PUTRAJAYA, Sept 2 ― With food on the table and no chaos, Malaysia is not a “failed state” as alleged, federal minister Datuk Paul Low said today.

Low noted that recent news reports had described Malaysia as a “failed state”, arguing that the country has done quite well economically despite being dogged by corruption.

“But I think for many of you who are in Putrajaya, I think you look at what we have around here, I don't think there is symptoms of failed state.

“If we have a failed state, we will have chaos, people will not have food on the table, there will be high unemployment,” he said during a plenary session at the 16th International Anti-Corruption Conference here.

“But that doesn't mean we don't have corruption. Corruption is still an issue but we have managed our economy quite well,” he added when speaking at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre.

He went on to cite a list of statistics to back his claim, including Malaysia's 6th rank in a global index on Ease of Doing Business.

Low also said Malaysia ranked 20th out of 144 nations in the World Economic Forum's competitiveness index, pointing out that the country had a low unemployment rate of 2.9 per cent and with only 0.6 per cent of the population being in poverty as of last year.

Last week, deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin cautioned that Malaysia could turn into a “failed state” if the government fails to boldly tackle a looming national crisis fuelled by political and economic instability.

Muhyiddin had listed the factors that could cause Malaysia to be a failed state as an unstable global economic climate, plunging ringgit value, extraordinary political turmoil, price hikes, rising living costs, “uncontrolled” influx of foreigners and cooling investor sentiments.

On August 18, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Malaysia and its government may not be perfect given the current problems plaguing the nation, but insisted that this does not mean that the country is a “failed state” or a “rogue nation” as claimed by critics.

He cited Malaysia’s high score in the Global Islamic Economy Indicator 2014-15, as well as “top spot” in the Global Competitiveness Report and the World Bank Report of Doing Business.

A columnist with US-based magazine The Diplomat recently wrote that Malaysia was fast becoming a “rogue” nation and a “failed state” due to alleged corruption in the administration, despite its leaders’ repeated pledge to address the problem.

The column, titled “Going Rogue: Malaysia and the 1MDB scandal”, claimed that the controversy over 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) showed how many of the country’s key institutions have lost credibility as they are deemed to have been “co-opted” to help keep Barisan Nasional in power.

But Najib claimed critics of his administration had “vested interests”, and expressed regret that many of the country’s youths trusted such propaganda more than their own government, also claiming that those who spread such alleged propaganda are “enemies of Islam”.