I refer to the letter Economic crisis a Western conspiracy.

I disagree with the writer’s theory that the current global economic meltdown is the result of a Western conspiracy.

The problems may have arose in the West and spread globally due to unbridled greed and inadequate transparency and governance. There is no conspiracy as what would the West stand to gain from such a conspiracy when they themselves are in dire straits.

Malaysia should be aware their (the West’s) problems would affect us. We are a primary producer and depend on them for our exports. For the past few decades the world has been trading on the perception of wealth while the growth of real wealth was considered to be immaterial.

This created an environment for rogues to pry on unsuspecting investors - or more appropriately called speculators - solely motivated by greed. There is nothing wrong with greed as long as it could be controlled and ethical rules prevail.

Unfortunately, we now know that is not the case. Greed has grown to the extent that unwarranted risks were being taken. And to make matters worse, these circumstances were encouraged by rogues who acted as ‘financial advisors’.

These ‘advisors’ would entice unsuspecting and greedy investors and speculators to put their money into non-viable schemes - financial instruments they called them - while charging high fees for their advice.

And this snowballed until the bubble burst. In hindsight, governments around the world including Malaysia with all their own highly-paid economic advisors should have recognised this and put controls in place to check them.

The only explanation I can offer is that they, too, were blinded by the greed-driven euphoria.

I agree with the writer that Malaysia should be in a better position than Singapore or Hong Kong with our oil and gas resources and plantations. But all Malaysians must ask why Malaysia is not doing better than them despite of these advantages.

The answer is simple. Thanks to governmental mismanagement and corruption, complacency and lower productivity, Malaysia now has a cost-plus and inefficient economy. This makes us uncompetitive globally especially during hard times like now.

It is about time Malaysians pull their heads out of the sand and do something about this before we are flushed out into the sewer.

Since the 1985 recession and subsequent recessions including the Asian currency crisis, the Malaysian government has been embarking on a Reagan economic policy of ‘spending our way out of a recession’.

Caution had been thrown out. We have budget deficits that result in our debt rising to about 60% of our GDP putting the country in a position of not being solvent.

Governments are elected to regulate and implement policies for the welfare of all their citizens and maintain a responsible fiscal program. If they do not perform, then the citizens should exercise their democratic right to elect others to replace them.

Being complacent and non-vocal about the dissatisfaction of the government’s performance would only send them the wrong message.

Our democratic system is supposed to have a government ‘by the people for the people’. It is an unacceptable excuse to blame others for our self-inflicted unfortunate circumstances.

It will not change our circumstances at all except to die a slow death and prolong the agony and suffering.