Despite Malaysia's pretty economic growth over this past few months, something just doesn't seem to be right. It is almost as if the GDP growth figures were manipulated or spiced up.

Well, they weren’t. Contrary to popular belief, the government does not really ‘jack up’ economic figures. It just found clever ways to ‘spice up’ growth figures. That's all.

Let’s use last year as an example. Abdullah found out that the economic figures were not good, and it couldn't have been at a worse time. Elections were just around the corner and he didn't want the economy to appear weak. So he did something very clever - he increased the wages of civil servants. This, of course, leads to higher spending. And as we know, spending helps boost the economy.

I am not saying that civil servants do not deserve a pay rise. But the reason why they were given one couldn't be any worse. Yes, Malaysia is actually a failing economy. China and India are fast replacing Malaysia as manufacturing power houses. Half of Malaysia's GDP figure comes from the manufacturing sector.

If oil and palm oil prices did not increase last year by a mile, Malaysia would have registered an economic growth of somewhere near 3.5%. This is a measly figure for a developing country.

By 2014, Malaysia will no longer be a net exporter of oil. In turn, this translates to losses for every sen oil prices go up.

To achieve developed status by 2020, Malaysia should have registered at least an 8% economic growth annually since 1995 (a developed country should have Purchasing Power Parity of at least RM25,000, and GDP per capita should be close to PPP figures) Right now, Malaysia has PPP of RM14,700 and a GDP per capita of RM6,500.

We have only done an average of 5% increase in GDP growth from 1995- 2007. So Vision 2020 will not be achieved despite what the government might claim. Furthermore, for Malaysia to move up the value chain, (I define this as a country that is able to innovate and produce high- quality products eg companies such as Samsung, LG from Korea) large amounts of foreign direct investments (FDI) are needed.

To show you how low our FDI is, Malaysia has a pathetic RM7 billion of FDI annually while Singapore, a country 100 times smaller then Malaysia, has FDI of RM55 billion annually. Last year, nearly 50% of our FDI went into the Iskandar Development Region. This, in my opinion, is a project bound to be a major failure. When Singaporeans were invited to invest, they did. But when they started to invest, our smart politicians said this would chase the Malays into the jungles.

To summarise everything up:

1. Malaysia's economic growth is now based on oil and palm oil prices. (Malaysia will soon be a net importer of oil, and palm oil prices have reached their peak, meaning it will be downhill from here on)

2. Malaysia's manufacturing sector is shrinking, thus unemployment rates will go up.

3. Immigrants from Indonesia, Philippines are causing wages to remain stagnant.

4. Malaysia is suffering from a ‘brain drain’. No qualified professionals want to work in Malaysia anymore.

5. All the people’s tax money are being used for stupid subsidies and unnecessary mega-projects.