The campaigning for the general election (GE15) is in full swing. Every major party released its own manifesto, promising to deliver a better and more advanced Malaysia if they won. Since we are a tech site, we have decided to take a look at the tech-related promises within all the manifestos.
We will be taking a look at Pakatan Harapan (PH), Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Barisan Nasional (BN) manifesto.
Let’s us start with PN’s manifesto. They promise:
- Prioritizing high-tech industries.
- Accelerating the development of future industries such as the digital economy, green energy and electric vehicles through the cooperation of all ministries/agencies and industry players.
- Free internet for one year for digital startup companies.
- Providing special incentives schemes to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) to encourage digitization and automation of product and service production as well as skill training.
- Improving efficiency in the agro-food production sector through the adoption of technology and automation.
- Improving the efficiency of agricultural irrigation systems using smart technology to optimise production.
- Providing high-speed Internet in classrooms and teachers’ rooms in all schools across the country.
- Allocating laptops for all teachers in institutions under the Ministry of Education to facilitate easier teaching and learning duties.
- Giving students across the country access to digital devices.
- Providing digital devices for students from the B40 and M40 families who are worthy.
- Improving the quality of high-speed Internet services in IPTA campuses for free nationwide.
- Digitisation of nurseries registered with the Department of Social Welfare to facilitate the monitoring of children in the nursery.
- Accelerating digitisation and modernisation of healthcare facilities and services including developing comprehensive data.
- Accelerating digitisation and modernisation of facilities to improve the efficiency of the national security services to protect the people and preserve national sovereignty.
- Optimising the use of digital technology to ensure more transparent, efficient and world class public services.
- Empower civil servants with digital skills through continuous training to improve efficiency.
- Creating one-stop centres to help Bumiputera entrepreneurs venture into high-tech business and future economies.
- Providing high-speed Internet access throughout the country and guaranteeing affordable 5G services.
- Accelerating the development of telecommunication infrastructures in East Malaysia.
- Accelerating the development of the green energy industry by simplifying the process of the preparation of solar farm land as well as the use of palm and agricultural waste for biomass.
- Increase the use of green and energy efficient technologies by the government and private companies.
- Strengthening the youth entrepreneur program in the industry of digital economy and the future.
- Empowering the development of eSports talent by introducing a special eSports stadium and programs to discover the future eSports talents.
- Improving youth digital skills, including coding, artificial intelligence intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), internet of things (IoT), blockchain and the cloud.
- Encouraging young entrepreneurs in future industries such as FinTech, Robotics and electric vehicles (EVs).
- Enhancing the involvement of women in the high-tech industries and future industries.
Next up, is BN’s manifesto. They said they will:
- Introduce an education system that will stop relying on textbooks.
- Free laptops for B40 students.
- 100% 5G coverage in all schools within 18 months.
- Introduce computer coding to all schools.
- Public universities will introduce a flexible learning system; 50% classroom and 50% online classes, to help students save on university fees.
- Abolishing Approved Permits (AP) for all electric vehicles (EV), thus making it cheaper to buy.
Last but not least, let’s look at PH’s manifesto. In it, they promise to:
- Increasing and encouraging the use of technology in the agricultural sector by providing grants or accessible loans. Supporting research and development (R&D) efforts in the farm and agro-food sectors, on top of boosting the commercialisation of research products.
- Subsidy cards or e-wallets will be introduced to provide farmers the freedom in procuring farming input.
- Creating a data collection system across the Ministry and Agencies to facilitate data integration for information related to women and children.
- Reviewing and repealing draconian provisions of acts that can be abused to restrict free speech such as the Sedition Act 1948, Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, and Printing Press and Publications Act 1984.
- Amending the Whistleblower Protection Act to allow whistleblowers to directly expose misappropriations and wrongdoings to the media.
- Broadening high-speed internet penetration to the entirety of Malaysia so that internet poverty can be eradicated.
- Make Malaysia the regional hub for data centres.
- Regulation and legalisation of micro mobility such as e-scooters and e-bikes.
- Expanding payment methods to include debit cards and e-wallets compared to the current system of only allowing Touch N’ Go.
- Increasing investments in renewable energy to achieve the 50% target of the country’s total primary energy supply (TPES) mixture. More incentives will be provided to private premises including homes that transition to solar energy.
- Supporting green projects and ensuring 20% of 10,500 public premises will be given allocations for smart energy and renewable energy installation projects as part of large-scale infrastructure expenditure.
- Set up a One Stop Digitalisation Centre to help MSMEs apply for digitalisation incentives to ensure digital transformation can proceed smoothly.
- Providing incentives or grants on productivity solutions especially for MSMEs to increase capital utilisation efficiency. Eligible expenditures include the purchase of technological equipment, tools/solutions for digital marketing, consultancy and technical services.
- Expanding the eSports ecosystem in Malaysia.
- Access to the entire administration via smartphone. Efforts need to be consolidated for all counter services (JPJ, Immigration, and others) so that people can get instant government services without having to queue for long periods of time.
- Ensuring the security of the rakyat’s personal data from being leaked in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and streamlining the enforcement system to curb criminal activities such as scams.
