HAPPY New Year to 'New Straits Times' readers. 2023 will be a year with many challenges nationally and globally.
First, the Russian and Ukrainian war has impacted the world, including Malaysia.
Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order banning the supply of crude oil and oil products, for five months from Feb 1, to countries that support the Western price cap.
Group of Seven countries, the European Union and Australia agreed to cap the price of crude oil at US$60 per barrel, in conflict with international law.
Russia is the world's largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia. The ban will have a major impact on global energy supplies, including Malaysia.
Secondly, on Nov 16 last year, the ringgit dropped to a low of RM4.738 against the US dollar.
Previously, RM3.80 was needed to buy US$1 worth of imported goods, but as per this writing, RM4.70 is needed.
The ringgit's value may not return to its original value if it suffers a severe fall.
A constant fall in value can affect investments, stocks and projects.
Thirdly, the leakage of personal data. The theft of personal data has become the talk of Malaysians as millions of data sets were believed to have been stolen over the last five years.
Details include full name, address, telephone number and MyKad number. So the government is urged to amend the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (Act 709) to curb these cases.
Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said he was concerned that criminals used stolen data for fraud or criminal activity.
When customers use e-wallets to make payments, they are required to provide a digital photo of the front and back of their identity card.
Customers are also required to take a face photo while holding their identity card.
The issue that raises public concern is whether e-wallets have the power to store identity cards in digital form?
This is one way leaks can occur. We can find out if our data has been leaked when we are often contacted by unfamiliar numbers.
Also, when there is a personal data leak issue raised by complainants, certain parties will deny the leak was due on their part.
Fourth, the two main Covid-19 variants spread from China, BA.5.2 and BF.7, were detected in Malaysia, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
Up to Dec 31 last year, 4,148 cases involved BA.5.2, while the other three were BF.7.
BA.5.2 and BF.7 variants are believed to cause re-infection or have higher infection rates due to the high number of cases in China.
Many urged the government to postpone the arrival of tourists from China, Macau and Hong Kong until the Covid-19 situation eases.
Tourism industry players are advised to attract tourists from the Middle East and Europe instead of China, Macau and Hong Kong.
On Jan 4, the cabinet decided that it would not impose restrictions on tourists from China.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the government was not "discriminating" against China as the Covid-19 outbreak had happened in other countries too, including the United States.
However, the government would tighten controls, such as the use of temperature scanners for migrants in immigration centres, especially from countries with a high risk of infection, he said.
Indeed, all the challenges are from the Almighty Allah SWT, "Do men think that they will be left alone on saying, "We believe", and that they will not be tested?
We did test those before them, and Allah will certainly know those who are true from those who are false." ('Al-'Ankabut [The Spider]: 2–3).
The writer is senior fellow at the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (Ikim)
