Global Supply Crisis, but why is Malaysia doing okay?

What even IS the KBG (Global Supply Crisis)? ????️

Usually when prices go up, our first instinct as Malaysians is to immediately cyberbully. Either cyberbully the gomen for not keeping prices under control, cyberbully the businesses that increased their prices, or cyberbully each other for eating too much. But while doing allat can definitely be kinda fun and even lowkey therapeutic, to really get why this happens you first need to understand… what even IS the Global Supply Crisis?

Really simply, the global supply crisis is what happens when massive, chaotic events around the world interrupt international trade, making it harder and way more expensive to move things from point A to point B. The ongoing war between Iran and the US which caused the Strait of Hormuz to close up AND the following global fuel shortage is one example of this.

But another example was when Russia went and invaded Ukraine, and as a result, chicken food became more expensive, and so there was suddenly not enough chicken. Deswai the gomen had to ban our chickens from getting exported so that we would have enough supply of our own to keep our ayam goreng addiction going.

Think of it like a stack of dominos. The tiles, not the pizza.

It doesn’t have to just be because of wars either. These supply crises can happen because of extreme weather patterns, unpredictable currency fluctuations, or even that thing the whole world collectively went through together a few years back and now it seems like no one remembers it anymore.

Now, to the average person just minding their own business in the snacks section of their neighborhood’s 99 Speedmart, these events might seem like abstract news stories they’d just swipe past on their news feed. But as the missing milk, fuel shortage, and chicken ban proved, these global events have very real, very deep consequences that can be felt all the way down to the very last cent of that packet of potato chips you just picked up off the shelf at the supermarket. For example:

Now we’re not saying there aren’t sellers and business people taking advantage of the situation to profit by bumping their prices up. But at the same time, given everything that’s going on, things aren’t totally the fault of traders being greedy. Which actually brings us to an interesting question: if the whole KBG thing is a result of multiple raging Avengers: Endgame-level dumpster fire disasters, why hasn’t Malaysia completely collapsed into a post-apocalyptic wasteland? And the answer is…

Because we’ve actually been actively handling the situation this whole time ????

Now believe it or not, despite there being milk and bread shortages here and there, the fact that most of us can still walk into our local pasar malam or hypermarket and comfortably buy most of the stuff we want is actually not just because of good luck.

Instead, according to National Economic Action Council advisor Tan Sri Hassan Marican, our current market stability is actually the hard-earned result of early, proactive steps taken by the gomen designed to shield us from the worst of the global fallout.

Basically, if the gomen had not done what they’ve been doing to handle the crisis, we would probably be in a far worse place. Don’t believe us? Just look at our neighbors. The Philippines had to declare a state of emergency due to the “imminent danger posed upon the country’s energy supply.” Vietnam was pretty much hit the same. Thailand had to consider rationing fuel in case the energy crisis got even worse than it already has.

Meanwhile, alongside China, Malaysia has been marked as one of the more “resilient economies in Asia“, in contrast to most economies in the region that appear vulnerable to the crisis. How did we achieve this? A few ways, including:

That said, while the gomen is doing what it can, Tan Sri Hassan very bluntly pointed out that making it through this KBG will need more than just the gomen doing what’s necessary. It’ll also require us, regular Malaysians, doing so too:

All of which are definitely relevant pieces of advice. But of course, that brings us to the final part…

Your survival guide to make it through a Global Supply Crisis intact

And so, like Tan Sri Hassan said, getting through all of this in one piece will require ALL of us to get together to make this work. And we mean ALL of us.

But how? First things first…

1. UNDERSTAND: Stop waiting for a “temporary price drop” ????

The absolutely most important first thing you need to do is… do your best to UNDERSTAND everything that’s going on. The good news is, the fact that you’re reading this article and made it all the way down here is definitely a  sign of you being able to do this so… give yourself a clap on the back. But the truth is, this is likely gonna be a prolonged global supply crisis and not just a temporary price increase that will blow over soon. Which means things will be unpredictable in the coming months, so just because things seem pretty stable for now, don’t just assume the danger has passed. Instead, realize it’s because there are folks hard at work behind the scenes managing things for us, so we should stay locked in!

2. PREPARE: Move from week-to-week to more long-term planning ????

Assuming the world is wonky for a while longer (I mean, it’s been wonky since 2020, but who’s counting?), expect global food supply, energy costs, and asset prices to keep going up and down like the Eagle Mountain ride at Genting. WHICH MEANS moving away from short-term financial habits, sitting down with your household, looking at your recurring monthly expenses, plugging any leaks in your bank account, and mapping out strict, long-term budgets so that the next time a global shipping canal gets blocked, you don’t immediately goyang.

3. ADAPT: Getting aggressively efficient with our daily habits ????

This is the annoying, boring stuff we’ve heard our whole lives… but only because it works. For example:

Ultimately by ourselves, these changes might only make small differences to your lives. But together, if millions of us pull together as Malaysians to take these steps, as the saying goes, a bit a bit become big big. So if you want to stay ahead, ignore the social media membawang, and track real-time stats yourself, make sure to bookmark the official government monitoring dashboard here, or by following the National Economic Action Council on social media. Let’s do this together gais!

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