Malaysia's success story is peculiar, to say the least.

The country has a unique 'social contract' wherein the Malays generously gave citizenship and allowed the Chinese and Indians to practise their faiths and go to vernacular schools while they retain special privileges in government jobs and education.

You would have thought this would lead to eventual acrimony among the races especially since, after 1969, the Malays invented another appellation "bumiputera" mainly for themselves, as if to further aggravate the Indian and Chinese Malaysians! Yet Malaysia continues to thrive and prosper.

Or has it really?

There is one way to benchmark Malaysia's performance. And that is against Singapore.

Singapore has no natural resources, no oil, useful agricultural products, just a strategic location and the ability to harness the best brains both from Singapore and abroad.

In contrast, Malaysia is a major supplier of rubber and oil palm, net producer of oil, major supplier of manufactured products, etc. But Malaysia has serious limitations in the motivation and ability of male Malay Muslims. They go in smaller numbers for tertiary education and prefer to take 'soft' options like Islamic Studies, Malay studies, anthropology and the Arts.

They do not seek out 'hard' and tough courses preferred by industry and commerce like engineering, medicine, science and mathematics. They enjoy the perks of their government-sponsored scholarships but not the hard work of studying. Some even relish the thought of joining religious wars abroad and a handful have done so, in Afghanistan and Indonesia.

In 1980, the Singapore and Malaysian currencies stood at par. Today, it takes RM2.20 to buy one Singapore dollar. Our money value is more than halved because we have not kept pace.

Today, I believe the GDP per capita for Singapore and Malaysia, is about US$20,000 and US5,000 respectively. If so, then a Singaporean today is earning about four times what a Malaysian earns.

Perhaps Malaysia is not as successful as it seems, at first glance, to be.

Perhaps Malaysian government leaders have a lot to answer for, which they try to hide, to bluster and threaten to use the ISA when cornered by non-governmental organisations or opposition.

It is also particularly alarming the way our ministers accept responsibilities for the incompetence of their officials.

One fine example is Education Minister Musa Mohamed's excuse for the bungling of his examination officials when he said "Everyone makes mistakes. It is only human". What a horrible example he sets for the nation.