Economist Noor Azlan Ghazali said he had been hearing about how Indonesia’s economy was growing, which he said was good as it would challenge Malaysia to perform better.

However, he dismissed the notion that Malaysia had fallen behind its Asean counterpart, saying Malaysians seemed to prefer maligning their own nation.

“I checked on our standing in some of the main global indicators. It is very clear that the world’s evaluation of Malaysia is far better than Indonesia,” he said in a Facebook post.

He cited the World Competitiveness Index 2022 which put Malaysia at 32nd place over Indonesia at 44th, and the nation’s higher standing in the Complexity Index 2022, which measures economic sophistication to apply technology.

Noor Azlan also pointed out that Malaysia stood at 36th place in the Global Innovation Index 2021 over Indonesia at 87th, showing greater innovative capacity and capability.

He said Malaysia stood at 62nd place while Indonesia came in at 96th in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2021.

“Wake up, Malaysians. We have strength. Have confidence in our capabilities.

“If we’re evaluated better than our neighbours, why do we dismiss that evaluation? We spend too much time thinking and discussing about the bad that we’ve forgotten about our own strength,” he said.