Political change in Malaysia is inevitable. That is the nature of politics. Here I like to highlight some aspects of continuities likely to affect the political system in Malaysia：
□ The new leadership - we believe some one of the calibre of Dr Mahathir may emerge. The system has catered for this. Since its independence in 1957,Malaysia had elected four Prime Ministers in a peaceful Way. There is no reason to expect the next political change will not be orderly. In fact the Prime Minister has recently appointed his Deputy...Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who was the Foreign Minister before the appointment.
□ The political as well social institutions are in tact - we do not expect a sudden shift in the institutional structure of the country - what happened in Iran in 1979,for example, will not happen in Malaysia;
□ Political ideology will remain democratic, secular and liberal. We do not expect an extremist Muslim to take over; neither we do not expect a leftist or socialist leaning personality to take over from Dr Mahathir;
□ Malaysia will continue to embrace globalism; we will continue to embrace a middle road foreign policy;
□ Our major export destinations will remain. US, Japan, Singapore which accounts for more than 60% of the trade will remain our strong trading partners;
□ Our foreign policy will remain friendly;
□ Our attractive liberal investment policy will remain - we have one of the most liberal investment policies in SEA - foreigners can own land and have a 100% equity in companies that export 100% of their product. Foreigners are not allowed to own landed property in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam or Singapore.
□ We will continue to invest in IT and education - the multimedia super corridor that the PM has been pushing for will not be shelved. Malaysia will continue to put heavy investments in education; and
□ Plural society - will remain.
