I refer to the report Economist: Malaysia has weapons of mass salvation for the world.

Dear Professor Jeffrey Sachs,

Your comments on how Malaysia can 'save the day' with their natural leadership role in the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and how we are on track to eradicating hardcore poverty by 2010 were a good laugh. I am a Malaysian. No offence, but I am amazed at how misinformed you are. Surely as one of the world's leading economist, one would think you would have done a little bit of research. If Malaysia is going anywhere, it's backwards.

Currently our government is one of the most corrupt in the world and many of our citizens are deprived of a proper education. The education system has been gradually heading downwards since independence. Unfortunately over the past decade, its decline has accelerated and now we proudly produce 40,000 graduates yearly from local universities that are unable to land a job due to their poor communication skills and lack of ability to think. Now this is the product of the National Economic Policy that was in place since 1971. As you know, the NEP is an affirmative action policy.

Each and every government project is inflated eight to 10 times or maybe more to feed the cronies of the governing party. Our entire civil service (except for the Immigration Department which is doing a fantastic job) has corrupted personnel at all levels. When you need to get something done, you need to bribe them at various levels. Our police force, which is supposed to keep us safe and secure, have many, many black sheep out for a quick buck.

Speaking of crime, our crime rate has hit the roof. Daily there are cases of rape, theft, robbery and murder. And what's more shocking, we have a political advisor to our deputy prime minister and two other police special forces officers (also personal bodyguards to the deputy prime minister) in court charged murder and its abetment.

So here we are with the ability to help Africa fight poverty, is it? There are hundreds of thousands of reasons why I can assure you that Malaysia, with the current governing party, cannot assist Africa but I think with the examples that I have listed here, you should be able to get my point.

So I would like to plead with you to refrain from making such comments because by doing so, you are basically telling the governing parties that they are doing the right thing and that the entire world should look up to them as a fantastic example of a developing free democratic country (which we are not!).