The near-impossible Malaysian dream
News, ideas and everything in between (#5)
We’re witnessing the end of an era. On Thursday, tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan died. He was 86 years old. Former finance minister Daim Zainuddin died a week prior. He, too, was 86.
One was a mainstay on every mainstream billionaire’s index while the other flew under the radar. Both were billionaires. Some lessons to be learnt from Ananda Krishnan’s life but that’s for another day.
You’re reading a paid version of The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power by writer and journalist Emmanuel Samarathisa.
I run monthly and annual subscriptions. There’s also the atas or founding member tier where you get all the perks of an annual subscription and more, such as an annual or founder’s report and insight into how this little corner of the internet fared throughout the year.
Group subscriptions are also on the table, too, if you’re mulling over bulk purchases for your organisation or for family members.
Chunky read across three topics:
💡 Lead story is on the 24% of young Malay respondents who believe that everyone in Malaysia should have equal rights.
💡 Kuala Lumpur-based Collektr raised some money from angel investors, that includes former chiefs of government-linked investment companies. Are startups the new thing among Malaysia’s young-ish money? (HL: Betting on livestreaming and rare finds)
💡 Civil servants pensions fund KWAP has been making waves in the PE and VC spaces but the GLIC wrestles with internal bureaucracy, among other things. (HL: Snapshots of a GLIC’s internal difficulties)
Two weeks ago, The Straits Times (ST) published a feature on Malay youth wanting to hold on to their privileges and that they were not in favour of equal rights.
Stories like these get a lot of traction for obvious reasons: they trigger negative reactions from us minorities, who happen to be the ST’s choice demographic.
The article has its shortcomings — like it didn’t get views from Sabah and Sarawak or explore further issues around class or even explore the urban Malays and why they are holding on to discriminatory policies — but it also has some interesting points.
Here’s what piqued my interest: