One story that is indelibly imprinted on my mind is of K Phugeneswaran, a student of SMK Seri Bin- tang Selatan, Cheras, who scored 7As in the 2015 SPM. examination. So, what makes his story so special? Attaining 7As is a solid achievement but then we know of those who have achieved 10As or more in SPM.Well,try getting 7As with no water and electric- ityin your home because your parents cannot afford to pay for these.Try getting 7As while studying and sleeping in the school canteen or assembly area for two years. Try getting 7As while being a part-time pizza maker in a supermarket two months before the SPM examination just to pay for books for extra classes and tuition. Try getting As in SPM when you had scored just one Ain PMR. The odds of a student under such constraints achieving 7As are almost like the odds of getting heads 15 times in a row in a fair coin flip. Phugene- swaran wasn’t supposed to be there. But he was.And while Iam sure there are other stories and students like him who perhaps did not get media coverage, I think we should all take a sobriety check and rec- ognise that Phugeneswaran and students like him. are the exception rather than the norm.They’re not supposed to be there. But they are. In some ways, I do think of Malaysia as a coun- try that isn’t supposed to be where it is today. In the economics literature on ethnic conflict, a widely held view put forth by London School of Economics professor Francesco Caselli is that the relationship between ethnic conflict and the size of the strongest ethnic group is an inverted U. If the strongest ethnic group is very large and, therefore, society is almost fully homogenous,the probability of ethnic conflict is very low. After all, no such conflicts could arise if nearly everyone were of the same ethnicity. But if the strongest ethnic group is very small and, therefore, society is almost fully heterog ethnic conflict is also: would have enough su control of resources or Therefore, ethnic con are a few large groups. / put forward by econom Levine, ethnic fraction large enough to wield - er implies conflicts bet therefore, imply an ina generate broad public « such things as the rigl propriate infrastructu countries worse off in tl surely crossed your min graphics put us square scenario that predicts a nic conflict, which wo: development prospects Yet, from 1957 until t pendence, Malaysia has cessful countries in the. growth. Yes, having ab helps, being located in area helps and being hi: take international trade world’s fastest-growing years? And to do that de institutions that propa; despite economic theor see a much higher incid aren’t supposed to be h What’s more, there i cent BCA Research argu of institutional strength inthe long term, Malays