A top university professor today decried the shallowness in our intellectual discussion on the grave problems confronting the Malaysian economy.

"The quality of public discourse in Malaysia generally leaves a lot to be desired, but it is especially wanting in economics," lamented KS Jomo, one of the country's most respected economists.

"We have the government cheerleaders on the one side versus market orthodoxy on the other, but there is little attempt at serious understanding to draw lessons for others and for the future," he said in an interview with malaysiakini.

Jomo said the 'government cheerleaders' would parrot Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in attributing the country's economic problems to outside factors, or to blame it on disgraced ex-finance minister Anwar Ibrahim.

"And of course, all this is made worse by what may be called 'competitive sycophancy' where we try to outdo one another to gain favour," said Jomo who has authored a dozen of books on macro-economics.

A dependent economy

The University Malaya's lecturer also said that despite Mahathir's anti-globalisation rhetoric, his policies over the past 20 years have turned the country into a more 'dependent' economy, instead of a self-reliant one.

"A friend recently pointed out that despite the recent official criticisms of globalisation - we were celebrating it when we thought its sun would never set - our dependence on trade has increased, now well over 200 percent of GDP (gross domestic product), from around 190 percent before the (Asian financial) crisis, which itself was a massive increase from about 110 percent when Dr M took over," he said.

According to Jomo, Malaysia is second only to Singapore in relying on foreign direct investments to raise capital.

"(This means) our domestic industrial and technological capabilities remain limited, unlike Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, where FDI never exceeded two per cent until very recently," he said.

"This and many other Malaysian realities at the end of the Mahathir era must come as a shock to those for whom dependency theory explained the world economy or who are viscerally anti-globalisation.

"Unfortunately, many people do not go beyond the rhetoric and actually believe that Malaysia is a shining example of independent development for the rest of the world."


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