HOW are our government-linked companies (GLCs) responding to US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs that has hit Malaysia with 24% on our exports to the US?
When Trump started swinging in 2018, hitting steel, aluminium, electronics, even solar panels, most countries flinched, then fought back. Not us. We flinched, then flopped.
Our GLCs — the supposed industrial backbone of the country — offered no retaliation, no reroute, not even a press release worth remembering.
Nothing.
And that’s the problem.
GLC leaders today aren’t industrialists or visionaries. They’re placeholders. Bureaucrats in suits.
Their silence during the Trump tariff war said everything: they had no plan, no leverage, and no courage. Just job security and government perks.
Where were the countermeasures? Where was the pivot to Asean integration, or alternate trade corridors? While Vietnam was cutting new deals and Indonesia was ramping up domestic production, our GLCs were still holding town halls and polishing their KPIs. These are not generals. These are passengers.
And the Prime Minister knows this.
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim came into power on a reform ticket. But look around—many of the same deadwood GLC heads are still there. Still cashing in. Still saying “we are monitoring the situation” while foreign investors pull out and local industries scream for air. We’ve got talent in this country. We’ve got resources. But we’ve also got a leadership culture — especially in our GLCs — that punishes initiative and rewards obedience.
It’s no wonder we can’t break through.
These GLCs are supposed to be our national champions. Instead, they’re state-run shelters for the politically connected.
Not one of them made global noise when Trump slammed the doors. Not one of them stepped up with a strategy.
We used to fight — when we played offence and held our own. That Malaysia is gone.
We’ve been reduced to silence. Deference. Committees.
And now, while BRICS nations are fantasising on rewriting the rules, we’re not even in the room.
We’re stuck in limbo—too scared to confront the West, too indecisive to align with the East, and too slow to build our own independent path.
This isn’t neutrality. This is paralysis.
Anwar doesn’t need more policy papers.
He needs a clean sweep.
He needs to boot the GLC bosses who’ve shown, time and again, they’re not built for this era. They weren’t ready for Trump, they weren’t ready for COVID, and they’re definitely not ready for what’s next.
So before we talk BRICS, before we dream of multipolar leadership and regional influence, let’s fix our house.
Because right now, Malaysia can’t even take a punch — let alone throw one. – April 7, 2025
Mudasir Khan or Tuan Muda is a Penang-born entrepreneur. He reads Scoop.