YESTERDAY, during a visit to Singapore, Finance Minister II Amir Hamzah Azizan said that Malaysia is on its way to reclaiming its status as an “Asian Tiger”. He based this claim on the positive outlooks of analysts and rating agencies for the country.

While it is encouraging that the Malaysian economy is performing well and is highly rated by analysts, it is questionable whether this will “reclaim” the Asian Tiger status for Malaysia.

Firstly, was Malaysia ever an Asian Tiger economy in the first place? The title “Four Asian Tigers” refers to Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, four countries that underwent rapid industrialisation and maintained exceptionally high growth rates from the mid- to late-20th century. By the 1990s, these countries had achieved developed country status. Their success, along with the earlier success of Japan, which they had emulated to some degree, was termed the “Asian miracle.”

Around the same time, economists in search of the next Asian stars identified four “Tiger Cub” economies to follow the path of Japan and the Four Asian Tigers. These four Tiger Cubs were Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Vietnam would later be added to the club.

There is a recurring narrative in Malaysia that the country was once an Asian tiger, on par with countries such as South Korea. There was even a “Rise of the Asian Tiger” convention organised by the Pakatan Harapan government in 2019 to discuss how Malaysia could “reclaim” its Asian tiger status.

This misunderstanding likely stems from the translations of the name “Four Asian Tigers”, which is called “Asia’s Four Little Dragons” in Korean and Chinese. The “Tiger Cub” countries are referred to as “Asia’s Four Little Tigers”.

Malaysian leaders of the 1990s, such as Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim (both speakers at the “Rise of the Asian Tiger” event), who returned to power in recent years, might have wished to play up the good times of the 1990s to strengthen their appeal. They could claim that Malaysia was an Asian Tiger in the past to glorify the period during which they were in power and criticise their successors for the country’s comparatively slower growth thereafter.

But Malaysia was never one of the Four Asian Tigers. Malaysia was merely grouped with Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam as having the potential to become the miracle economies of Asia after the Tigers.

Nowadays, talk of Asian tigers seems outdated. The title is now viewed as a historical term referring to the rise of the four original Asian tigers rather than a growing club with new members. This is understandable, as other economies that have risen since the 1990s have histories that do not necessarily align with those of the first four tigers.

For example, the term “tiger” is almost never used to describe China, which has seen the biggest economic growth in Asia. The phrase “tiger cub economies” is also rarely used these days as those countries have since followed divergent paths.

Indonesia, one of the most-populated countries in the world, is now more commonly compared to other high-population nations with huge economic potential, such as India, Mexico, and Nigeria. Malaysia, which is on the cusp of achieving high-income status and which has since 2016 been on the list of countries with “very high” human development in the UN Human Development Index, is clearly ahead of the other countries in the tiger cubs club in the developmental phase.

What we need to do now is to look at the challenges and opportunities ahead of us instead of indulging in nostalgia for the 1990s. – July 29, 2024.

* Rayner Sylvester Yeo is a member of Agora Society. He was born in Sabah and is currently residing in Kuala Lumpur. Having grown up in a mixed-ethnic, multi-faith family and spent his working life in public, private and non-profit sectors, he believes diversity is the spice of life.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.