They are too complacent as the Prime Minister said. Malaysia, as a country, must learn to compete - or prepare to lose out. At any rate, one can impose protective barriers against manufactured goods, but not against ideas and knowledge. When you sell cars, your products can be kept out by a protective wall, but the same cannot be done to keep out knowledge or ideas which exist in the human mind. Even if immigration laws are changed to keep the person out he can still sell his ideas, his software, his consultant service, his design or blueprint to another country through the Internet.
Protectionism is ineffective.
That's what Malaysia will have to get into. While it is sorting out a host of political and economic problems, it cannot let up on training and retraining of its people. Instead of rising, education has declined in the 1990s. When Dr. Mahathir retires, who succeeds him or what policies the new man brings are critical questions - but irrespective how these turn out, nothing will work without a concerted effort to upgrade the nation's skill. The battle among nations is over knowledge and ideas.