THE DEVELOPING WORLD AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES: INTERROGATING THE DEVELOPMENT TRAJECTORY OF MALAYSIA

Abstract

The development strides’ taken by the state and leadership of Malaysia over the last four decades are worth commending. Her high growth rate is consistent with high GDP, high GNI per Capita, low poverty indices, improvement in the quality of life, income distribution, promotion of growth and equity, racial harmony, religious tolerance and political stability. Malaysia, under the current leadership of Prime Minister Najid Razak, has colonial realities that correspond with those of other colonized countries of the developing world and also inherited the colonial legacies enumerated in the development literature. Being in the same predicaments with her sister countries in the global south, Malaysia was also faced with the option of following the development routes suggested by the Bretton Woods Institutions or those of dependency scholars. However, Malaysia attempted a now successful path unique to her realities with a mixture of the values of prior development theories where necessary. By implementing short and medium term goals towards the achievement of the long-term goal of vision 2020, the country has been able to navigate her way out of a deep-seated racialized poverty to becoming a high-incomemiddle-class society where others in her category particularly, Nigeria, have failed. What did Malaysia do differently from other countries in the global south like Nigeria? With the use of documentary observation method and descriptive analysis, this paper attempts to answer this question by interrogating the development trajectory of Malaysia. It concludes by suggesting ways Nigeria could learn from it.