Malaysia’s continued decline in international competitiveness was again highlighted a few days ago when it slipped another five notches to 24th place in latest World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) by the Institute for Management Development (IMD) – after falling to 19th spot last year from 14th in 2015.

It is Malaysia’s lowest ranking in five years and the country cannot take comfort that it remained the second most competitive ASEAN country behind Singapore.

Malaysia is losing out in the race of nations for development and progress, and the recent spate of incidents which signaled the rise of racial and religious extremism in the country would aggravate this national decline and fall into a failed state.

Malaysia must stop the present trajectory towards the politics of lies, hatred and fear to exploit racial and religious divisions by fanning intolerance, distrust and extremism in the country.

Malaysians must unite and stop fighting among ourselves, but must leverage on the best qualities and values from the diversity of races, religions and cultures in Malaysia so that we are not left behind in the international race of nations for development and progress. Read the rest of this entry »