I refer to the (winner-loser) argument between Petrof ( A tale of two countries retold ) and Fortep ( Singapore not a fine country to follow ) on Singapore-Malaysia progress.

What Petrof said was bottom line: that "in 1980, the Singapore and Malaysian currencies stood at par. Today, it takes RM2.20 to buy S$1. Our money value is more than halved because we have not kept pace".

This decline of our money value in the last 20 years against Singapore's is true also against the currencies of other countries that keep and forge ahead while we muck around with wastage, mediocrity and politics instead of the nuts and bolts of survival in this increasingly competitive global environment of survival of the fittest. Had it not been oil and gas and other natural resources, where would we be? Where is the nurture and development of human resource ?

Gone are the days when the average Malaysian could afford holidays afar without feeling the pinch of currency conversion, now we have to contend with holidays within Malaysia or neighbouring countries like Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

If our currency slide is not checked and something done to our economic health, Malaysians may end up having to work as maids or other lowly jobs in other countries. All the prestigious symbols like the PetronasTwin Towers, KLIA, Cyberjaya and Putrajaya will remain as symbols of progress and prosperity amid sprawling poverty.

At the end of the day, it is people who are the main resource — their enterprise, creativity, inventiveness and industriousness that count. Yet, we are still wallowing around in protectionist policies whether in relation to racial groups, national cars and various industries.

To top it off, we still allow politics to taint our education policies instead of doing what's best for the future generation of knowledge workers. Imagine improving competence in a subject like English, not by enforcing it through more practical ways, but through Mathematics and Science. People are no doubt laughing at us that we can even debate this seriously at national level and wonder what people are we.

Societies that nurture and groom their people on values of excellence, meritocracy and competitiveness will prevail over those who indolently rely on the fast depleting resources of the land. That's a truism that time will vindicate.

Of course, we don't have to follow the Singapore way of micro-managing the lives of their citizens based on Plato's elitism of the "God and philosopher King" approach but we can take a leaf from the way they invest in their education, civil service efficiency, public transport and most importantly, the lack of corruption, wastage and abuse of public funds. Even though admittedly there is corruption everywhere, in their case it is more a corruption of power — not public money — that we too are just as guilty of too.

If they are not better, why are we 'copycatting' them by building our Light Rail Transit lines, Selangor emulating Singapore in keeping the state clean, national service, central depository system for shares and even the match-making services launched by Wanita MCA?

Cost of living may be high there because of their limited living space. We have much more space, natural resources and a bigger population but far from managing them well, we waste and fritter.

Whatever talent pool we have, we fail to recognise their value and the result is a continuous brain-drain. Instead, we attract not the brainy but militants and terrorists, which is why our government wants to further tighten the Internal Security Act in spite of public outrage, isn't it?

We may have some advantages over them in that the people have learned to be more streetwise and creative in circumventing a more 'flexible' system, cheaper housing, good food and natural water supply. But other than these, there is little else.

Can the more modern KLIA attract more air traffic than Changi? Can MAS do as well as SIA? Can our standards of corporate transparency and governance and proficiency in English match theirs? Can our standard of civil service be compared to Singapore's? Or our index of corruption as measured by worlds standard be better than them?

Singapore was only a tiny island when it separated from Malaysia in 1963 and its only resource was people. Singapore has about the same people ethnicity and culture as Malaysia — being historically a part of Malaya — but its well thought-out policies have accomplished much for its people?

Fortep speaks of spirituality being sacrificed for materialism. Get real. Isn't every society and country striving for development and prosperity? How do you take care of the spiritual part with an empty stomach? How can you acquire knowledge of the temporal world to exploit it for one's betterment when you are more thirsty for knowledge of the spiritual after world?

It is like trying to run before you walk. Those who strive more for spirituality than materialism have only end up becoming weak, blaming others for their own ills and being bullied by others, etc.