach of Meta’s community standard.
What this likely means, I think, is that Anwar’s post will probably just be restored on Anwar’s social media profile. If somebody else were to repeat what Anwar said in their own profile, Meta will still pull it down because it still sees such content as being in violation of its community standards. Talk about discrimination and double standards.
Anyway, before the Madani government could celebrate its success in putting Meta in its place, just a few days later, we woke up to the news that Tesla has abruptly pulled the plug on its desire to build a factory in Malaysia.
According to Anwar, Tesla’s decision to abandon plans to build electric vehicle (EV) factories in our country stems from the fact that it is facing losses and cannot compete with EVs from China.
"This is the direct statement that we received, not from media coverage," Anwar told the press after launching the management and governance guidelines for federal statutory bodies on Friday (Aug 9).
What an odd explanation to give.
On Thursday (Aug 8), The Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said that Tesla has never committed to opening a factory here in Malaysia, and today Tesla is calling the Madani government to say that is saying that is abandoning the plan to build a factory in Malaysia, which it has never committed to, because it is losing to companies from China?
Does Tesla look like a company that will admit to losing to companies from China? Does the stock market know that Tesla has admitted to the Madani government that it is losing to EV companies from China? Isn’t it a little odd that a proud and ambitious company like Tesla, which is owned by a larger than life figure like Elon Musk, would call the Madani government to admit that it losing to companies from China, to explain why it can’t build a factory in Malaysia, although it never promised that it was going to build a factory in Malaysia in the first place?
You would think that at least one of our journalists would have asked the Madani government or Elon Musk himself, as to whether Tesla’s decision to abandon building a factory in Malaysia has anything to do with the Madani government’s decision to force social media companies like X to apply for licence to operate in Malaysia, but you will just have to hold that thought in your mind, because none of our journalist has raised the question in reality.
Our journalists, it seems, have so internalised the concept of being “regulated”, that even without being prompted externally, they will unanimously and simultaneously “regulate” themselves.
Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and Twitter by the way, is no stranger to fighting against world leaders on political issues and on the subject of freedom of speech. Currently, he is taking on the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the subject of UK riots. Just a few months ago, he was involved in another row with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over the subject of censorship.
Musk is also known to be someone who backs Israel’s war on Gaza.
Considering his pro-Israel and pro-free speech stance, did it not occur to anyone in our country that Musk might have killed Tesla’s plan to build a factory in Malaysia, simply because he was disapproving of the Madani government’s stance on Israel and free speech?
There are so many holes, coincidences, confusion and discrepancies in the explanation that our government tries to give us about our reality, but still it believes it should be given the power to determine what we should hear and believe as facts. Am I the only one who is not sanguine about the prospect of our government being given more powers to explain to us about our reality? Rather than clarify anything or enlighten us, I have a feeling that the move is only going to leave us very confused and bewildered.
Anyway, I hope that this episode will serve as a lesson for the government, to wait until a brick has been laid on the ground before it goes around town crowing about how it has gotten billions or ringgit of investment for the country.
Also, I hope that the Madani government will remember that multibillion dollar global corporations are not like the average citizens of Malaysia. You can come up with a arbitrary law on an ad hoc basis and support it with a cockamamie reason, and we will still abide you, simply because you are more powerful than us, but you can’t expect to get the same treatment from multibillionaires who own multi billion dollar global corporations. These multibillionaires and multi billion dollar corporations are not weaker than you, for them to just do whatever you tell them to do. If you deal with them in the same way that you deal with us, you are just going to embarrass our country and our people.
Finally, maybe it is time for the Madani government to think about committing at least some manpower and money into their desire to force social media companies to get a licence to operate in Malaysia. At least if they commit an additional 1000 people or 1 billion ringgit to upgrade and improve our ability to combat cybercrimes and cyber bullying, more people will believe that they are actually interested in safeguarding citizens, instead of just safeguarding their own self interest.
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