Division Two

Malaysia retains its position (ranked No.43) in the Legatum Prosperity index.

In South east Asia, it is behind Singapore which is ranked 17. Other Asian countries such as Japan is ranked 18, HOng Kong at 20, Taiwan 22, South Korea at 27.

Being ranked No. 43 is not so bad actually. We can perhaps say that it is near the top of middle ranked countries.  But while Taiwan , South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong has moved from “division 2 ‘ to “Division one”, we are still at Division 2. It is of course better than those in Division 3 , but looking at the subindex, the picture is not so rosy. In the categories of social capital and personal freedom, it was ranked 90 (weak).

Being weak in social  capital means that our human resource development is weak.

If a soccer team wants to move from Division 2 to Divison 1, you need to have a pool of good players. It is useles to have a big group of players who cannot play well; it would be much better if you have a pool of good players .To do that, you need good coaches, you need to reward for excellence, you need good training technique.

Looking at our universities in specific and education system in general, unless drastic changes are adopted to overhaul the whole system, it is difficult to see how we can move from Division two to Division one. Here are the links for the indices for 2010 and 2009:

http://www.prosperity.com/rankings.aspx

http://www.prosperity.com/index2009.aspx (2009 compared)