Why Malaysia security had a lackluster 2018?

The general consensus among security players in Malaysia is that things did not go that well in 2018. Growth was miniscule, if there was any at all. There were various reasons to this market lull, some political, some economical.
 
Politically speaking, the general election last year resulted in Malaysia’s first regime change since its independence as the then ruling Barisan Nasional party, led by then Prime Minister Najib Razak, was voted out of power. The opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, led by Tun Mahathir bin Mohamad, won a simple majority in the Malaysian Parliament along with the Sabah Heritage Party, putting Mahathir as the country’s new Prime Minister, his second time assuming the post.
 

The birth of a new government has brought ramifications in different areas of the society. For starters, the new government has canceled most of the projects spearheaded by the previous government. This had an impact on various industries, including security.
 
“Last year we had our general election, and honestly speaking, I think everybody agrees that it actually slowed down a lot of things. Not only were projects being delayed, they were being cancelled, because when the new government took over, they just cancelled all the old projects that belonged to the previous government,” said Redzwan Rahmat, Group MD of SR Two Technologies. “Some projects are being put on hold until further notice, so for our business it's as good as being cancelled, because we don't know when they will jumpstart it again. The new government is really picky on every money they are going to spend.”
 
“It's very obvious; you can ask around and they’ll tell you the same story. The government is not giving a lot of projects, and a lot of projects are delayed. This affects our customers, which affects us,” said Yap Tuck Khong, Senior Manager with AA Security and Automation, a distributor of swing gates, sliding gates, barriers and bollards, a lot of which are deployed in government projects.

 

Uncertainty prevails

 
And it wasn’t just the government projects that were affected. According to some, a sense of uncertainty has spilled over into the private sector as well, causing enterprises and consumers to be cautious in their spending on security.
 
“This is a chain reaction. A lot of people are scared of the changes; this is their main concern. Some people want to save up the money; they don’t know what will happen next,” said Allan Koay, Technical Sales Manager at MicroEngine Technology. “Even a lot of corporate accounts or even developers, they are really concerned.
 

Meanwhile, a general sluggishness in the Malaysian economy has a role to play as well. According to World Bank statistics, Malaysia growth this year is estimated to be 4.7 percent, less than the 5.2 percent for Indonesia, 6.8 percent for Cambodia and 6.5 percent for the Philippines. “Several large economies in the region have faced some combination of capital outflows, currency depreciations, equity market corrections and foreign reserve losses, for example China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand,” the World Bank notes.
 
Indeed this has created an impact for security players as well. “To a certain extent this affects us, yes, because a lot of our end users are property developers, some of whom have slowed down their product launches. It’s partly due to the uncertainty, partly due to a market softness, meaning even if they launch, fewer customers buy,” said Michael Chan, Executive Director of Stratel. “I think people are hesitant to spend due to market concerns, plus a lot of banks are cautious in their lending approach.”