The Malaysian government is always sensitive to adverse foreign reports and perceptions as it is worried that these may affect the number of tourists and investors who will come to Malaysia.

This sounds logical and most of us will not hesitate to support the government in its bid to counter baseless allegations and reports on Malaysia. However, the rakyat feels that equally, the government should also be sensitive to a number of international indices which do not reflect too well on Malaysia.

As we are fond of saying that we are on par with or even better than other countries, the Malaysian government, fresh from the recent mandate, should now work hard to improve Malaysia's latest standing in terms of:

- RSF Press Freedom Index (Malaysia - 104 th )

- UNDP Human Development Index (Malaysian - 59 th )

- Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (Malaysia - 37 th )

It's no good saying that these indices are biased and other what nots because like it or not, they are accepted internationally.

Indeed the rakyat would like to call upon Pak Lah & Co to submit to Parliament every quarterly a report card on how Malaysia is doing in its earnest efforts to really improve Malaysia's rankings.