Malaysia more a monkey than an Asian Tiger, says Ku Li

Malaysia more a monkey than an Asian Tiger, says Ku Li

Published: Jul 28, 2024 10:23 AM


Former finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has poured cold water over the idea that Malaysia was once an Asian Tiger, disputing a claim by ex-premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“You call yourself an ‘Asian Tiger’, but you’re actually a monkey. You’re not developed.

“We were never an ‘Asian Tiger’. It’s only illusory,” he told news portal Free Malaysia Today.

Razaleigh, who served as finance minister from 1976 to 1984, downplayed the notion that Malaysia belonged alongside other economic tigers such as South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

He said Malaysia could not stake a claim to being an Asian Tiger as the country had financed most of its projects, including dams and highways because foreign investors had skirted around Malaysia.

It should be noted that during his time, Malaysia enjoyed sterling economic growth with a very strong currency and high annual gross domestic product growth, with an economy that was top in the world in rubber and tin production and also experiencing an oil boom.

It was on the back of that success that Mahathir declared Vision 2020 with the aim of making Malaysia on par with developed nations by the year 2020, but that lofty goal was not to be achieved and Malaysia’s economic trajectory has not been the same since the Asian financial crisis of 1997.

In 2018, Mahathir, who made a comeback as prime minister, declared that Malaysia would return to an Asian Tiger economy once again.

However, economist Madeline Berma disputed the Asian Tiger label. She said Malaysia was a second-tier Asian economic power and only qualified to be described as a little tiger or little dragon.