WHAT a year 2021 has been! There were great hopes that the economy will grow vigorously, only to be dashed by the raging pandemic.
The World Bank has now revised its 2021 projected growth for Malaysia from 4.5 to 3.3 per cent. Like a wrecking ball, Covid-19 continues to inflict havoc on lives and livelihoods.
Notwithstanding, as a nation we have been able to ride the storm. We can still look forward to finishing the year with the economy growing at a healthy clip.
We have been able to tame Covid-19 with 98 per cent of the population fully vaccinated.
That gives us renewed confidence for a promising year, where we can conquer the virus and propel the economy further.
Predictions are of course difficult. Our future lies neither in the grooves of our palms nor in our stars. The future is for us to craft.
As Abraham Lincoln, a former United States president, once remarked: "The only way we can predict the future is to create it."
Among others, we would need to invent our future in the area of economic growth, climate change and social cohesion.
Take economic growth. We have limited fiscal space for economic rejuvenation.
The government treads a delicate path between fuelling a nascent economy by an expansionary fiscal policy or snuffing it out altogether by tightening its belt severely. The balance is a difficult one.
The government has borrowed heavily and revised its debt ceiling upwards to 65 per cent of the national output.
In contrast to the huge spike in the US and the United Kingdom of a mind-boggling seven and six per cent, respectively, inflation in Malaysia is manageable at 2.5 per cent. But, interest rates will inevitably have to rise if we do not want inflation to get out of hand.
One way to keep all this in balance is for the government to gradually reduce its deficit, which stands around six per cent.
We were supposed to have balanced the budget last year! Understandably, the massive largesse of RM530 billion that the government lavished on people and businesses in the past two years is the culprit.
This value is among the highest in the world as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). Notwithstanding, deficit reduction will enable us to pay off a bit of our hefty debt of close to 60 per cent of the national output.
The recent unseasonal floods in parts of Selangor are another timely reminder that extreme weather patterns are due to global warming.
Despite the best efforts of nations, and no thanks to the intransigence of the recalcitrant few, we might not be able to prevent temperatures from rising beyond two degrees from the pre-industrial level — a limit beyond which climate change is irreversible.
Nevertheless, to paraphrase Margaret Mead, an American anthropologist, never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed nations can change the world. Malaysia should be in that league.
The government's efforts to ensure carbon neutrality by 2050 should be palpable. Once so, the public will automatically get into the act. As individuals, we need to think across generations.
We need to constantly ask, "Am I doing the right thing for my children and their children? What kind of a world do I want to leave for them?"
Together with the government, we too need to take ownership of the environment, or pay the price for its reckless destruction.
The racial rhetoric has toned down. But, like the elusive Loch Ness monster, it still lurks inside the thin fissures — read prejudice and bigotry — in our multi-racial fabric.
But, there is hope. Malaysians rally to help one another in cases of disaster. The recent flash flood is one such instance. Such effervescence of reaching out across society should be sustained.
The Keluarga Malaysia concept epitomises the wishes of all Malaysians to build a nation as envisaged by our founding fathers — a nation built on mutual respect and trust. And, it all begins from each of us.
As Mahatma Gandhi once declared: "If you want to change the world, start with yourself."
Let us then play our part, however small, to ensure that we have a pleasant world to live in and a beautiful society that is emblematic of harmony and unity.
Happy New Year!
The writer is the AIMST University's vice-chancellor