What if we, as a nation, had taken a different path

Something was discussed over a heavy lunch yesterday. There was no alcohol served, so we were all pretty sober and knew what we were talking about.

How would Malaysia be, or how much could we have achieved as a country, IF the government of the day had truthfully implemented the noble policies of the National Economic Policy in terms of poverty eradication and restructuring of the wealth/communities.

By this i mean, no cronyism, no favouritism, no denying of education aids to our brightest regardless of race and religion, meritocracy to be the basis in the civil service, no arbitary issuing of huge inflated contracts to friendly parties, and the like.

Instead of the 6% - 8% growth per annum achieved since the 80s, would we have achived double digit growths till today? Would we have become the financial hub for the south east asia region? Would we have become a developed state in the 90s itself? Would we not be so far ahead of other financial hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong?

Success breeds success. If we had achived all that, considering the numerous natural resources that we have, multi racial and lingual young population, kind weather and stable political climate, wouldnt poverty been eradicated long ago? Wouldnt everyone be financially better off? Wouldnt even the rural areas be thriving economically?

These are all thoughts worth pondering.

Instead of the above, what we have achieved thus far is a pittance. Cronies get richer. The poor are generally not so much the better. The wealth gap amongst the rich and the poor widens more. The rural sector continues to struggle.

And chest thumping and keris wielding continue to occur. They celebrate the somewhat miserable achievements (at the expense of much losses). They keep harping on 2020 as the target, when in actual fact we should have achieved that ages ago!

The SJER is supposedly to be fashioned and developed along the lines of Shenzen. Yes, we are extremely good in talking but suck big time in walking the talk. We are blind to the fact that our southern neighbour, with hardly any natural resources, has outpaced and outthinked us in various fields. Surely there must be something right in the manner they have developed their city state. Surely there is much to be learnt from them. By the way, many of their administrators were once upon a time our citizens.

So, in this month of august when the country celebrates its independence, i feel nothing but disappointment and pessimism. The question "What IF?" will forever continue to be asked.