When I see what other countries around us are doing, what their best and brightest are striving for, and then look at this nation’s agenda and attention, a cold chill runs down my spine.

It is bad enough that we appear to be falling behind materially. We are, after all, speaking ultimately about jobs and incomes to feed our families, educate our children, take care of our health and salt away something for our old age. These are hardly inconsequential.

To make matters worse, we are, as a country, also floundering socially. Today, we seem ready to do harm to each other over issues that are, and should remain, innocent and innocuous. Prejudice may make for good low-brow politics but it is deadly for nation building.

Compounding matters is a failing of intelligence. Of late, there have been those who have proudly and arrogantly paraded their ignorance. Their breathtakingly illogical statements have rightly made them objects of scorn and Malaysia a country of ridicule.

There seems to be clear realisation of at least some of our national afflictions in the corridors of powers. The lights burning late in Putrajaya and the frank discussions behind closed doors attests to this fact. Whether they can be put right, however, is something else altogether.

It is easier to destroy than construct a building: a few well-placed explosives and gravity will do the rest. Likewise, it is simple to destroy a country: Undermine a few of its essential socio-economic pillars and watch the forces of corruption and intolerance pull society apart.

And yet we seem to be doing exactly that. Blithely. Knowingly. Willingly.

Getting a society of diverse participants to pull together rather than pull apart is one of the most difficult feats of policy engineering. As a result, one of the most frequently resorted tools used by governments everywhere is authoritarianism.

Most of the time, these are not even things that can be effectively prescribed or proscribed. But oppression and suppression are fast being rendered ineffective when people, at least the ones who critically count, and wealth are so mobile.

The idea that governments can plan or legislate their way to success is laughable. If it were, nation building would be a snap. If it were, unemployment, poverty and under-development would be a thing of the past.

Instead, state-driven economic growth has proven to be an unmitigated failure, as the former Soviet Union exemplifies. In Zimbabwe, political parties are even blocking the meagre development assistance offered from getting through.

The key to Malaysia’s future is to harness the transforming power of voluntary actions of its citizens. If we are to achieve anything of real and lasting value, we will have to rediscover ways to engage with one another on a sustained voluntary and cooperative basis.

The state cannot make private investment mandatory. The Government may have targets but it certainly cannot force public-listed companies to do so. All policy makers can do is to invite, encourage and provide attractive incentives.

The same applies in the human capital area. Those with the creative brainpower and entrepreneurship to bring about the profound economic changes can be encouraged but not compelled to contribute. The evidence so far seems less than encouraging.

At the end of the day, we have a critical decision to make: become a nation primarily of passive order takers or a nation of dynamic innovators. If we decide the former and basically become administrators, we cannot expect to unleash the much needed vigour.

If we choose the latter course – and there must be no mistake that this is the more difficult and less travelled path – then we will have to frankly and boldly address the many nitty-gritty issues that are before us.

Chief among this is to address the reasons we are behaving badly towards one another. After decades of thinly disguised attempts at ingraining exclusivist, superior and even hateful mindsets, is it any wonder that society is as fragmented as it is?

In pursuit of power and the baksheesh it is seen to bring, immoderate speech and behaviour have become the norms. Acts bordering on political thuggery and intimidation go unsanctioned. More regrettably, the rule of law is made subservient to the ruling few.

Cynical manipulation of power may go unpunished but it does not go unnoticed. It breeds widespread mistrust, resentment and, of course, counter-cynicism. Once these take root, the evidence, not just politically and socially, but also economically, are clear for all to see.

Carefully designed policies, plans and strategies should always be welcome. The world is changing rapidly and Malaysia needs to be quick on our feet. But, in the words of poet Robert Frost, ‘the best laid schemes of mice and men often go askew leaving nothing but grief and pain’.

1Malaysia cannot be a slogan or a goal; it must first be concrete and inarguable fact.

Steven C. M. Wong is Assistant Director General of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia responsible for the bureau of economic policy studies. First published in The Star on February 8 2010. Republished with permission from the author.

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