Assessing the Impact of Political Instability on Policy Continuity and Public Sector

National Resilience College welcomed Prof. Dr Edmund Terence Gomez (Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Business & Economics, Universiti Malaya) for a timely session on Assessing the Impact of Political Instability on Policy Continuity and Public Sector Governance in Malaysia. The discussion framed governance as a political system in which outcomes depend on what happens inside the state’s “black box” (executive, legislature, bureaucracy, judiciary, and military), and urged course members to ask hard questions. This topic is critical because political instability directly affects the state’s capacity to plan and execute national priorities: reforms can stall, policies can shift midstream, and implementation can become inconsistent across agencies and levels of government. Over time, this can erode institutional credibility, increase governance and integrity risks, and reduce investor confidence, ultimately undermining economic resilience, social cohesion, and public trust, all of which are foundational to Malaysia’s national security and long-term stability.