{
  "id": 16544451,
  "title": "Comparing the economic agendas for GE16",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/26/comparing-the-economic-agendas-for-ge16-16544451",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-26T01:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Malaysia Today",
    "slug": "free-malaysia-today",
    "url": "https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2026/10/26/comparing-the-economic-agendas-for-ge16"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the run-up to the 2027 general election (GE16), both Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and opposition leader Rafizi Ramli presented their respective economic agendas. Both acknowledged the significance of fiscal management, waste reduction, corruption control, and efficient budgeting. However, Raijfi's Bersama party proposed a comprehensive economic policy shift aimed at boosting social policy and achieving a budget surplus by 2035.\n\nAnwar's approach focused on setting debt and deficit targets, relying on GDP growth to keep debt ratios in check. He did not discuss why this was essential, other than to demonstrate fiscal conservatism. Taxes were a point of contention; Anwar declined to comment on the goods and services tax (GST), preferring instead to review the sales and services tax (SST) to resemble GST. Bersama advocated for reintroducing GST at a fixed rate of 5% for a decade, alongside exploring new taxes such as the retail electronic payments tax (REPT). Anwar increased tax thresholds and slashed rates, but he did not implement significant reforms.\n\nIncome support was another area of difference. Both parties agreed on raising the minimum wage, but Bersama would extend Rafizi's progressive wage policy to 2.5 million people at a cost of RM1.8 billion. Anwar, however, continued with the existing STR-Sara handouts and made no substantial efforts to aid middle-income groups in increasing their take-home pay. On social assistance, Bersama's plan included universal child assistance, basic pensions, and monthly cost-of-living support, which would be consolidated under a single ministry and disband 189 separate agencies. Anwar's budget, on the other hand, perpetuated the \"Duit Raya\" schemes and maintained subsidies to keep prices artificially low.\n\nIn terms of business and MSMEs, Anwar's budget heavily relied on state entities, with private sector support coming in the form of soft-loans, easy finance, and so-called priority area funding. Bersama's approach, on the other hand, emphasized reducing red tape, liberalising the business landscape, encouraging competition, innovation, and agility.\n\nOverall, while Anwar's budget appeared to mirror past administrations with a focus on specific interest groups, Bersama's shadow budget presented a vision for transformative economic policy that would free businesses and focus on income growth. Both proposals aimed to modernize economic policy, but Bersama's plan was framed as fresh, universal, and transformative.",
  "summary": "The old and the new were out in force recently as Pakatan Harapan and Bersama laid out their budget and economic agenda for the next general election — and one is streets ahead of the other.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}