During the virtual meeting PM10 had with Elon Musk recently, he told the Communications and Digital Minister who was present during the meeting to purchase 40 Starlink satellite broadband devices to be installed at any universities that need it.
This is reminiscent of the moment in Sept 2017 where PM6 went to Washington and had a meeting with the President of the US where he told President Trump that Malaysia is offering to strengthen the US economy by getting the national airline MAS to purchase 33 planes from Boeing with the possibility of adding another 25 more in the near future and committing EPF to invest US$3 to US$4 billion to support America’s infrastructure redevelopment while Khazanah will increase their investments in the US.
As at end-2017, the Federal Government debt stood at RM686. 8 billion or 50.8% of GDP while today, at present, the total debt stood at RM1.5 trillion.
Unfortunately or fortunately, none of the promises made by PM6 materialised as in less than a year after that visit, PM6 was voted out.
It is interesting to note that in response to the meeting between PM6 and President Trump, the current Communications and Digital Minister who was then the Head of PKR Youth questioned Malaysian investments in the US while at the same time raising funds from China for projects at home while in this instance, his silence was deafening.
Complaints of slow internet connectivity?
According to a statement by the then Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister in Aug 2020, one big reason that rural areas in Malaysia suffer from poor internet connection is due to theft and vandalism.
Copper and optic fibre cables, which are necessary hardware for internet connection in the area, are dug and stolen.
As a result of it being stolen or damaged, certain rural areas will suddenly lose internet access.
Apart from that, there are cases of power generators, including those solar-based being damaged by acts of vandalism.
It is not only higher education institutions across the country that complained of slow internet connectivity.
The ordinary rakyat has been complaining and for a very long time too.
It is not uncommon a one bar 4G coverage which many are experiencing even in urban areas like the Klang Valley.
The unreliability of mobile and fixed broadband internet speed has frustrated Malaysians for a long time and it has come to a point that the ordinary rakyat has accepted that nothing will change no matter how many complaints they lodged.
Do not be overjoyed with the announcement that Tesla will open an office in Selangor soon.
In June 2022, within one week of Elon Musk’s warning of global job cuts at Tesla where he sent a letter to employees announcing plans to reduce “salaried headcount by 10% as the company have become overstaffed in many areas, the Country Manager for Singapore who was employed by Tesla for just over a year, was terminated.
In Malaysia, if termination happened at such short notices, those affected would run helter skelter and seek intervention from politicians and Ministers threatening the employers.
Elon Musk is known publicly as the master of taking action quickly. Are our politicians and government prepared to accept such decision if Elon Musk were to carry out such steps for their Malaysian office?
President Jokowi of Indonesia offered Elon Musk for Tesla to build its entire supply chain in the country which has abundant natural deposits of tin, copper, nickel, cobalt and bauxite, some of which are key materials for electric vehicle batteries.
Since the initial overture in April 2022 and a visit by the President to SpaceX in the US to the present, Tesla has yet to announce their investment plans.
It was rumored that for companies owned by Elon Musk, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) in where they operates are the main consideration in their decision to invest.
Maybe possibly for the next meeting, if it happens, PM10 should get his Minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change of Malaysia involved.
FLK 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!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
