Malaysia's Military Strength Ranks Lower Than Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam & Indonesia
Meanwhile, Malaysia was ranked 42nd on the 145-country list, higher than countries such as Switzerland and New Zealand.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 11 Jan 2023, 02:32 PM
Malaysia's military strength has ranked lower than Singapore's, according to a 2023 report by Global Firepower
In the list with 145 countries, Malaysia was ranked 42nd, placing it in the third-last spot among other Southeast Asian (SEA) countries.
Global Firepower ranked the countries by giving each of them a "PwrIndx" score, whereby a score of 0.0000 is considered 'perfect'.
"Each nation is assessed on individual and collective values processed through an in-house formula to generate its 'PwrIndx' (Power Index) score. Some values are estimated when official numbers are not available," it defined its methodology.
It is said that the list was made after measuring 60 factors. The final ranking also took into consideration smaller and more technologically-advanced nations to compete with larger and lesser-developed ones, with some bonuses and penalties added for refinement.
The United States, Russia, and China are the top three countries with the strongest military force, followed by India, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Pakistan, and Japan, respectively.
Below is the ranking of each SEA country's military power among the 145 countries on the list:
2. Vietnam: 19th
3. Thailand: 24th
4. Singapore: 29th
5. Philippines: 32nd
6. Myanmar: 38th
7. Malaysia: 42nd
8. Cambodia: 106th
9. Laos: 115th
Brunei and Timor-Leste are not on the list. Based on the "PwrIndx" score, Malaysia's military power is about 1.34 times weaker than Singapore's and 2.78 times weaker than Indonesia's.
However, another recent publication by US News and World Report has a different finding, whereby Malaysia's military is stronger than Singapore's
The 2022 list has 85 countries in total, and Malaysia came in the 64th place, while Singapore was ranked 82nd. Both countries were two of the weakest countries in military strength among other SEA countries last year:
1. Vietnam: 18th
2. Myanmar: 22nd
3. Indonesia: 29th
4. Cambodia: 31st
5. Philippines: 42nd
6. Thailand: 52nd
7. Malaysia: 64th
8. Singapore: 82nd
However, the list is drastically different when it looked at a country's "power", which measured other factors such as: leadership, economic influence, export strength, political influence, strength of international alliances, as well as military strength:
1. Singapore: 26th
2. Vietnam: 30th
3. Indonesia: 32th
4. Thailand: 36th
5. Philippines: 45th
6. Malaysia: 46th
7. Myanmar: 49th
8. Cambodia: 59th
Despite being the country with the second-highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the region, Malaysia ranked among the last three countries on both lists.
