MALAYSIA seems to be in a sweet economic spot at the moment, with the ringgit's surge against the United States dollar among the best in Asia and a spate of good news about billions of ringgit in foreign investments pouring in.
Tourist inflow numbers are fast matching those attained before the pandemic.
As China outbound tourism picks up anew, Malaysia is reportedly topping the popularity charts in the country, due in no small part to the bilateral arrangement for visa-free travel between nationals of both countries.
While it is true that external factors — particularly out of the US — contribute to the buoyancy of almost all Asian currencies, Malaysia is obviously doing something right for it to be reaping chart-topping benefits.
What then have we done right?
I would like to think that the government "taking the bull by the horns", as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim puts it, in making some dent on our hefty annual subsidy bill helps to convey the right vibes that Malaysia is serious about instituting economic reforms by, for example, reining in increasingly worrisome budget deficits.
The diesel subsidy rationalisation will save the government some RM4 billion a year.
Although this makes a relatively small dent in the total subsidy bill, the government had been careful to cushion itself against expected political fallout.
Further reductions to our mountain of subsidy spending can be expected to be an even tougher political proposition and the government will tread carefully before making any more ambitious moves, such as tackling the RON95 petrol subsidy.
But unless other creativeinitiatives can be thought up to slay the beast of budget deficits, the government will have few other options. And if reducing the budget deficit is a long-term economic imperative, there may be no better time than now to double down.
If markets are really cheering the good work done on the diesel-subsidy front, they can be expected to cheer even more if more subsidies are axed.
The good vibes so generated will naturally generate a virtuous cycle of further favourable views about the state of the economy leading to even greater inflows of foreign investments, bulging the pockets of the man on the street, increased per capita spending power energising further economic activities and promoting an all-round feel-good atmosphere just as the nation goes to the polls yet again.
The country also probably provides good economic copy for the way it gingerly and quite adroitly navigates a rather tricky geopolitical landscape.
We mostly stick to our guns on matters dear to us while maintaining friendly ties with all major powers. This is to better to project Malaysia as one of the most attractive destinations for foreign companies to rejig global supply chains in a fast-evolving geopolitical environment.
Malaysians must focus on what matters — bread-and-butter issues — and do their utmost not to be swayed by political noise.
We either rise above the political cacophony or be drowned by it, negating whatever good our great economic story-line presents us with.
What former US president Bill Clinton used to say is evergreen: "It's the economy, stupid!"
Unfortunately, the US today is rather tragically, destructively and intractably polarised politically.
It is a very sobering lesson which we must all take to heart and do our best never to emulate.
The writer views developments in the nation, region and wider world from his vantage point in Kuching