Oh I’ve heard of this, but for a different country:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Malaysia_Plan (for years 2021-2025) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventh_Malaysia_Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenth_Malaysia_Plan And you can find older ones from there. The first one started in 1966, just about 10 years after Malaysia’s independence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Malaysia_Plan
There’s also a 13th plan in the making from various news sources in Malaysia, for the next 5 years from 2026.
Most of these plans have some amount of controversy that come with them.
- In the first plan, they’ve been happy to even support the US in the Vietnam War, in order to get some money out from the US for economic development. It was a rather unpopular move, but here we can already see how Malaysia chooses to play in the international scene, which generally continues even today.
- Throughout many of the plans, there are sections that clearly give preference to the Malay race and the indigenous people, typically grouped under the term bumiputra; though this sort of affirmative action is actually enshrined in Malaysia’s constitution as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_153_of_the_Constitution_of_Malaysia; and from the word of mouth passed through generations of the Malaysian Chinese, there’s a strong belief that the ancestors of the Chinese and Indians there made this concession so that their people may stay in Malaysia, as many of them left their home countries due to strong push factors back home, and they aren’t welcomed back either.
- If you’re wondering what other sorts of preferential treatment have they given to the Bumiputras over the years: a percentage of enrolment in universities, a percentage of employment in sufficiently large enterprises (from somewhere medium and up I believe), and attempts at essentially emboldening rich Malays to own even more of Malaysia’s wealth in terms of percentage (there’s a common theme where previous governments will use the word Bumiputras when they really mean the Malay people, almost as if it’s a useful facade or shield against criticisms from non-Bumiputras and sometimes even foreigners; the indigenous people are fractured and generally don’t care about Malaysian politics).
Whether these plans are inspired by Soviet Union plans, I don’t know, as no one seems to talk about that. The Malaysian government’s approach to international relationships has never really changed throughout the years, despite changing governments recently: they will deal with the country regardless of whichever side of the power struggle they’re in, be it the US, Europe, Soviets, Russian, and today, China, as long as they would throw money at it without seemingly hurting the country, as well as other Islamic countries. So there’s a good chance that these 5-year Malaysian Plans are very much inspired by the Soviets.
That’s not always bad though, but you definitely need a strong leverage. And a strong leverage is not something the US really has these days. In fact, they’re working really hard to get rid of their leverages. That’s some smart politics there. /s
So this rando just came here and just said something like “I’m gonna make it harder for people in your neighbourhood to do business with mine if you don’t stop the fighting.” Like, sure bro. Like that’s gonna work.
Sure, Thailand exports 19% of its products to the US, might hurt em a lil, but I don’t think that’d stop them from fighting Cambodia if they’re serious about it, and they were. Cambodia does export 42% of its stuff to the US, so it’d hurt em, but if Thailand isn’t gonna be bothered, it’s not like they have a choice.
So much for the self-proclaimed master negotiator.