I just read an article on ‘Economic progress over 40 years - Malaysia vs Australia’. It is a breath of fresh air when there is something positive about our beloved country... we are better off than Australia.

I was ‘bushed’ or confused with the article since my neighbour’s daughter along with her family left for Perth just two weeks ago. Did she and her husband, both professionals, made an incorrect decision or were they wrongly advised?

Curious, I logged on to Global Economy.com. Bingo... there is a huge amount of information with data shown from over 250 indicators for 201 countries. We can also make country comparisons and can see that the GDP per capita (on Purchasing Power Parity, or PPP), Singapore has been way ahead of Australia since 1990.

Over the 40-year period. Australia’s GDP grew 3.3 times, Malaysia 10.3 and Singapore 13 times. Australia’s per capita GDP using constant 2010 US$ doubled, Malaysia’s increased 4.4 times and Thailand 5.4. For foreign reserves, Australia grew 12.8 times, Malaysia 56.3 and South Korea 458 times. Since 2003, Thailand’s government budget balance as percentage of GDP has been much better than Malaysia’s and its inflation is definitely lower than us in the last few years.

Now, I am not trying to take the excitement away from our successes but to be more pragmatic in reading our current position vis-a-vis our neighbours and friends. We may have inadvertently been comparing apples or durians and oranges.

We may bask in the glory of certain successes we have achieved, but says Sun Tzu, “Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories”. Robert Kiyosaki, the author of ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ says, “Don’t waste a good mistake... Learn from it”.

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat”, again from Sun Tzu. “And (they) plotted and planned, and God, too, planned, and the best of planners is God” (Quran - 3:54).

We now have to strategise to do better and not let complacency sets in and lead to unfortunate results. We need to avoid the ‘Victory Disease’, well-known in the army, where a commander may disdain the enemy and believe his own invincibility, leading his troops to disaster. For that matter, earlier strategies may not be as effective against a new or smarter competitor. Victory Disease does not inevitably foretell defeat, it often precedes it.

It it also good to note that we have not been able to reach what Australia achieved 40 years ago when their GDP per capita was US$27,392 and ours in 2015 was about 40 percent only, at US$10,876.

What say you...