00:00You call yourself an Asian tiger, but you're actually a monkey.
00:08You're not, you're not developed.
00:11Malaysia was never an Asian tiger, contrary to a claim by former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
00:18This is what Amno's stalwart, Tengku Razali Hamzah, had to say.
00:23He also cautioned giving in to illusions of grandeur.
00:27Tengku Razali, who is better known as Kuli, said the country could not make such a claim
00:32since it financed most of its projects, including dams and highways, due to foreign investors skirting around Malaysia.
00:40He also said that there were those who believed Malaysia is a rich and developing nation that has already arrived.
00:48You are never an Asian tiger. It's an illusory.
00:54During his second term as Prime Minister in 2018, Mahathir announced that Malaysia would once again become an Asian tiger economy
01:02and repeated the same claim in 2019.
01:05However, the label was disputed by economist Madeleine Burma, who said the nation only ever qualified as a little tiger or little dragon,
01:13pointing out that the actual four Asian tigers were Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong.
01:20It was previously reported that Malaysia was expected to become the fifth Asian tiger due to its strong economic growth,
01:27but the 1997 Asian financial crisis derailed the country's progress.
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