PETALING JAYA: Malaysia ranks 40th in Economist Intelligence Unit's global Democracy Index 2023, emerging as the highest-ranked country in South-East Asia.
Other South-East Asian countries ranked are Timur Leste (45), Philippines (53), Indonesia (56), Thailand (63), Singapore (69), Vietnam (136), Laos (159) and Myanmar (166).
The country was termed a flawed democracy, where although it had free and fair elections and basic civil rights, there were significant weaknesses in other aspects including governance, underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation.
However, the country ranked sixth in the Asia and Australasia category, behind New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, Japan and South Korea.
Malaysia overall had a 7.29 score with the highest score going to Norway (9.81) followed by New Zealand (9.61), Iceland (9.45), Sweden (9.39) and Finland (9.30).
The report said Thailand, which dropped eight spots to 63, was not free from military influence and was far from being free, fair and competitive.
Pakistan was downgraded and was classified as an "authoritarian regime" while Western Europe was termed as the best performing region in 2023.
Japan stands out as one of the most stable democracies in Asia, due to the country's long-established and widely respected political institutions, electoral process, pluralism and rule of law and strong protection of political freedoms and civil liberties.
The Democracy Index report examines the relationship between democracy and peace and geopolitical drivers of conflict today.
"An international political system that does not reflect the shift in the global balance of economic power, in particular to Asia, is one of the sources of increasing tension and conflict," the Index added.
