Congratulations, Malaysia is officially prosperous!

Good news! Malaysia has been ranked the second most prosperous Asean country right behind Singapore. But globally, of course, Malaysia trails our southern neighbour who are at 17th place while we are at 43rd place on the Legatum Prosperity Index.

I guess the report is true. Check out the Budget that has recently been presented in Parliament by the prime minister. As you can obviously see if you look out the window, Malaysians are jumping for joy. The streets are filled with people dancing and celebrating like it’s 1999.

We have so much excess money that we’re creating a RM64 billion KL Mass Rapid Transit project and high-speed rail linking Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. I can see the value in that. Out of the 30 million Malaysians who pay taxes, 1.8 million KL-lites are going to reap the benefits.

We have so much excess money that we’re building a RM1.2 billion hotel and residence in KL Sentral to be managed by St Regis. I can see the value in that since now the many Malaysians who have big and expensive houses can have more big and expensive houses.

We have so much excess money that we’re developing a RM150 million township called Johor Premium Outlets that has a hotel, water theme park and retail outlets. I can see the value in that since close to 60 per cent of Malaysians, who are earning less than RM3,000 a month, can head down south to enjoy some retail therapy.

We have so much excess money that we’re building a RM5 billion 100-storey tall building to be called Warisan Merdeka. I can see the value in that since... okay, let’s just cut the crap right here since I can’t seem to write properly due to my utter disbelief at what is going on.

If we have so much excess money, then why is Malaysia 45th in the education sub-sector... a ranking that is considered low by global standards? This is judged by the fact that the gross enrolment average is way low in Malaysia, with the secondary education level at 69 per cent and tertiary at 30 per cent.

Wouldn’t it be great if education is considered a human right in Malaysia and that with all the excess money we have, every citizen gets education for free? Just like in the Scandinavian countries and several other western European countries like Germany and the Netherlands.

But I guess this plays quite well for Malaysia because in the area of democracy, we are placed at a dismal 72nd position. So the lower our education level, the more we can be manipulated by whomever is in power. Great strategy play, isn’t it?

And to top it all of, Malaysia is ranked 90th when it comes to social capital, which basically means that we have absolutely no trust in each other. We trust each other less than the citizens of conflict-strewn countries like Uganda and Ethiopia. Now isn’t that lovely?

I wonder if the 700,000 Malaysians who left the country for greener pastures can be enticed to come back home since we are so prosperous now?

Zan Azlee is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, writer, New Media practitioner and lecturer. He runs Fat Bidin Mediawww.fatbidin.com