Last week, when Anwar was asked a serious question about Malaysia’s economy and the performance of the ringgit by a female university student, he made light of her question by saying that if he had been younger, he would have asked for the student’s phone number.
A lot of people accused Anwar of being sexist with his answer, but more than the sexism, what I noticed the most about the occasion, was how Anwar did not answer the question about the economy.
A couple of days ago, as I was reading Professor Geoffrey William’s article about "What does KJ knows", I came upon a line that struck my interest. The line was about PMX Anwar, and the line goes like this: “Anwar is well-known and well-respected internationally with a reputation for sound economic policy.”
This line struck my interest because it made me realise that while we tend to assume that Anwar is a person who is knowledgeable about matters related to the economy, we actually have no reason to believe so.
We don’t, because although we have known Anwar for more than 30 years, we have never seen him discuss the economy with any economist in an impromptu manner.
Sure, we have seen Anwar give speeches about the economy, but speeches can be written by other people. The litmus test of his knowledge of the economy lies in his ability to handle a conversation regarding it in an off-the-cuff manner.
We have never seen this from Anwar. Isn’t that odd?
There is nothing about Anwar’s educational background to suggest that he has any competency in the field of economics either.
Anwar was educated at the University of Malaya, where he got a bachelor's degree in Malay Studies, and worked on his Master in Literature through the National University of Malaysia while in prison from 1974 to 1975. None of these has anything to do with the subject of the economy.
When asked why they believe that Anwar is skillful in matters regarding the economy, many of his supporters will point out the fact that he was awarded the title of top-four finance minister and in Finance Minister of the Year in the year 1996 by Euromoney and Asiamoney magazine, respectively.
That he has served as the Finance Minister from 1991 to 1998 is also often cited as proof of his competency in running the country’s economy. If Anwar knew nothing about the economy, his well-wishers and supporters argue, how could he have guided our economy to such sterling performance in the 90s?
To this, my counter-argument is that It is actually not hard to sail a ship in perfect weather. You literally don’t have to do anything. It is to keep a ship floating in a storm that is a matter of great skills. You have to have a lot of knowledge and experience about the in and out of sailing in order to do it.
In the early 90s, we can perhaps indulge Anwar as the Finance Minister on account that the economic weather at that time was sterling. Even if Anwar did nothing then our economy will likely have sailed smoothly anyhow.
Today, however, we are in an economic storm. We don’t have the luxury of just taking Anwar or his supporters' word for it. Anwar truly needs to be a person of great skills, or else we might find ourselves drowning in this economic storm.
That Anwar would rather deflect than answer the question of a humble university student is not confidence inspiring. If Anwar lacks the confidence to talk about economics even in a crowd of inexperienced university students, how can we trust his leadership on the subject of economics in these trying times?
Now I am not saying that Anwar doesn’t know anything about economics; I am just saying that in these trying economic times, it would be good for Anwar to show knowledge about the economy, so that it might inspire the people’s confidence in him.
I do not believe that one can only gain mastery of a discipline only through paper qualification. Anwar has had long stints in prison, and in his many years in the government, he has access to the best minds in the nation. Considering this, he might have taught himself economics through reading, discussions and ponderings, which are perfectly valid ways of gaining mastery of a subject like economics.
That Anwar took on the role of Finance Minister, despite the fact that the Pakatan Manifesto was against anyone taking a dual portfolio, itself is another reason why it is incumbent upon Anwar to prove to us that he knows what he is doing. The fact that he is both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister means that our country’s economy is determined solely by him. When he has taken so much on his plate, it is actually his duty to prove to all of us why this is a good idea.
All that Anwar has to do to inspire confidence about his command of the economy is to talk about such basic economic ideas like what is a good interest rate for Bank Negara to set, how much money we should print, or how should a value be determined or added in our economy, with a panel of economists or even just a crowd of economic students in one of our universities.
Since Anwar is already doing town halls with students regularly, why not just invite students from the economic faculty during one of these sessions, and discuss an economic-related topic, like “how a rise in interest rates will not stop the expansion of the GDP”. (I just made up this topic to serve as an example, by the way, so please don't pillory me in the comment section about it. I am not an expert in economics to come up with a subject of discussion off the cuff).
Being attested by professors and financial magazines is all fine and well, but the simplest and most effective way to prove that one has knowledge about a subject is just by talking about it in an impromptu manner with other people who also have knowledge about the subject.
All we need to see Anwar do is hold his own with a bunch of university students, and not only will any doubt we have about his ability will be put to rest once, and for all, but we will also gain the confidence that whatever our economic troubles are, Anwar knows about it and he has the skills necessary to fix it.
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