KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has ranked 7th out of 60 developing and emerging economies globally in the recent 2012 Change Readiness Index published by KPMG International and Overseas Development Institute (ODI). It comes as both activists and opposition lawmakers in Malaysia continue to push for reform and change in the country to push forward ahead of expected elections by early next year. Although there are outspoken critics of reform, including former strongman Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, who likened reform to opening the Pandora's box of ethnic tension, the vast majority of Malaysians seem to want to see further reforms established both politically and economically. “We were protesting in April for our freedoms and this includes demanding rights in the labor workforce,” said Bersih 3.0 activist Ahmad Jerat. He told Bikyamasr.com that “Malaysia can change for the better and be an example for many countries.” The report sheds new insights into which countries are better prepared to cope with change and leverage resulting opportunities. Managing partner of KPMG in Malaysia, Mohamed Raslan Abdul Rahman, said Malaysia fared particularly well in the areas of investment climate and diversification policies, in the index. “You only need to look at the impact of the Economic Transformation Programme and the regulatory reforms in response to the global economic impact to see the importance of achieving a greater understanding of a country's change readiness. “The result of the Index is surprising and, when verified, is expected to provide important new insights for policy development and donor action aimed at strengthening government and national capability,” he said in a statement. The Change Readiness Index adopts a “forward-looking perspective, capturing the underlying factors that are likely to determine a country's capability for managing change, which in turn may be indicative of sustained growth in the long term,” the report argued. It combines data from a number of existing indicators with new measures that have been identified to capture specific elements of change readiness that are not currently being captured.
