Going by the campaign rhetorics of Muafakat Nasional of PAS, UMNO and MCA in Tanjong Piai by-election campaign, it would appear that the 18 months of Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya has been a total failure and disaster which is in total contrast to the recognition given by the world to the achievements chalked up by the Pakatan Harapan Government.
The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index has improved to the 12th best in the world in 2020 from 15th in 2019, while Malaysia is among the best improved economies in the World Bank’s 2018 Worldwide Governance Indicators.
Thanks to its commitment to institutional reforms after the “509” result of the 14th General Elections, Malaysia is also among the best improved country in the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) for year 2018.
The WGI measures institutional quality across 214 countries by accounting for 6 dimensions: accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and corruption. Malaysia improved in 5 out of the 6 dimensions.
| Dimensions | 2017 scores | 2018 scores | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voice and accountability | -0.40 | -0.08 | +0.32 |
| Political stability and absence of violence/terrorism | 0.12 | 0.24 | +0.12 |
| Government effectiveness | 0.83 | 0.08 | +0.25 |
| Regulatory quality | 0.68 | 0.68 | 0.00 |
| Rule of law | 0.41 | 0.62 | +0.21 |
| Control of corruption | 0.03 | 0.31 | +0.28 |
Even more remarkable, Malaysia has jumped and improved from No. 25 to 16 in the Global Peace Index (GPI), the biggest jump among the top countries.
The Global Peace Index measures the relative position of nations’ and regions’ peacefulness.
The GPI ranks 172 independent states and territories (99.7 per cent of the world’s population) according to their levels of peacefulness. In the past decade, the GPI has presented trends of increased global violence and less peacefulness.
Long-term findings of the 2017 GPI include a less peaceful world over the past decade, a 2.14 per cent deterioration in the global level of peace in the past decade, growing inequality in peace between the most and least peaceful countries, a long-term reduction in the GPI Militarization domain, and a widening impact of terrorism, with historically high numbers of people killed in terrorist incidents over the past 5 years.
Malaysia is also set to make the greatest improvement in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in the 25-year history of TI CPI since 1995.
Malaysia got its worst ranking, at No. 62 out of 180 countries, in the 2017 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and recorded the worst CPI score of 4.3 out of 10 in the 2011 TI CPI, all during the period when Malaysia sank to the abyss and was regarded by the whole world as a global kleptocracy.
I believe Malaysia’s TI CPI for 2019 which will be early announced next year will make the biggest quantum jump, in both CPI ranking and score, which will be the greatest for Malaysia in the 25-year history of TI CPI.
These are not puny achievements as Malaysia undertake institutional reforms which will take years to see their final impact, whether in the restoration of the important principles of the rule of law and an independent judiciary or to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy to a leading nation of integrity in the world.
These institutional reforms, which will take years to fully implement, will be impossible if there had been on change of government in Putrajaya in the 14th General Election in May 9, 2018.