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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has risen four places in the 2020 Democracy Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and has reached its highest ranking.
It currently ranks 39th out of 167 countries ranked by the EIU, according to a research division of the firm that publishes The Economist magazine.
“Political stability in Malaysia has deteriorated since the departure of former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in March 2020.
“However, improvements in the electoral process and pluralism have resulted in more democratic political institutions,” the EIU said in a report released on Wednesday (February 3).
This is an improvement from No. 43 in 2019 and No. 52 in 2018.
In the Asia-Australasia region, Malaysia ranks sixth, behind South Korea and ahead of Timor-Leste.
Malaysia also currently ranks highest among all Asean nations.
The EIU gave Malaysia a score of 7.19 out of a maximum of 10 along with France, the United States, Singapore and Guyana.
Malaysia also scored 9.8 in “electoral processes and pluralism” similar to Switzerland, outperforming other countries such as South Korea (9.17) and Japan (8.75).
This score is higher than 9.17 in 2019.
In the 2020 Democracy Index, 23 countries are full democracies, 52 are flawed democracies, 35 are hybrid regimes, and 57 are authoritarian regimes.
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