This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 19, 2024 - February 25, 2024

A recent event spoilt the start of the Year of the Dragon for some of us at The Edge. While the rest of the country were busy lepaking, watching fireworks, playing with firecrackers, eating their hearts out and yam seng-ing, some of us were upset about the current state of the nation, and spent the break moping, sulking at home.

The culprit — if you can call him that — was a former colleague who came by our office before the Chinese New Year break, sporting a new flashy suit, giving out his new calling card with his new team in tow, armed with oranges, beer and other such stuff for us to consume.

He had just come back from China — Shenzhen, I believe — and had this story for us. It riled us up to such an extent that we even contemplated undertaking some face-saving measures, coming up with bogus incidents to make other currencies look less attractive.

The bloke, a big lad — easily six-foot-three with a booming voice — was recounting how he lost his wallet at some train station in Shenzhen and in the rain (or, based on his exaggeration, the mother of all storms), went back looking for it, soaked to the bone.

His joy quickly turned to dismay, however. Although his wallet was returned, some of the contents were gone. While he did suffer some financial loss, worse than this was his dented pride, or as said appropriately in Tamil … manem.

“I had a few hundred yuan, a few hundred Singapore dollars and about a thousand ringgit … apart from the ringgit, the rest of the money in other currencies was all gone but all the (credit) cards were intact. Them (insert choice expletives here) didn’t touch my ringgit,” he said, exasperated.

There was some light-hearted banter, with a few of the more mild-mannered ones at this paper going “lucky you” or offering an equally feeble “oh, they (the perpetrators) spared the ringgit, left it for you … how nice and thoughtful of them”.

After that, the topic of how the ringgit was not used or accepted in Thailand started.

Inside, some of us at The Edge were seething. After the former colleague left with his new underlings, one of the senior journalists spluttered indignantly, “How dare they not take the ringgit!” while another was seen checking Currency Converter and other forex websites to determine the extent of the ringgit losses.

Others were messaging (we assume) Human Resources Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong on what had happened to our former colleague, possibly telling him to pull his socks up and do something, do anything, to strengthen the local currency in order for us to maintain some dignity, even if it means involving pickpockets and other scoundrels interested enough in stealing our currency.

Last November, then holding the position of Deputy Finance Minister II, Sim had come out to say that a flexible ringgit exchange rate would play an important role in absorbing external shocks and reducing the impact on the domestic economy under the current uncertain global market conditions. He had added that the national economy and financial system were now on a stronger footing to face global financial market volatility and forex movements.

Forget external shocks and whatever the impact on the domestic economy is … it is a question of national pride now … our manem!

Soon, we may have to use force, get our elite forces involved against those who don’t take the ringgit when there is a chance … or, as some quarters here would say, “behaviour insulting to the ringgit”.

Could we enlist the John Wick or Jason Bourne types and unleash them on the scoundrels who rejected the ringgit?

Against the US dollar, the Malaysian currency has fallen about 3.5% this year to around 4.77, adding to losses from the previous three years. The Singapore dollar, meanwhile, has risen to a record RM3.56 after several successive rounds of policy tightening by the island republic.

On our part, we are looking at coming up with anecdotes of our own, of how when we went abroad people specifically stole our ringgit and left us the greenback, euro and Singapore dollar. We are doing this of our own accord and not as employees of this fine, prestigious paper, with the hope of saving face.

The only fear is that people may not buy our nationalistic spin on the currency theft, which would make us look foolish, and foil our plans to “save face” during this Year of the Dragon.

When we do decide on the next course of action, we will inform you, dear readers, as we hope to have strength in numbers.

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