Dr Mahathir Mohamad says the country economy is on the strong road of recovery. In reality, the country's economy is in a serious tailspin.

An average wage earner will tell you life these days is tough. The job position is shaky and the future uncertain. Purchasing power and savings value are seriously eroded. The equity market is in the doldrums. Most commodity products and manufactured products are at the low trough of international prices (demand).

Ask any business and they will tell you business/consumer demand has slowed down significantly in the past three to six months. The economy multiplier is at an all-time low, since 1987.

The irony of it is that the government-controlled news dailies still dish out lop-sided pretenses about the economy: low inflation, current-account surpluses, and rise in industrial output.

The dark realities like poor or bleeding corporate earnings, drastic drop in overall market capitalisation (rather than index stocks which are artificially supported), negative loan growth, significant drop in foreign direct investment, and depressed domestic demand do not get mentioned.

But creative reporting does not make the problems go away. The country has undergone a profit-starved recovery last year. That, too, is running out of steam as the US economy has begun to land (soft or hard has yet to be seen).

The government should take steps (painful though it may be) to address the country's economic woes. Stop wasting the country's resources to bail out cronies. It should stop playing godfather to Third world nations and sympathiser to dictatorial governments.

Malaysia needs to return to the mainstream of international politics and diplomacy and rub shoulders with the rich and powerful, the just and democratic nations. It can't forever hide its shroud of dim-wits and play King in the land of the one-eye Jacks.