Musk-Anwar deal the wrong direction for Malaysia

So Anwar Ibrahim had a virtual meeting with Elon Musk and apparently immediately ordered the purchase of 40 Starlink Internet devices at a total cost of 90,000 ringgits, which will then have a monthly cost of 20,000 ringgits for Internet service. So roughly 330,000 ringgits in total for, say, a year of using Starlink, which is as long as their warranty lasts, putting Starlink Internet in universities with the, alleged advantage that it is has a faster connection. Well, the average broadband speed in Malaysia is between a 114 megabits per second and 120 megabits per second, with some packages averaging even one gigabyte per second. Now, Starlink speeds in The United States average between 62.5 megabits per second and 90 megabits per second. So it's actually not faster than fixed broadband services.

Fixed broadband services that are provided by Malaysian Internet companies, and it is obviously more expensive. Starlink is also notoriously less reliable. Now most universities in Malaysia already have WiFi. So just from a practical point of view, this doesn't make much sense. But to me, the whole deal between Anwar Ibrahim and Elon Musk represents exactly the wrong direction that Malaysia should be going in terms of the economy.

I mean, in terms of the Starlink deal, it clearly is pointless. You're paying more for slower, less reliable Internet from a foreign company to replace faster, more reliable Internet from domestic providers. Why? Because Elon Musk is a prestigious name? If the idea is that Starlink will eventually, be used to provide Internet, services in rural areas, well, then who's gonna pay for that?

You know, when Starlink came to Nigeria, people were excited just like Anwar was excited. But the cost of Starlink Internet services per month turned out to be prohibitively too high for people living in villages and outside areas. And again, why would you not prioritize your own companies? They're already providing Internet at a decent level. Just help them to provide it at a better level.

And then there's the whole Tesla deal. Elon Musk is setting up a production facility in India, which will then ship Teslas to the Indo Pacific region as well as his production facility in, I think, Shanghai. He's gonna set up a showroom in Malaysia with the idea that he's gonna sell Teslas to the richest people among the t 20 economic class. And allegedly, he's going to invest in developing, you know, charging point, charging station infrastructure throughout Malaysia. Now electric vehicles, and particularly Teslas, are incredibly expensive.

They run between $40,000 and $90,000 or a 181,000 ringgits to 407,000 ringgits. Needless to say, this is well above most people's annual income in Malaysia, which presumably is why in 2020 only four electric vehicles were even sold in Malaysia. But local companies are producing and are trying to develop more affordable electric vehicles for Malaysia Malaysian companies. So why would you facilitate foreign competitors to your own industry? Tesla charging stations are not universal as far as I know.

So any infrastructure investment, if it comes from Tesla, will only be for the purpose of consolidating Tesla's market share in Malaysia and hobbling domestic companies just as they're trying to get a foothold in the market. The Malaysian auto industry is one of the better performing sectors in Malaysia. I mean, most of the cars that are on the roads in Malaysia were made in Malaysia. So wouldn't it be better if most of the electric vehicles that hit the roads eventually in Malaysia are also made in Malaysia? Why would you start importing something that undermines your own companies?

Rather, you should be working on helping those companies to develop and to build local and regional supply chains for the full manufacture of these vehicles. Bringing Starlink and bringing Tesla into Malaysia is exactly the way that you will lose the opportunities being presented by the global economic shift, the global economic pivot that I'm always talking about. It just doesn't make any sense if you are genuinely interested in strengthening your economy and securing your economic sovereignty.