The reason we lost Pulau Batu Putih...?

According to Spanish ranking system, Webometric Ranking of World Universities, the Top 10 universities in South-East of Asia are:

1. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
2. NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
3. KASETSART UNIVERSITY
4. CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY
5. PRINCE OF SONGKLA UNIVERSITY
6. ASIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY THAILAND
7. CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY
8. THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
9. ASSUMPTION UNIVERSITY OF THAILAND
10. KHON KAEN UNIVERSITY

Out of the top 10 ranking South East Asia universities, two are from Singapore, and the balance eight universities are from Thailand. Also, on the Top 100 list, Thailand has 41 universities, Myanmar 18, Indonesia 14, the Philippines 13, and Singapore seven.

In Asia, the Top 10 universities are:

1. UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO
2. NATIONAL TAIWAN UNIVERSITY
3. KYOTO UNIVERSITY
4. BEIJING UNIVERSITY
5. KEIO UNIVERSITY
6. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
7. UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
8. CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
9. NATIONAL CHIAO TUNG UNIVERSITY
10. NAGOYA UNIVERSITY

Out of the Top 10 ranking universities in ASIA, four are from Japan, five are from China, and the remaining one is from Singapore.

In terms of Global Ranking, none of Malaysia's universities are anywhere near the top 1,000.

Well, the fact speaks for itself! Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, and Singapore are way ahead of Malaysia. And we are still under the delusion that the Philippines and Indonesia are just countries producing maids, musicians and cheap labourers.

And much as we despise that tiny dot south of Johore, the fact is we couldn't match wits with them and lost Pulau Batu Putih and the economic zones that go with owning what seemed like an insignificant lighthouse. Maybe we could have won if we had argued that Pulau Batu Putih looked like our island, sound like our island, and so must be our island.