Citizens may be proud when our country ranks high on lists such as roti canai being ranked no.2 on the ‘100 Best Rated Street Food in the World’ –– but definitely not when we are featured on lists such as this. On 2 May, The Economists magazine published its latest instalment on the crony-capitalism index which measures the prevalence of crony-capitalism in a particular country.
Malaysia dropped one place, but still placed third behind Czech Republic at number two, with Russia topping the list of 18 countries. Trailing behind our country at number four was Singapore, while our other close neighbours Indonesia ranked number nine and Thailand placed number fifteen.
According to Cambridge Dictionary, crony capitalism is ‘an economic system in which family members and friends of government officials and business leaders are given unfair advantages in the form of jobs, loans, etc.’
The wealth of Malaysia’s billionaires totalled more than a tenth of our country’s 2023 gross domestic product (GDP). Meanwhile, the wealth of Russian oligarchs accounted for almost a fifth of its GDP.
The Economist calculates the list with data from Forbes, which looks at the total wealth of the world’s billionaires who are mainly active in rent-heavy industries, and then compares the total to world GDP to get a sense of its scale.
According to the magazine, “In 1998, it estimated that there were 209 billionaires with a total worth of US$1 trillion, equivalent to 3% of global GDP. This year, the publication detailed 2,640 billionaires worth US$12 trillion or 12% of GDP. Adjusting for rising prices — US$1 billion in 1998 is now equivalent to US$3.3 billion — there are 877 billionaires (at 1998 prices) with collective worth of US$9 trillion."
This truly shows that the rich are getting richer, and the poor get poorer.
Image credit: Rissya Rin