COMMENT Lately, never before in the history, the subject matter of whether Malaysia is failed state or moving in the direction of one has emerged.

It is obvious that the question of Malaysia becoming a failed state seems to be rooted in Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s fallout in the 1MDB scandal and the consequent depreciation of the Malaysian ringgit, the flight of foreign capital in the region of RM12 billion and the lack of confidence in the Malaysian economy.

However, this is not to speak of the serious social and ethnic tensions that are emerging in the absence of visible authority.

States fail or get into the direction of failure due to  a combination of factors. The concept of failed state that was  used to denote regimes in Africa and Latin America, seems to have found its way into Southeast Asia recently...