Today’s blog post is about what we call command words in the IGCSE.
Command words are extremely important because these are the words that you’re going to see in every IGCSE question.
Each one has a specific meaning as identified by Cambridge, and it is crucial to understand all of them in order to understand how you should respond.
…How wonderful that your beloved sepupu has compiled not only a list of your command words but also will be demonstrating how to make use of them!
Without further ado, here are your command words as taken from the IGCSE Cambridge Economics syllabus – these were the same across the 2023 -2025, 2026, and 2027-2029 syllabi – behold!
Now that you know what the command words are, let’s look at some tangible examples of situations where they would be used and how they would be used.
Ready?
Let’s go!
1. Analyse
“Examine in detail to show meaning, identify elements and the relationship between them.”
Example Question:
Analyse how an increase in interest rates might affect consumer spending and borrowing.
What to Do:
Identify the elements: interest rates, consumer spending, borrowing.
Show the relationships: Higher interest → costlier loans → less borrowing → lower spending.
Include linking phrases like: “This leads to…”, “As a result…”, “Consequently…”.
✅ Use:
“As interest rates increase, the cost of borrowing rises. This discourages consumers from taking loans for major purchases such as cars and homes. At the same time, saving becomes more attractive, reducing overall consumer expenditure.”
2. Calculate
“Work out from given facts, figures or information.”
Example Question:
Calculate the price elasticity of demand using the following data: Price rises from $10 to $12, quantity demanded falls from 100 to 80.
3. Define
“Give precise meaning.”
Example Question:
Define opportunity cost.
✅ Answer:
“Opportunity cost is the next best alternative foregone when a decision is made to use scarce resources for one purpose over another.”
✳️ No examples needed unless asked for.
4. Describe
“State the points of a topic / give characteristics and main features.”
Example Question:
Describe the characteristics of a mixed economy.
✅ Answer:
“A mixed economy is one where both the private sector and the government are involved in resource allocation. It combines features of a market economy, such as private ownership and profit motive, with government intervention in areas like education and healthcare.”
🔹 This is factual, descriptive — not evaluative. You are not expected to talk about whether a mixed economy is good or bad. You are only meant to retrieve your understanding and memory of what you are being asked about.
5. Discuss
“Write about issue(s) or topic(s) in depth in a structured way.”
Example Question:
Discuss whether a government should subsidise the production of electric vehicles.
✅ Answer Structure:
Introduction of the issue
Arguments for subsidies: reduce pollution, encourage innovation
Arguments against: opportunity cost, risk of inefficiency
Conclusion: balanced, thoughtful judgment
✅ Answer Snippet:
“Subsidising electric vehicle production can encourage environmentally friendly transport and reduce emissions. However, it may be costly for governments and could distort the market. Whether it is justified depends on the long-term environmental and economic benefits.”
6. Explain
“Set out purposes or reasons / make the relationships between things clear.”
Example Question:
Explain why inflation can hurt savers.
✅ Answer:
“Inflation reduces the purchasing power of money. If savers keep their money in accounts with low interest rates, the real value of their savings falls, meaning they can buy less with the same amount of money over time.”
✳️ Look for cause-effect chains. To get good at this, start thinking about how everything you are learning relates together and ask yourself how different factors can affect one another. Don’t just commit things to memory but actually think about the common sense implications of how certain factors can cause other things to happen. Get used to doing that repeatedly.
7. Give
“Produce an answer from a given source or recall/memory.”
Example Question:
Give one example of a merit good.
✅ Answer:
“Education.”
✳️ Usually just a one-word or short-phrase recall question.
8. Identify
“Name/select/recognise.”
Example Question:
Identify two causes of unemployment.
✅ Answer:
“Cyclical unemployment, structural unemployment.”
✳️ Similar to “Give”, but may come with options or lists.
9. State
“Express in clear terms.”
Example Question:
State one function of a central bank.
✅ Answer:
“To control the money supply.”
✳️ Be concise, clear, and exact.
Hope this was helpful to you. Thank you for reading, and look forward to seeing you in the next ones!
As a student, you’ve probably understood for a long time now that you are assessed on pretty much everything that you do, whether it’s homework, exams, class participation, or anything else that you can imagine.
Well, IGCSE Economics (Cambridge Subject Code 0455) is no different.
The subject too has its own set of assessment objectives – things that define how you will be assessed as an economics student, whether as a good one or a not-so-good one.
So let’s be a little more clear about this.
🧠 What Are Assessment Objectives?
Assessment objectives (AOs) are the specific skills, abilities, or understandings that a student is expected to demonstrate in order to be evaluated meaningfully. They form the foundation of what is being assessed.
They answer the question:
“What exactly are we trying to measure?”
🔍 How Do They Relate to the Word “Assess”?
Remember the Latin assidēre — “to sit beside [a judge]”? The role of the assessor was not merely to observe but to make a judgment — based on criteria.
Assessment objectives are the modern expression of those criteria.
They:
Define what kinds of knowledge or skill are being valued.
Provide a basis for judgment (standardization).
Make the act of assessing transparent and justifiable.
These are not suggestions — they are what will determine your score. Your writing is assessed against these.
⚙️ Why Are Assessment Objectives Important?
Clarity: They tell you what matters. (No more guessing what the examiner wants.)
Consistency: Markers can evaluate different students against a shared standard.
Fairness: Students are judged by performance against stated criteria, not impressionistic bias.
Design Alignment: Exams, rubrics, and mark schemes are all structured to reflect the AOs.
🧩 What It Means in Practice
When a teacher marks a paper, they’re not just saying “This is good” or “This is weak.”
They’re implicitly (or explicitly) saying:
Did this student demonstrate AO1?
How well did they meet AO2?
In other words:
We assess in reference to the assessment objectives.
We measure in reference to assessment objectives – we quantify, count, judge.
If a student demonstrates what we are looking for, we reward that – if they don’t, we do not.
Does it seem arbitrary? Are your marks too low? Then maybe understand the assessment objectives more closely and the marking schemes that operationalize them in the exam context to determine how every single point is allocated and accounted for.
🧠 How Do Assessment Objectives Matter?
The phrase “assessment objectives” is a kind of contract: it declares what you will be judged on, in advance. It aligns the ancient role of the assessor — sitting beside the work — with the modern idea of accountability, standardization, and pedagogical clarity.
It transforms “assessment” from something vague and fearful into something logical and methodical — something you can engineer.
Now let’s do a bit of a deep dive into all of the assessment objectives and why they matter in this context.
1. AO1 – Knowledge and Understanding
According to Cambridge, to demonstrate knowledge and understanding, you need to know about economic definitions, formulas, and ideas. But that’s not all. You need to be able to prove your understanding and show your ability to use the language of economics.
When I say use the language of economics, I don’t mean that you just repeat the definition like a parrot.
I mean that you are actually able to make use of the definitions in order to understand the real world. To understand the situations that you are presented. To be able to look at things that are happening and then make assessments based on the theory that you’re going to be learning.
If it were just about memory, then you could just memorize an economics textbook. But that’s not all you need to do for knowledge and understanding go beyond that – it is about being able to fluidly use the concepts that you’ve learned. Understand when to use them and understand intuitively how they apply when confronted with novel situations. But this then brings us to…
2. AO2 – Analysis
Knowledge and understanding is about understanding the facts and comprehending them. Analysis is about using your knowledge and understanding.
Being able to analyze means being able to look at what you see and understand it by understanding the patterns that are present, and to be able to comment effectively and intelligently on what you’re seeing.
Here are some questions that you might ask and some that you might be expected to be able to respond to.
How does that affect the demand for onions? Does it affect it or does it not affect it?
How does it affect the supply?
How does it affect the price? Will it definitely affect the price? What might influence that?
Can you illustrate that situation with graphs?
Can you predict the effect on the price of onions based on the theory that you’ve learned?
Based on onion data, before and after the drought, can you make any statements that are supported by the data and that you have good reason to believe?
Can you reason about what happened if the price of onions has fallen if there was a massive harvest season?
Can you look at a diagram that somebody has drawn or written and then understand what is being said?
Can you look at novel or new situations and then analyze them as and when you will?
Can you look at what is happening out there in the world and then break down larger problems into smaller ones?
How do the dots connect and why?
Can you clearly and logically justify every statement you make about the world based on what you’ve learned, and formulate intelligent arguments that can guide people’s decisions?
All of these are related to being able to analyze situations – to look beneath what you see on the surface to discover the deeper truths.
That’s the skill that you will learn on this course, and it may be more practical than you even know or think about at the moment.
3. AO3 – Evaluation
Analysis was about understanding things and developing a single interpretation, but you can think of evaluation as the skill to choose between different interpretations and to consider limitations and alternatives. It means weighing alternatives, judging them against one another, and understanding and being able to choose between different analyses of situations.
Why is this important? Well, the late Charlie Munger once said, “To the man with a hammer, everything is a nail.”
In this context, you can think of the hammer as the economic theory. The problem is, oftentimes we are the ones holding the hammers, especially when we don’t have a strong understanding and can’t accurately or clearly think about what is happening in this world, often finding ourselves in the wrong territory infinitely more likely or often than in territory where we are correct, caught in the parroting of definitions, the usage of understanding in order to find constellations of real patterns in the stars and in the markets but somehow being unable to choose the correct ones.
Consider some of the following points:
Economics is complex. The choices that people make depend on many different factors, and there are many different ways of understanding how or why something happens. The question is, what are the correct ways of understanding things, and can you show that you recognize the fact that there are many different ways of understanding the world?
Not every analysis of data is necessarily correct. There can be gaps, data insufficiencies, problems with the method of analysis, or the way that a claim was argued that ultimately makes it impossible to make a reasonable or logical conclusion.
At the end of the day, not all conclusions, assessments, or opinions are equal. There are some that are better than others.
Are you able to choose the best ones? Not only the ones that you hear or parrot from other people, but rather the ones in your own mind, even as they compete for your attention for the right to shape your understanding of the world?
And well, that’s about it. It’s pretty interesting to think about what makes a good economics student.
But knowledge, analysis, and evaluation are a good place to start.
I would point out, though, that these are not siloed things.
One cannot evaluate without being able to do an analysis, and one cannot do an analysis without having knowledge in the first place – but at the same time, having more knowledge increases the likelihood that a person can conduct a good and useful analysis, while experience of analysis in turn helps make a person familiar with patterns of thinking that are not just their own but also potentially other people’s.
The question of how to develop these skills is one that is highly individual but that comes from curiosity and a wish to develop the learning necessary to satisfy it as well as the hunger to continue being curious for a lifetime – but to begin doing that, you must first ask the question.
From there, whether you like it or not, your mastery can be assessed, quantified, put into tangible numbers through the assessment objectives.
It can seem a little harsh, but it is a fact – there is a difference between good and bad, and if you’re here, sepupus, you know what to aim for. ✨
Here is to your economics journey and to many more of those questions – Hope you enjoyed learning about the Assessment Objectives (AO), and see you in the next ones ahead!
Hello and welcome back, sepupus! (Psst! Join our Telegram group!)
Politics is not conventionally considered a part of Economics, but in reality, the subjects are deeply intertwined; Economics is the art of allocating resources to best meet the unlimited wants of humans in the best possible ways, while politics in many ways decides what every society and economy deems best.
The relationship goes a little further than that, but the first ‘economists’ like Adam Smith, Ricardo, JS Mill, and Karl Marx were political economists – they wrote not only about how resources are allocated in society, but also institutions, laws, class relations, governance, and moral philosophy.
These aren’t topics I’ve written about just yet, but they are things I will touch on a little later.
Meanwhile, today, we will be talking about Islamist economic governance, focusing on PAS and later Iran. Exciting topic – normally, this would be a premium resource given the amount of research that has gone into it, but in this instance, your access will be free although you will have to register in order to read this piece in full.
Why?
Well, because today, I saw a strange recommendation from former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Legal Affairs and Judicial Reform, Zaid Ibrahim.
This was what I first saw when MalaysiaKini reported the matter.
Before long, I had started writing, and the result is what you see today – Which begins by understanding what Zaid actually said.
Here is what Zaid said:
I find Zaid’s opinion interesting. I respect Zaid’s right to his opinion, but I do not share it for various reasons, including the fact that an ulama council would not be elected and would not be subject to democracy – not that PAS really respects democracy beyond a means to an end to confront the fact that their end goal is impossible under the conditions of the nation state, but certainly, we can see that they try.
Let’s also observe that netizens too do not share his opinion, although note that this is merely one part of the echo chamber, and there are more echo chambers out there – do read widely to avoid that, and don’t take what I say as the truth without evaluation.
Also, opinions are not evidence or truth – but they do say something. Consider some of the truth conveyed by the comments below.
Well, Zaid is entitled to his opinion – but if you were to ask me?
It is my opinion that constitutionally, ethically, educationally, developmentally, institutionally, environmentally, socially, and culturally, PAS has failed.
In other words?
Well, Zaid said that PAS can “take Malaysia to heights we have yet to reach”.
That’s interesting.
Do we have proof that they have done so that somehow we have a confidence that they have the ability to govern the present as a rational basis for the future?
Do we have any proof that they can do that beyond their feeble statements in parliament, and their whataboutism involving DAP?
What’s the verdict?
It is not encouraging.
If it is true as Zaid says that PAS can “take Malaysia to heights we have yet to reach”, that does not really seem to be related to its religious agenda, and it would appear that it has to be tied directly to what is common to all of us after you cut away everything else.
This brings us now to our main topic.
That’s right, sepupus.
This is Sepupunomics, and it logically follows that we must talk about the economy.
PAS and the Economy
We discussed the numerous failures of PAS on multiple fronts earlier, all of which relate in nuanced ways to methods of capturing standards of living that stand beyond the usage of gross domestic product per capita – to demonstrate that PAS has failed on all of those fronts.
If PAS administration is good administration, then that logically must mean that it is able to push Malaysia forward to achieve goals such as standards of living improvements – Rather than just religious sabre-rattling and moral policing while hoping for sedekah or rezeki or for parties like DAP to do research through their think tanks on matters like the hydrogen transition, National Energy Transition Roadmap, National Semiconductor Strategy, or the New Industrial Master Plan 2030.
What do we mean?
If we are to say that PAS can in fact rule Malaysia, then they must be able to deal with the Malaysian economy and show proof that they can deal with the Malaysian economy.
Otherwise, it is meaningless to talk about the concept of ‘advancement’ in the first place.
Let’s understand what PAS is doing with what it has at the moment to try to understand whether it has what it takes to deal with the rest of the country and in turn deal with the rest of the world.
PAS‐Ruled States in Context
It would not be fair to declare that the present state of PAS-run states is purely the result of PAS administration, and we have to look at what all these governments were dealing with beforehand – a very important part of economic logic.
In economic terms, what happened on the margin?
In other words, what happened as a result of PAS administration that would not have as a result of PAS administration, to the extent that we know it?
In the best case scenario, we would be able to split up reality into two dimensions, and have PAS rule one set of states and another dimension where PAS did not rule those states, and then compare the economic differences.
Unfortunately, we only have one reality to look at, and we cannot completely know what an alternate history would look like where PAS ruled states were not ruled by PAS.
However, we can make comparisons across states in order to get ourselves an idea.
With that in mind, let’s first have a look at what PAS is dealing with and its timeline of control to understand what they have done with the economies of the states they have ruled.
Timeline of PAS Control
State
PAS First Took Office
Periods of Rule
Quick Context at Handover
Kelantan
Oct 1990
Continuous since 1990
Already Malaysia’s poorest; GDP pc ≈ RM3–4 k in 1990 (≈15 % of national). Rural, rubber-rice economy and ageing infrastructure.
Terengganu
Nov 1999
1999-2004, then again since May 2018
Inherited an oil-rich state (royalty > RM1 bn/yr) but BN had financed many prestige projects; PAS immediately lost royalty as Putrajaya converted it to wang ehsan cash grants (thenutgraph.com).
Kedah
Mar 2008
2008-2013 (Pakatan-PAS), lost, then since May 2020
Took over a state with Kulim High-Tech Park (1990s BN legacy) and large paddy sector; manufacturing cluster linked to Penang supply chains.
Perlis
Nov 2022
Since 2022
Tiny, agrarian economy; PAS administration too recent for trend analysis.
1 What Has Happened to the Numbers under PAS?
Let’s compare the growth rates of PAS economies as compared to Malaysia as a whole as a baseline to understand what we are working with.
Key idea: Instead of looking only at today’s ringgit values, compare how fast each state’s GDP per capita (current prices) has grown since 2015 ― the first year with a consistent DOSM time-series. Eight years is long enough to see whether PAS administrations are closing the gap with the rest of Malaysia.
* PAS first entered Kedah in 2008, lost in 2013, and returned in 2020. Terengganu had a BN interlude 2004-18.
What the numbers mean – in plain language
Kelantan: grew by about 4 % a year, but Malaysia as a whole grew faster (5 %). That means Kelantan has slid from 32 % of the national average in 2015 to 31 % today. Put simply: it’s still the poorest state and is not catching up despite three decades of uninterrupted PAS rule.
Terengganu: even with billion-ringgit oil royalties, its income per person rose just 2 % a year – the slowest of any PAS state and far below the national pace. In 2015 an average Terengganu resident earned 71 % of the national mean; by 2023 that share is 57 %. The gap widened.
Kedah: the bright spot among PAS states. Thanks largely to the pre-existing Kulim High-Tech Park and Penang spill-overs, Kedah grew almost as fast as Malaysia. Yet its citizens still earn less than half the national average, so the distance hasn’t really narrowed.
Perlis: PAS only took office at end-2022, so its below-average trend (2 % growth) mostly reflects long-standing structural limits of a small, rural economy.
Penang & Selangor (benchmarks): These non-PAS states show what higher growth (5–6 % a year) looks like. Both started ahead and pulled further away – which is NOT what we would expect.
How about Poverty?
2022 Absolute-Poverty Rates by State
(Department of Statistics Malaysia – Household Income Survey)
Kelantan and Terengganu are the only states on Peninsular Malaysia with double-digit poverty rates.
Kedah and Perlis also sit well above the national average despite far smaller populations.
Royalty money isn’t a silver bullet.
Terengganu receives > RM1 billion in oil royalties most years, yet its poverty rate (12 %) is only slightly better than Kelantan’s (no royalties).
The quality of spending and economic diversification are stronger predictors of outcomes than the size of fiscal transfers.
Urban, diversified states do best.
Selangor and Kuala Lumpur post poverty rates near 1 % thanks to broad-based job creation in manufacturing and services.
Penang, with an electronics export hub, keeps poverty under 4 % despite limited natural resources.
East-Malaysia outlier.
Sabah’s 19.5 % underscores that geography and late infrastructure catch-up still matter; it is not a PAS state, showing that party control is only one factor.
Trend since 2019:
Poverty nationwide rose sharply during COVID-19 (8.4 % in 2020) and eased to 6.2 % in 2022, but PAS states have been slower to recover, partly due to weaker tourism and outward migration of workers.
In short, PAS-run states consistently occupy the higher-poverty end of Malaysia’s spectrum, and while limited royalties (Kelantan) or boom-bust royalties (Terengganu) contribute, the persistent gap points to deeper issues of investment climate, industrial mix, and human-capital retention rather than fiscal transfers alone.
2 What PAS Inherited vs. What Changed
Kelantan
Starting point (1990): Poorest state, weak industrial base, poor road/water networks, but strong overseas remittances from migrant Kelantanese.
PAS record:
Limited capital spending—average development allocation < RM700 m/year vs > RM2 bn in most states.
Tight syariah-first bylaws (gender-segregated cinemas, alcohol curbs) seen by investors as red-tape; ISEAS notes “low private-sector dynamism” and out-migration of talent(iseas.edu.sg).
Oil royalty dispute: offshore deposits are beyond 3 n mi; Kelantan receives token goodwill money only (RM 58 m April 2025)(theedgemalaysia.com).
Outcome: GDP pc climbed, but only from 15 % to 31 % of national level; poverty remains > 20 %. Water losses (non-revenue water > 50 %) and roads top public-complaint list(theedgemalaysia.com).
Terengganu
Starting point (1999): An oil province with royalties > RM1 bn/yr; BN trophy projects (Crystal Mosque, Monsoon Cup) but limited diversification.
First PAS term (1999-2004): Federal government withheld royalties; growth stalled; PAS lost 2004.
Second PAS term (2018-present): Royalties restored—RM 1.05 bn in 2018, ~RM 1.27 bn in 2019(malaymail.com)(malaymail.com)
Structural flaw: 70 % of revenue from royalties; MARC Ratings flags “crowding-out” of tax effort and boom-bust budgets(marc.com.my). Non-oil GDP share stagnant.
Kedah
Starting point (2008): Paddy belt＋Kulim High-Tech Park (Intel, OSRAM); poverty falling.
PAS 1st era (2008-2013): Focus on smallholder schemes & religious schools; disputes with Penang over water pricing dampened interstate cooperation; electronics cluster continued under MNCs.
PAS return (2020-): New agenda on rare-earth mining, solar parks; water dispute persists; SG4 bloc created with Dr Mahathir as adviser to lure FDI(straitstimes.com).
Scorecard: GDP pc rose but to only 57 % of national; poverty at 9 % (higher than 2009’s 5–6 %).
Perlis
PAS/PN only since 2022; too early for data shifts. Baseline: small agriculture, border trade with Thailand.
3 Systemic Differences in PAS Governance
Feature
How PAS States Differ
Economic Consequence
Fiscal Model
Heavy reliance on federal transfers (Kelantan) or oil royalties (Terengganu); low own-source taxes.
Volatile budgets, under-investment in infrastructure during downturns.
Regulatory Climate
Moral bylaws (liquor, entertainment segregation) stricter; local councils dominated by party cadres (iseas.edu.sg).
Adds compliance costs; tourism & service SMEs complain of red-tape, deterring diversification.
Development Priorities
Higher share of spending on religious schools, welfare stipends; lower on industrial parks, R&D.
Slower tech & manufacturing catch-up vs. neighbour Penang; brain-drain of graduates.
Oil Windfalls
Terengganu spends >60 % of royalty on operating outlays rather than long-term funds; Kelantan lacks such windfall but similar outcome.
Classic “resource curse”: consumption today, limited savings for tomorrow.
Inter-governmental Relations
Periodic royalty and grant disputes with federal govt.
Human development: Literacy rates and basic amenities (electricity, piped water) improved nationwide, including PAS states. DOSM shows Kelantan’s rural electrification > 98 % by 2022 (from < 60 % in 1990).
Industrial enclaves: Terengganu’s downstream oil & gas cluster (Kertih) kept expanding; Kedah’s Kulim Park attracted higher-end chip back-end plants—both projects originated pre-PAS but were not derailed.
SG4 experiment (2024-): First proactive effort by PAS administrations to pool resources and seek FDI collectively; still untested but signals a shift from grievance politics to deal-making.
Is “Lack of Oil Royalties” the Whole Story?
No. Kelantan’s chronic poverty correlates with zero or low royalties, yet Terengganu shows that having > RM1 bn/year royalties doesn’t ensure prosperity; governance quality and diversification matter.
Oil cash is neither a silver bullet nor the root of all woes; it magnifies whatever institutional strengths or weaknesses already exist.
5 Bottom Line
PAS took over already-lagging states, but the gap with the national average has not closed; in relative terms Kelantan and Kedah remain stuck, Terengganu slid somewhat, and Perlis is unchanged.
Structural choices—fiscal dependence, moral-regulatory conservatism, modest investment in growth sectors—explain more of the under-performance than royalties alone.
The new SG4 bloc may indicate learning—but until PAS states address core issues (talent outflow, business climate, revenue diversity), oil checks or federal grants will continue to fund subsistence, not transformation.
Now perhaps Zaid or PAS politicians would like to talk about how in fact they have been deprived of royalties and don’t have the money and cannot develop.
Let’s now consider that aspect of the argument. In relation to what we can see from the moral policing that is characteristic of PAS states.
Terengganu proves that having RM 1 billion-plus a year is no guarantee of faster growth; poor diversification and stop-go spending blunt the benefit.
Investment climate matters
Kelantan’s restrictive by-laws (gender-segregated entertainment, liquor curbs) and limited infrastructure make investors choose Penang or Selangor instead.
Fiscal model
Kelantan relies on federal grants; Terengganu on royalties. Both spend heavily on salaries and welfare, leaving less for productive capital projects that raise long-run incomes.
Human-capital leakage
Young professionals from PAS states migrate to Klang Valley or Penang for better jobs, so local productivity growth stays low.
Take-away in one sentence
Over 2015-23 all PAS-run states grew in absolute terms, but—except for Kedah—they grew slower than Malaysia as a whole, so their people are not catching up in relative prosperity.
That shortfall stems more from policy and governance choices than from the presence or absence of oil royalties alone.
Wow, that was a long discussion. Give yourself a round of applause and sip some tea.
What can we see here?
We can see that even though PAS took over from other parties that were already lagging, they did not raise their states to new heights.
They are not doing so, there is no evidence that they are able to do so, and any potential indication that they will raise Malaysia to greater heights is wishful thinking and is likely ideological rather than on the basis of the existing data about PAS governance.
But wait, Mr. Zaid might say, “Past (PAS?) results do not guarantee the future!”
How wonderful. Therefore, we should not support your favourite party.
Maybe he will say:”Well, the statistics show that the Malay support PAS!”
How wonderful. Therefore, it is desirable for non-Malays to migrate unless there is deep evidence indicating that there will be a tectonic shift. That evidence is not present in your states and is at best based on a vain promise that is not supported by any earthly thing. We do not believe in your spiritual things, and based on your actions as identified above, it seems reasonable to conclude that many of you do not either.
Oh, but then…”You haven’t looked at what the people in Iran are doing! Clearly, they are deeply more capable!”
I’m glad that you asked!
Because this analysis includes also what our friends in Iran and in fact all Islamist parties around the world are doing.
With that in mind, here is a full-scale analysis of Iran which Mr Zaid seems to love so much, to establish a comparison between PAS and its existing failures that in turn do not tell a touching or inspiring tale about the economic future of this country if that governance were extended to the rest of Malaysia.
Introduction
Islamist political parties – those seeking to govern by Islamic principles – have had varied success in managing economic affairs. This report examines their economic governance across several countries (including Malaysia’s PAS) and then focuses on Iran.
We compare Iran’s economic progress before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, in percentage growth terms, against world averages. We also consider the role of oil, private enterprise, and other factors in Iran’s economic trajectory. Finally, we analyze common trends in how Islamist-led regimes affect economic growth.
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