JUNE 24 — Parliamentary democracy is an abstract and often divisive concept. One cannot but wonder what about the rest? The fundamental basis of the law is the collective of society, the greater good.
The question then is how so and what are the parameters? Earlier today, approximately 17 million United Kingdom citizens voted to #Leave as opposed to 15.9 million who voted to #Remain in the EU Referendum.
There will be those who point to the free market capitalist model which caused the ever growing income gap while some will lay blame to political issues such as immigration which caused the final outcome. While Britain is set to undergo years of uncertainty both politically and economically, how does Brexit affect Malaysia?
The immediate impact would be in terms of economics. Malaysian investors, GLC’s and even EPF all have and conduct business in London.
Whether it is via trade or property, market uncertainties means there will be winners and losers. Any poor management decision right now could be catastrophic especially considering no one has a clue how Britain is going to negotiate their exit. MARTRADE estimates that in 2015, Malaysia’s trade with EU stood grew 3.1 per cent to RM148.52 billion.
Exports to EU rose 8.4 per cent or RM6.09 billion to RM78.92 billion, with exports to the United Kingdom expanding 17.6 per cent while MIDF is of the opinion that Brexit has marginal impact on the economic fundamentals of Malaysia but more on financial markets due to negative sentiment.
Long term impact remains vague as it is unclear what else lies in store post-Brexit. For instance, Malaysia’s legal framework was based on the common law model.
The UK will be making several changes to their legal system and unless Parliament ratifies external EU legislations as statutory laws, new laws and precedence’s may apply which although is not binding in Malaysia, is however persuasive in nature.
Further, could the Commonwealth system may be thrown into doubt or will there be stronger ties now that the UK is no longer part of the EU?
Would there be a new bloc or a totally new structure that sees Britain adopt a ‘British first’ policy?
Anything can happen when the supposed next Prime Minister is Boris Johnson, the British equivalent of Donald Trump.
Investment policies and immigration system will see major changes. Which category will Malaysia fall under?
Those planning on leaving to the UK or who already have face under conditional offers or visas will face uncertainties.
Another lesser impact will be on Malaysian students, in particular law students who follow the LLB system may want to rethink their modules. EU Law is a core subject in either the second or third year.
This also will inadvertently affect transfer/exchange programs which may be subject to new and different visa rules. Theresa May is known to be strict and UK Border Control has only just recently introduced stricter guidelines.
For the common Malaysian, there will be those who resonate with the sentiments of the Brexit supporters. We are after all already throwing a fuss whenever issues of Bangladeshi or Indonesian migrant workers arise. This isn’t so much an issue of nationalism as it is blatant racism.
Further, the policies and structures being implemented today see the single largest income wage gap between the urban and rural folks.
At every level, one can observe class divisions be it by religion, race, rich and poor and now between states itself.
This can be clearly depicted by calls of secession by Johor, Sabah and Sarawak.
Although there are ambiguities, the Constitution does not provide for secession to be used as a weapon but that the rights of these states are protected and that they be accorded specific privileges in return for pledging allegiance to the flag.
In any case, what today’s event has taught us is that an idea remains just that without traction.
While the Opposition continue to sow seeds of disunity and the Government continue to use religion and race as political cards, all it takes is a single vote to tear this country apart.
We should do well to keep this in mind for no country is too big to fall.
* V. Vivegavalen oversees the Contracts & Rights porfolio for a UK company based in Malaysia and Brexit may have unnecessarily caused more work for him. The above is the personal opinion of the writer.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
