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Malaysia is NOT a failed state. Not Just Yet!
By Mihar Dias
(C) Copyright January 2022
We are disappointed with certain quarters that have classified Malaysia as a failed state. We might be on the way if we were not careful, but we are still far from being one.
We are nowhere close or comparable to what the World Population Review classified as failed states, for example, Somalia, Yemen or Syria or the Central African Republic or the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Zimbabwe.
Let’s consider Malaysia against two major measures of a failed state. First, is our government incapable of projecting its authority over its citizens and its territory?
Second, is it unable to protect its people and boundaries? That means, is our government structure so completely dysfunctional, that it is no longer able to control its people and resources, offer public services to its citizens or protect its territory?
If you were to answer these in the affirmative then we are indeed a failed state. But as you are aware, our government is still able to exert its authority over its citizen and territory. Police and armed forces could be mobilised at short notice in case of emergency or threat to national security. To that extent, Malaysia is still able to protect its citizens and national boundaries. For example, besides the army and the police, all agencies including health, welfare, education as well as immigration are still functional. The country can protect its citizens during natural calamities, for example, recent widespread flooding.
It might be a little slow (e.g. NADMA) in providing the necessary services, sometimes, as was the case during the recent flooding but not dysfunctional by any means. The government is still in control over resources (for example timber licences to fallen trees) and the population (monitoring them via MySejahtera), providing relatively efficient public services (e.g. fast and rapid vaccination against Covid 19). Trains, buses do run on time and utilities are supplied regularly (for example electricity by TNB) to homes and commercial entities except in emergencies. Taman Sri Muda during the recent widespread flooding was without clean water and electricity for quite some time. A failed state would not be able to offer all the above!
However, a nation, like ours might be “vulnerable” to becoming a failed state, in the future, unless we take remedial steps now to prevent us from falling into that undesirable category.
For example, the review contended that because of corruption, Nicaragua, Brazil, Sudan and North Korea are most vulnerable or in danger of becoming failed states. This is where Malaysia is most vulnerable and I was surprised that they did not include Malaysia as one of those states likely to go down that road. After all, we were already classified as a “champion” in corruption by publications like the Washington Post. Perhaps, I guess, we might get listed in their next review as vulnerable in this category because corruption just does not go away overnight.
But we are not likely to become a failed state like Libya or Iraq or Pakistan any time soon, through rebellion because Malaysians are not a rebellious lot. Most of us still prefer the ballot box to armed rebellion.
Or be as vulnerable as Nigeria and Nepal because of democratic collapse. We still practice a form of democracy and it seems to work to some extent. We could do with better quality of debates in Parliament and by clearly distinguishing the three branches of government; the judiciary, the legislature and the executive.
Neither are we in danger of becoming one through religious and ethnic conflicts as in the case of Iraq, Yemen or Turkey. I doubt various ethnic groups in this country (or even the only religious party) would ever resort to such extremes to exert control over others. It is still a peace-loving country. Not many would take to the streets like the Egyptians and others in the Middle East during the Arab Spring.
So, if you were to look at the vulnerability index of 2018 provided by the review, we are rated as 60.5. It was not very high or too low on the vulnerability index.
We are somewhere between South Sudan (113.4) or Somalia (113.2) or Yemen (112.7), on the worst side of the spectrum and Finland (17.9) or Kuwait (3.2) as the least vulnerable towards becoming a failed state.
However, as suggested by the vulnerability index, should we have problems with cohesiveness, economic, political, and social issues we might climb up the ladder. Or we may be equally vulnerable if issues like human rights, public services, demographic pressures, refugees and security, become problematic in the future.
We should aspire to move down the index of vulnerability by wiping out blatant corruption among politicians, improving cohesiveness among ethnic groups in our society, strengthening the pillars of democracy and addressing economic inequalities by eradicating poverty. We might not end up as an ideal state like Finland or Kuwait but at least closer to the better nations like the UK, Germany and France with an index of around 30.
It’s a long hard road to the top but we could get there if we were to pull together towards one common goal to make Malaysia a better place for us to live and work for generations to come!
Let’s not become a failed state.
Mihar Dias is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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