Quora Answer: Are Singaporeans Smarter Than Malaysians?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Are Singaporeans smarter than Malaysians?” 

The average people of every country all have the same potential.  The difference is found in nutrition, which affects the development of the children; and then in the education system, which develops the potential of the people; and finally, the socio-political system, which harnesses the best and brightest, and channels them to the right vocations and careers.  In that light, Singaporeans seem smarter because the country invested a lot more in them than Malaysia did.  Given the same opportunities, Malaysians would do just as well.  And Malaysians are clever enough to seek those opportunities, and that is why many of their best and brightest study in Singapore. 

The greatest hindrance to Malaysia unlocking the potential of their citizens is their racist policy of giving precedence to the so-called bumiputera, the Malays, and other native groups.  They have actively discounted the Indians and Chinese.  Race and religion play a large part in political advancement.  Because of this patronage system, and the inherent corruption of Malay apartheid, we see the vast difference between the calibre of Singapore Ministers and Malaysian ministers.  Singapore’s policymaking elite not only studied in some of the best universities in the world, but graduated as one of the best students of their cohort, whether Oxford, Harvard or elsewhere.  Malaysia’s policymakers comprised of the semi-educated such as Samy Vellu s/o Sangalimuthu, who never got beyond secondary education, to Marzuki bin Yahya, who got his qualification from a degree mill.  When the political leadership comprise of the unethical, the under-educated and the corrupt, this perpetuates the current underdevelopment of Malaysia.  Singapore has benefited greatly from this because the best and brightest have left Malaysia and come over to be part of the Singapore story.