Stampeding civilians trying to board a US plane on the runway in Kabul airport during the evacuation
I know the questions you are going to ask me.
Whether Malaysia’s new MM2H rules are fair or make any sense in helping our damaged economy and tourism. Whether past or existing applicants are exempted and can still follow the old conditions. Whether the government by this new policy is intending to chase overseas people away from the country.
The new MM2H rules are supposed to be the culmination of months of expert study and consultancy. From 1 October to get MM2H you must have a monthly passive income of around USD10,000 and savings in the bank of USD375,000 out of which USD250,000 must be placed in a bank account in Malaysia.
These criteria will apply across the board even to current MM2H holders after their existing visa expires. In other words the rules are retrospective and sad to say, pretty prohibitive.
So the answers to your questions are no. The new rules are not fair. You are not exempted even if your earlier application under the old rules had been accepted and returned. But they are not doing this to discourage foreigners from coming. Malaysia still welcomes foreigners but it looks like only rich ones.
Do these rules make sense? Maybe not to you but it does to the architects of what is being called our new normal world.
Just take a look at vaccine passports in liberty-loving France, the Taliban recapture of Afghanistan within days without a fight and the mass internment of national populations around the world in the name of a bad viral flu.
In case you have a final question – can these MM2H changes be changed and reversed?
That ultimately depends on how we all decide to respond to the “new normal”. Unless we all put our foot down and say that enough is enough and no more, the newer things are, the less normal they will be.
kerkco.com 