This is Part 3, the final part in a series of fictional articles that I started two months ago (September 2025) in The Edge
All tagged Economic Development
This is Part 3, the final part in a series of fictional articles that I started two months ago (September 2025) in The Edge
Even if you make it through to the third round and come back from three games to nothing to tie it at three to three, the same habits that led you to lose extremely winnable games throughout the playoffs will come back to haunt you in high-pressure situations.
Many key ingredients of economic development require long-term planning, a greater tolerance for the long-term (patience) means that these ingredients may get to be fully cooked as well.
The point of the article was to figure out, in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner, some better indicators for Malaysia’s economic development as opposed to the more popular ones. And so, in a further adaptation of Blattman’s concept, I have proposed a further 10 “indie” development indicators.
Those in power typically prefer the status quo; after all, rules were made by those who were powerful enough to set the rules in the first place. And while rules are ostensibly made for the benefit of all, they are rarely, if ever, made at the expense of those in power.
The idea of a level playing field between developed and developing countries is not historically just. Things were unfairly titled towards these rich countries in history. We need to re-tilt it back towards the rest of us.
The reality of economic development is that, however we feel about them, elites exist and the elite bargain does matter. And an elite bargain that accelerates economic growth may not necessarily be the same bargain that maintains that growth.
But as the ESG movement grows, and as calls for transition become ever louder, we need to be clear about what is most appropriate for Malaysia and not simply follow a view or an ideology that was crafted and propagated by folks in richer, more advanced nations.
Technology need not be predestined, and technology policy is something policymakers can influence. Governments can and should shape the kinds of digital technology they believe their countries can adopt and deploy.
When it comes to competition, if Malaysia’s largest firms primarily compete among themselves for an “island-type” market size, how productive can they actually be?
Questioning the wisdom and the authority of the past is how progress progresses. We will not achieve a true merdeka of self-determination for our country if we, at the societal level, do not ourselves possess a merdeka of our spirits.
Our National Recovery Plan must chart a path towards a more sustainable and inclusive prosperity. We must be ambitious, bold and imaginative. But most of all, we have to be patient.