Any first-time visitor to Malaysia will be left speechless as he/she gets overwhelmed by sights of the towering skyscrapers, majestic palatial dwellings and infrastructures.

“Progressive and successful” is the accolade showered generously in the country’s publicity materials beamed across the world.

After 59 years of independence and self-rule by the sole political machinery - the coalition called BN - Malaysians, too, have been mesmerised with the ‘bumiputra’ mantra, as they think and believe that life could not have been better or worse.

The story of academic high achiever K Phugeneswaran who had scored straight As for his SPM grades - as reported today in Free Malaysia Today - may inspire many more parents, students and teachers.

However, it also tolls the bell of how a government has failed in as many ways as it has brought seeming development to a nation of 30 million citizens - and also enjoyed by another eight million migrant workers.

We need to do some national reflection. Have the sins of corruption and omission contributed to the disparities we see all across the nation?

How do we explain why his parents are both working at below the world standard of minimum wages?

In the meantime, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi recently said that Malaysians are shying away from dirty, difficult, and dangerous (3D) jobs.

How do we explain the poverty that could have almost threatened yet another youth to turn to crime?

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has proclaimed how we have attained fantastic gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP) - registering growth when the world over is stagnating!

Justifying this fear?

How do we explain why, in a land of heavy rainfall and boasting of piped water to every home (a signature sign of a well developing nation), we have one Indian boy living and having to study without water and electricity?

And we are not even sure if this young and determined lad will secure the much-needed funds to further his studies without worries of an empty stomach and related hardships. How would we justify this fear?

Only the family of K Phugeneswaran know the true hardships and struggles they have had to endure all these decades.

But today as we celebrate and sing praises over this young Malaysian’s success in rising above all the many odds that life has offered him, we need to ask: What is this “development and success” story that this country’s leadership is chasing after?

Why are Malaysians living and struggling in the face of abject poverty in a country blessed for decades with oil, crops and minerals?

After close to six decades of putting our trust and hope in one single political coalition, we are still guilty of disparity in the sharing of the nation’s so-called “progress and development”. Even the RM2.6 billion ‘donation’ had failed to rescue the poor and struggling Malaysians.

Would making Malaysia a “high income nation” ensure that we’ll no longer see our own citizens suffer just like the family of this young boy, who had fought a hard, long battle against poverty and deprivation?

Migrant citizens are landing by the millions on this land of promises, yet we still have our own citizens struggling against so many odds - including the lack of basic amenities.

No matter what the counter-arguments and justifications that will be peddled to us, we must search our ethical bearings and therein owe up to the failures of good governance. Or will we take up the much touted proclamation, "balik pendatang", against those who have to battle the unjustified odds in life and for bringing the matter into the public sphere of soul-searching?

Surely there are also far more testimonies of Malaysians struggling without justifications in this land of good governance, progress and development.

Perhaps, the media should do a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme by bringing out the many stories of failures that are plastered with icings of celebrating news.