After Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak tabled the 2018 Budget, there are groups who are willing to claim that the budget has failed on grounds that the value of the ringgit has fallen, the cost of living is high, and corruption is rampant, just to belittle the capability of the government and the existing leader.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak said the allegation was frequently repeated purportedly to show that the government was incompetent, although, in reality, the government had tabled the best and most comprehensive budget in the history of the country.

“The question is, where is the failure if the people are still prosperous, and the nation is still peaceful.

“Our country is not a warring nation like Syria, Congo, and Eritrea and the people are not starving like those in Mozambique and Somalia.

"In the Global Peace Index 2017, our nation lies in the 29th spot out of 159 countries, more peaceful than South Korea, France, Indonesia and the United States," he said in his blog sskeruak.blogspot.my today.

While listing Malaysia's achievements to dispel the accusations hurled at the government, he said that in fact, five local universities had achieved excellence when they were listed among the '300 top universities’, while the Malaysian passport was the fifth strongest in the world with visa-free access to 155 countries in the world.

"Our public transport system is in 11th spot out of 138 of the best in the world.

"Where is the failure when in terms of investment, within only a seven-month period from November 2016 to May 2017, foreign investment brought in by the PM had reached RM366 billion,” he said.

Salleh said similarly with the healthy economic growth, which expanded by 5.6 percent in the first quarter of 2017, as against 4.2 percent during the corresponding period of 2016.

He said Malaysia's trade value between January and July this year also reached RM1.008 trillion, an increase of 22.7 percent compared to the corresponding period of last year.

"PM Najib himself acknowledged that the government is not perfect, but we are not a failed nation.

”The failed nation is only a label given by those who want to tarnish the nation. Be proud of the achievement of your own country,” he added.

-- Bernama