Concluding Remarks
Benchmarked against itself, Malaysia today is doing quite well economically.
Even benchmarked against countries in the region, Malaysia is
THE CHALLENGE OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN MALAYSIA 177
doing reasonably well. It is the third biggest economy in Southeast Asia.
Its GDP had been impressive for the last 40 years or so, registering an
average of 7% annually, except in 1973/74 when there was a sharp
increase in the price of oil, in 1986 when there was a drop in major commodity
prices including petroleum, natural rubber and palm oil, and during
the East Asian financial crisis of 1998/99 and in 2001 during the IT
recession. The current unemployment rate is around 3%. Strategies and
policies implemented under the long term Outline Perspective Plan 1, 2
and 3, which spanned over a period of 40 years, among others, had
brought about changes from low income country to middle income
country. Built into the New Economic Model, the development plan to
be implemented beginning of 2011, is the vision of moving into high
income country. Is this going to be possible given the ethnic and religious
plurality of its population? Is the population of the country are
more Malaysian now than before? Or in terms of religion, have they
embraced or developed a feeling that has gone beyond the stage of toleration
and mutual understanding? Whether Malaysia has taken off to the
next level is to subjected to close scrutiny and intense debate. But being
there it must. Perhaps, Prime Minis