A friend of mine brought my attention to the latest issue of a magazine called Foreign Policy

, which is a publication o­n global politics, economics and ideas. Its focus is o­n explaining how the process of global integration reshapes nations, cultures, institutions and our own daily lives.

The magazine has an annual globalisation index, which it started two years ago. It ranks countries according to an index that measures each country's global links, from foreign direct investments, to international travel, telecommunications traffic and Internet servers. It also measures technological, economic and political integration. This year's ranking includes 62 countries, which represent 85 percent of the world's population, including Malaysia.

Malaysia's overall ranking is 18, which means that our country is in the top 30 percent of this index. What is more interesting however is the special comment inserted with Malaysia's ranking, which states that Malaysia is the top-ranked Muslim nation in the index, beating countries like Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. It has also moved into the top 10 of the economic component of the globalisation index.

In my opinion, this demonstrates a few things. Firstly, our nation is acknowledged as the most progressive and forward-looking Muslim nation in the world. This is quite an achievement, considering that there are other Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia which are considerably wealthy and prosperous. To top it off, we are number eight in terms of countries which are economically integrated, which is a ranking better than the US, United Kingdom and Germany. Thus, no o­ne can claim that Malaysia is inward-looking and complacent.

Secondly, Malaysia's ranking demonstrates that our federal government is generally heading in the right direction in respect to globalisation and liberalisation, even though Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad sometimes expresses his reservations o­n the concept of globalisation envisaged by certain Western governments and businesses, where the poor and underprivileged people of the world get poorer and the rich countries and western businesses get richer. The leaders of Barisan Nasional seem to know what they are doing to ensure economic and political stability of the country.

Our federal government, led by Barisan Nasional, is the best government that we can have, considering the alternative that we have of PAS and their extreme ideologies, who are interested to bring Malaysians two step backwards when it comes to business and global economics if they come into power. Even the acting president of PAS, Abdul Hadi Awang, cannot even express himself in English.

How will it look if PAS came into power and our prime minister can't even speak English in international conferences and forums? Will we be proud to be Malaysians then?

I think Malaysians should think very carefully before voting in the next general election for our next government, especially in this world which is becoming more and more integrated and complex, where multilateral organisations like the World Trade Organisation and 'opinion-influencers' like the World Economic Forum take o­n increasingly important roles in global politics and economics.

Finally, the ranking demonstrates that our country is being led by a progressive and visionary individual, who is none other than Mahathir. He is assisted by a group of very capable individuals, including International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz, who understands the repercussions of WTO's varied agreements and who undoubtedly ensures that Malaysia gains, and not loses, from the negotiations which take place in the WTO.

I am sure that even after Abdullah Ahmad Badawi takes over the helm of the nation in October as Malaysia's fifth prime minister, we will continue to have a government which is visionary, progressive and which will take care of the rakyat in these ever-changing times.