The opinion of Mahathir Mohammad's “legacy” as one of “skewed development” ('Who's the racist these days', The Malaysian Insider, 28 April 2013) raises an important question at a very crucial moment:

What type of development do Malaysians really want?

Is it the project-style development model of endless shopping malls and other constructions repeatedly rolled out everywhere, decided by those above as what's best for us and what defines good living?

Or would it be development where citizens from below, fully harnessing the state, get to deliberate over and determine together more soulful objectives and what their economic destinies shall be?

Do we want higher and higher economic growth that favours the already rich and well-connected, a situation justified as supposedly good because some wealth will 'trickle down' to the poor- and middle-class majority?

Or do we want fair and environmentally sustainable growth, even if numerically low, supplemented by already-produced and redistributed wealth, carefully directed to maximally serve the interests of the majority?

Do we want development in which economic production and national resources are owned and controlled by a small and powerful elite?

Or should there be true public control over the people's 'commonwealth'— water, land, oil, other vital resources and economic sectors— where these are held by the people, and whose terms of use are democratically overseen by the people?

Shall we accept development that systematically destroys the environment, deadens the soul, and creates insecurity, so as to maintain at all cost an economic structure that serves the rich and powerful?

Or do we reshape development where the environment is respected, where we learn about and seek a more satisfying way of living life, and where security is given priority, where the biggest winners are the ordinary people?

Who is the economy for? Is our economy giving us what truly matters in life?

Economic democracy is a precondition for real political democracy.

As long as the economy acts for the wrong people for the wrong outcomes, any talk of political democracy is high fraud.

Will Malaysians vote for market-fuelled and crony-powered development?

Or will they dare to “grasp this sorry scheme of things entire, and mould life nearer to the heart's desire”, in the words of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyyat?