State failure is not inevitable

KUALA LUMPUR: Recently, in addition to the continuing political turmoil and the raging coronavirus pandemic in the country, Malaysia was also somewhat fixated on a commentary carried in Bloomberg.

The commentary was of the opinion that Malaysia may be heading toward becoming a "failed state," with an unstable political trajectory and inept handling of the coronavirus pandemic as epitomized by the appearance of the "white flag" movement (the desperate signal for monetary or material assistance by ordinary folks that I wrote about last week).