KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — A democracy index report by London-based financial journal The Economist has revealed Malaysia as recording the highest score among Asean countries.

Despite being grouped in “flawed democracy” among other countries like the US and other Western democracies, Malaysia came out top among Asean countries after scoring 7.24 in the annual Democracy Index issued by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Right behind Malaysia was Timor Leste, with 7.06, followed by Indonesia (6.71), Philippines (6.62), and Singapore (6.23).

In terms of Asia and Australasia countries, Malaysia was ranked sixth behind New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, South Korea and Japan.

Overall, Malaysia was placed 39th out of 167 countries with Norway, New Zealand and Finland emerging as top three — while the bottom three were occupied by North Korea, Myanmar, and Afghanistan, respectively.

The index indicators were based on five points that reflected a country’s democratic values including the process of elections, functioning government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.

Malaysia scored a resounding 9.58 for electoral process and pluralism, 7.86 for functioning government, 6.25 for political culture, and 5.29 for civil liberties.

The democracy index report classified countries into four categories of regimes: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime or authoritarian regime.

It mentioned that only 6.4 per cent or 21 out of 167 countries were living in a full democracy, while others were deemed as “democracy of some sort”.

The Economist’s report defines “flawed democracy”, which Malaysia was grouped into, as a country that has free and fair elections, as well as where civil liberties were celebrated but cannot distance themselves from problems like infringement of media freedom.

The index reported that the results were influenced by the quality of governance elsewhere in the Asia region was undermined by continued restrictions on individual freedoms as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In terms of Malaysia, the report cited the nationwide state emergency declared by then prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to cushion the impact of Covid-19.

“This led to the suspension of Parliament and delayed the collapse of the government headed by then prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who at the time faced a vote of no confidence,” it said.

Globally, the index concluded that the global public health crisis has compounded democratic growth as support for authoritarianism has increased, leaving just over 45 per cent of the world’s population living in democracy.