EY's letter Let's not be kiasu over leaders is a classic case of apology and panegyric so typical of nationalistic egoists who would defend the government without looking at facts and realities. It is the scourge of our continued economic underdevelopment.

By all internationally accepted standard, Singapore has much lower index of corruption than Malaysia. Singapore's public services are more efficient. Their productivity is higher, and so is their academic standard. Can EY deny these facts and realities?

Despite being resource-poor, the island state has achieved much. This means it is driven to success from brain-power, creativity and hard work.

Comparatively, Malaysia is resource-rich but sadly, under the leadership of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, much of its wealth were often misallocated for ideological, non-productive and vain purposes in the pursuit of boasting the highest, tallest and largest buildings.

The Multimedia Super Corridor is an example. Much of the resources allocated for the construction of brick-and-mortar palaces for the conspicuous consumption of a few leaders could have been used to broaden the popular base of computer and Internet-literacy.

The wasted resources to beautify Putrajaya could have also been used to train up more scientists and teachers, or to improve the intellectual quality of public servants.

It is time Malaysians learn positively from the successes of Singapore, just as we parents hope our children learn positively from their peers who are better, not worse. It is time Malaysia stop using Africans, Indonesians or Bangladeshi as 'benchmark' to compare our 'successes'. Learn from the better, not worse.