In its most recent Democracy Index 2017, the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) put northern European countries Norway, Iceland and Sweden as the three most democratic countries in the world, while North Korea and Syria took the bottom places.
Malaysia was ranked 59th in the list, an improvement from 65th in the previous year.
EIU ranked 167 countries and territories worldwide based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation, and political culture.
Malaysia scored 6.54 out of a maximum of 10, and by that token is considered a “flawed democracy”.
While Malaysia is not a star performer in democracy, its performance is not that bad after all compared with our neighbor Singapore which was placed 69th.
Of course, we pale in comparison with South Korea (20th) and Japan (23rd). Naturally, there is still room for improvement.
To be fair, while such reports can never truly reflect the realistic situation of a country, they nevertheless serve as an important reference to review and scrutinise our own system and from there, promote a democratic process that fits the country’s unique conditions best.
Among the five categories, we performed quite well in functioning of government (7.86 points) and electoral process and pluralism (6.92).
However, we were relatively weak in political participation (6.11) and civil liberties (5.59). This means that we need to work harder on these last two parameters to promote public participation in politics while expanding civil liberties.
Democratic values have been held in high regard for years. In spite of a global crisis with democratic regression in recent years, fundamentally democracy remains the mainstay of global politics today and there is no let-up in the effort to pursue democracy.
As a country practicing democratic politics, Malaysia should further promote democratisation and entrench the values of democracy instead of stopping at where we are now.
It should be noted however, that we must never be blindly aggressive in our pursuit of greater democracy, as this will only jeopardise social stability and the well-being of our people.
Uncontrolled democracy may not be the most effective solution for this country, especially at a time when we are facing unprecedented terror threats.
Simply put, efforts in democratic pursuits must be within the confines of the realistic conditions of a country. It must be carried out gradually and not rashly.
Sin Chew Daily is a local vernacular publication
* The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
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