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Thursday, October 1, 2015

High-income status yes, what about other qualities?

In developed countries we do not hear of ministers justifying and urging racism in the name of religion or calling the minorities names.
COMMENT
high-income
By K H Su
Some 20 years ago the then prime minister Dr Mathathir Mohamad envisioned Malaysia reaching ‘High Income Country’ status by the year 2020.
Just a few days ago, current prime minister Najib Razak announced that we are on track to achieve that goal, a mere five years from now.
Our current per capita income in nominal terms is about US$11,000 and based on our projected growth over the next five years we should reach US$15,000 by 2020 which will make us look more like a “Middle Income Nation”.
But if we view per capita income in PPP (purchasing power parity) terms it throws up a completely different picture. We are now at US$24,000 and in five years time US$30,000 certainly looks within reach.
To put things in perspective there are currently 33 countries recognised by the World Bank to have PPP per capita income above US$30,000 and the majority of them are considered developed economies.
So God willing by 2020 we will have earned the right to rub shoulders with the likes of the US, Switzerland, Australia and Singapore to name a few.
While reaching the magical US$30,000 per capita mark is one thing, being able to behave like a High Income Nation is quite another.
The leagues of developed and high-income economies have several common and shared values and beliefs in matters of natural justice, economics and human rights.
Their over-arching emphasis for the overall good of their nations are invariably the virtues of good governance, transparency and incorruptibility underpinned by the independence of institutions and rules of laws.
They have long ago dispensed with discriminatory policies and if there are any left they are only for protecting the rights of the minorities and not the majority.
We must be ready to face up to the reality that the world will have a new expectation of us in quite the same way that we expect a highly educated individual to be more urbane than a low brow.
While social and individual prejudices cannot be eradicated and will continue to exist especially in a non-homogeneous society we don’t hear of ministers in advanced countries justifying and urging racism in the name of religion.
Neither do their leaders call the minorities by names and threaten them with a bloodbath. They have strict enforcement of laws.
The developed countries mostly share a common philosophy of having a more equitable distribution of income, narrowing the gaps between the haves and the have-nots and building a big middle-class as opposed to others more concerned about concentrating wealth in the hands of a small group.
Lest we never realise it, all the advanced countries are secular states. Europe has long realised the wisdom of separating religion from state, realising the debilitating effects of their conflict on progress.
While on this subject it is surely worth mentioning the wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew who built Singapore from a resource-less economy to a first world one with a per capita income that ranks among the top three today besides boasting one of the most efficient administration and education systems.
In urging his people forward in the early 70s, Lee promised them a modern Singapore built on human capital, and not quite like a Kuwait or Brunei with high income but low skill level.
Indeed, Malaysia looks poised to be a high-income economy in GDP per capita terms in five years time, but are we quite there yet in other attributes that can take us even further?
Let’s bear in mind that a respectable per capita income will not mean much if we choose to ignore the many other issues in our midst.
K H Su is an FMT reader

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