It saddens me to see the country I was born in and raised stagnating in so many ways - ideologically, sociologically and technologically. Quite frankly, I was relieved to see Dr Mahathir Mohamad go although he had made some positive contributions in his early tenure.

However, the 'ideological' legacy - the 'I am right and know what's best for Malaysians', the 'I owe no explanations to the rakyat for my actions', the 'we don't have issues' kind of thinking - he left behind seems to have shackled the current administrators such that we are unable to come up with any real visionaries with original ideas to advance the nation to the next level.

When you look around, our neighbours are not standing still. Countries that were hitherto, 'laid-back' are pursuing all kinds of ventures (vying for investment dollars, jumping on the outsourcing bandwagon, etc.) while some of the more advanced ones are re-inventing themselves.

Many are changing their traditional assembly-line work to more sophisticated 'high-value-added' upstream work in chip designing, investing in nano-technology, re-designing their fiscal system to attract easier investments and revamping their education systems in keeping with the current technological pace.

In Malaysia on the other hand, what we have ended up with is a leadership with a bunch of 'old boys' from the late 70s (and before) from whom I do not foresee any innovative ideas emerging. It appears that this lot seems to believe that whatever it did in earlier times is going to see the country through in the years ahead.

As with every government initiative in Malaysia, there is no 'grand vision' (Vision 2020 is in serious need of updating) and its associated plan or strategy for execution with the attendant accountability component at every stage.

No, it is not Pak Lah's fault. I don't doubt his sincerity in trying to do the right thing, but to expect one man to change the whole infected system within a year is really preposterous.

Besides, don't forget that he has to keep the principal constituent, Umno - upon whose graciousness his party leadership and nation's premiership depends - appeased at every major step he takes.

He can however, choose to surround himself with a group of forward-thinking technocrats from diverse fields of expertise and begin planning the course for transforming the nation - that is what it is going to take for Malaysia to be competitive in the 21st century.

From my perspective, as an operations director of re-engineering initiatives in a multi-national abroad, running a country in this day and age, in simple terms, is not unlike managing a well-run business, with some social welfare elements thrown in.

However in Malaysia, I have observed in the government an acute reluctance to admit to any kind of past failure and even worse, a steadfast refusal to learn from its mistakes.

I fear that this particular malaise is the one crippling and overriding facet of the government that will cause it to bungle along if it does not alter its stance. Failure is okay if you can admit it, learn from it and improve as a result.

In relation to this, race is the single-most divisive issue among Malaysians that has yet to be officially acknowledged as thus and accorded its due attention. Indeed, you can trace almost every facet of the governance of the country - administrative, judicial and social (including education) - to this root cause.

Yet, despite its far-reaching consequences, to this day, there have been no significant steps taken to ameliorate the racial polarisation and tension between the various ethnic groups.

What is even more astounding is that successive BN leaders and their minions have used race-politics to galvanise support among the Malays by playing up to their perceived fears of 'race-dominance' by the other races.

In other words, there is no real attempt to understand or engage in what we term, in the business world, as 'root cause analysis'. There is no point in treating the symptoms when the real benefit to be gained is in treating the disease.

In truth, we Malaysians have shared beliefs - similar desires, aspirations, dreams, hopes and fears. The only discernible difference is in the religion that each group professes and its associated culture. You would have thought that the most logical route to creating harmony among the different ethnic groups would be to emphasise the similarities and play down the principal differences.

The basic building blocks of unity, whether you are trying to re-engineer a corporation of differing cultural values (especially those resulting from mergers and acquisitions) or uniting different ethnic groups in a country, are the same.

The principal parties have to be treated as equals - no favours nor special privileges that would favour one group over another. Any privilege that is given should be given to all on the same basis - for example, special privilege given to the financially poor regardless of race or ethnic origin.

It is only on this equitable footing that you can foster true nationalism and build lasting unity, since each component group will have the same stake in the nation and has equal likelihood in reaping the rewards or suffering the consequences.

Judging from the fact that race-based policies form the essence (you cannot get more basic than institutionalised racism) of everything Malaysian and that there are no real attempts to change this basis, it is a foregone conclusion that building a Malaysian identity (on the basis of racial equality), in its true sense, will never happen.

Extrapolating further, there is virtually no hope of evolving a Malaysian identity on this basis, since it is predicated upon race and consequently (in the government's interpretation), upon culture and religion - in our case, being Malay, Malay culture and Islam.

The government's definition is further complicated by its explicit stance of intertwining state and religion, a divisive issue in itself in many parts of the world. Every time I see a reference to building a Malaysian identity, there is always a rigid religious and cultural element attached to it.

One can indeed have a Malaysian identity that is forged on a racial parity basis but whose citizenry is of differing cultures (the 'embrace diversity and enjoy it' concept).

My personal belief is that those who wield real power in the government (the government is really Umno, for all practical purposes) have determined that this divide-and-rule policy on a racial basis (a colonial legacy) and its attendant disunity among the races, is a price worth paying for maintaining control.

This is particularly sad when the opposite is true - that by truly addressing the racial issue to be fair to all concerned, the potential to reap the rewards in both monetary and non-monetary terms is enormous.

The non-monetary benefits would be evident in the new spirit of true nationalism and in attenuating the tensions among the ethnic groups, for starters.

The monetary benefits would come in the form of renewed enterprise and vigour of local investment (when people have more faith in the country they invest more in it - less flight of capital), an increase in foreign investment (resulting from a re-listing of Malaysia as 'more politically stable') and considerably less 'fix-its' for all the damage every racial policy causes at the moment.

There is much to be gained by all ethnic groups but I suspect there are just no visionaries among the ruling elite who can see the potential. Most are content with the spoils of their current position and want to maintain the status quo.

Recently, I have been reading the reports of the Malaysian immigration authorities favouring immigrants from Muslim countries over other countries in their deliberations on Malaysian citizenship or permanent residencies in the mistaken belief that this will help forge some kind of 'common' (if not national) identity.

My personal belief is that this is a misguided notion. My people management experience (six years in the various countries of the Middle East and North Africa, five years in England, two years in France and 17 years in the US) has taught me that an ethnic group's allegiance is almost always to its families, its tribe/ethnic group, against a common threat and then to country ... in that order.

Hence, trying to unify Indonesians, Bangladeshis, Burmese, Afghans and Pakistanis for a Malaysian issue (such as nationalism, say) is a lost cause; other than religion, there are really no other shared beliefs.

It will take at least two (more likely three) generations of this new residents to identify themselves as Malaysians. You would have slightly better luck uniting indigenous Malays, Chinese and Indians if that was the goal.

The common business example I see in this context is where we acquire a multi-billion ringgit business and integrate two similar departments only to find out that they continue to function as two separate departments with the name of the new department being the only shared denominator.

Hence, my conclusion (and point) is that building a Malaysian identity (on the basis of race equality) is not a real priority for the government.

My recommendation to the government, not simply as a businessman, but also based on pragmatism, is not to waste any more taxpayer ringgit on nationalism programmes until it has established the pre-conditions for its success.

When you handle taxpayer ringgit, you should consider every angle before committing to a venture, have a darn good way of tracking the progress and enough checks and balances (including accountability) to ensure that any signs of failure are addressed quickly.

What is sad is that, after almost five decades of independence, we have been unable, in Malaysia, to bring globally-visioned leaders to the forefront - leaders who can see beyond racial boundaries to recognise the immense sociological and economic potential that can benefit all Malaysians.

What we have been churning out, with each successive government, are leaders who are attempting to run a 21st century economy according to the rules and conventions of a bygone era.

Until and unless they discard this 'governance by their seat-of-the-pants' mentality, I am afraid Malaysia will be relegated to the 'also-ran' category of countries in this technology driven, fiercely competitive and global 21st century.