High income status, but what about other qualities? – K. H. Su

Some 20 years ago, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad envisioned Malaysia reaching "high income country" status by 2020.

Just a few days ago, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that we are on track to achieve that goal, a mere five years from now.

Our current per capita income in nominal terms is approximately US$11,000 and based on our projected growth over the next five years we should reach US$15,000 by 2020 which will make us look more like a "middle income nation".

But if we view per capita income in PPP (purchasing power parity) terms, it throws up a completely different picture.

We are now at US$24,000 and in five years' time US$30,000 certainly looks within reach.

To put things in perspective there are currently 33 countries recognised by the World Bank to have PPP per capita income above US$30,000 and the majority of them are considered developed economies.

So God willing, by 2020, we will have earned the right to rub shoulders with the likes of the US, Switzerland, Australia and Singapore, to name a few.

While reaching the magical US$30,000 per capita mark is one thing, being able to behave like a high income nation is quite another.

The leagues of developed and high income economies have several common and shared values and beliefs in matters of natural justice, economics and human rights.

Their over-arching emphases for the overall good of their nations are invariably the virtues of good governance, transparency and incorruptibility underpinned by the independence of institutions and rule of law.

They had long ago dispensed with discriminatory policies and if there are any left, they are only for protecting the rights of the minorities and not the majorities.

We must be ready to face up to the reality that the world will have new expectation of us in quite the same way that we expect a highly educated to be more urbane than a lowbrow.

While social and individual prejudices cannot be eradicated and will continue to exist in especially a non-homogeneous society, we don’t hear of ministers in advanced countries justifying and urging racism in the name of religion.

Neither do their leaders call the minorities names and threaten them with bloodbath. They have strict enforcement of laws.

The developed countries mostly share a common philosophy of having a more equitable distribution of income, narrowing the gaps between the haves and the have-nots and building a big middle class as opposed to others more concerned about concentrating wealth in the hands of a small group.

Lest we never realise it, all the advanced countries are secular states. Europe had long realised the wisdom of separating religion from state, realising the debilitating effects of their conflict on progress.

While on this subject it is surely worth internalising the wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew who built Singapore from a resourceless economy to a first world with a per capita income that ranks among the top three today besides boasting one of the most efficient administration and education systems.

In urging his people forward in the early 70s, Lee promised them a modern Singapore built on human capital, and not quite like a Kuwait or Brunei with high income but low-skill level.

Indeed Malaysia looks poised to be a high income economy in GDP per capita terms in five years' time, but are we quite there yet in other attributes that can take us even further?

Let’s bear in mind that a respectable per capita income will not mean much we choose to ignore the many other issues in our midst. – October 1, 2015.

* K. H. Su reads The Malaysian Insider.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.