Malaysia 8th most competitive? Research reveals deceptive spin
It’s all over the papers - NST, The Star, Utusan.
We’re 8th most competitive in the world?
At least NST had the decency to include the caveat:
The Institute of Management Development, in its 2007 World Competitiveness Year Book, placed Malaysia in eighth place in terms of competitiveness for countries with populations of more than 20 million.
The bolded part of course, is the giveaway.
So we went to do some research, and found the actual scoreboard for this 2007 World Competitiveness Year Book.
Here’s what it really says:
As you can see, on a global playing field, we’re a distant 23rd. The magic number 8 only comes out when you eliminate 15 countries above us that have less than 20 million people.
For reference, we were ranked 22nd in 2006, and 17th in 1997.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds to me like a pretty lame attempt to hide the shameful failure of the Abdullah administration to truly invigorate the economy.
Who thought up the arbitary 20mil barrier? Was it the spindoctors or is there a G20 I haven’t heard of?
I am really perplexed by Badawi’s statement on TV3’s highlight not long bragging that Malaysia was at No.8 spot for World Competitiveness Year Book.. Now, if the report purveyed by you is true which I double-checked which confirmed your chart, meaning that Badawi was lying through his teeth, only people like Mahathir would be that blatant.
I was walking pass a newspaper stall just now, thinking of the boycott of the printing media, I passed by without hesitation of buying any. Hey, I am a subsriber of malaysiakini.com and proud of it.
He should also qualify that for a population of 27 million, Malaysia is No.1.
For a country name that starts with letter M, Malaysia is also No. 1.
For a country name that has eight letters, Malaysia is No. 1 again. Hong Kong is not a country.
Only fools fool by FOOL.
I think Dollah Dream Team should also exclude those above 30 mil ppl cos same rational as excluding those below 20mil ppl, because they are watermelon and we are apple. how to compare between watermelon and apple?? HOW CAN?! DOLLAH, I NO STUPID!
But the newspapers slavishly played up this story. Will they do likewise if the PM had said that the world is flat. I think so?
[...] (source : here, here and here) [...]
Yay! Malaysia ranks No 1 for countries with a population of 27,484,000!
Well done Malaysia!
[...] Luckily, Malaysians aren’t stupid, and research revealed the manner in which data was twisted to make Malaysia look better than it actually did. [...]
Malaysia ranks No 1 in terms of lying to their citizens~ YAY!
[...] we’ve described at length, Malaysia’s actual global ranking is a distant 23rd. This population more than 20 million category is a load of hogwash if you ask [...]