Whether Malaysia’s booming export economy
remains mired in a mediocre skill and
value-added equilibrium depends critically on
whether the ruling coalition can be reordered
to include a broader crosscommunal and crossclass
set of active participants. Reform that
goes beyond structural change to creating new
stocks of intellectual capital in an open global
economy will require the active participation
and cooperation of government, labor, academia,
SMIs, MNCs, and large local firms. Dem-
756 WORLD DEVELOPMENT
ocratic or corporatist institutional systems best
foster this participation. But even these might
be insufficient if they promote passive observation
or limit participation to a unidirectional
flow of consultative advice from private actors
to government.