Quarterly Journal of Political
Research in Islamic World

Development is one of the most important concepts for countries, especially for developing countries in the Third World. Southeast Asian countries are among the countries that, as development-oriented states, could achieve an optimal and high development by adopting appropriate political-economic policies. Malaysia, especially from the time of the Prime Minister Mahatyr Muhammad, was able to achieve a high development and become modern Malaysia and this development is still ongoing. The research question is that what factors and policies led to the rapid development in Malaysia, particularly from the 1980s onwards? The findings of this study suggest that the Malaysian government achieved rapid economic development and could reach to a high level of all-round development and has become a model for other  developing countries in the Third World by establishing a development-oriented state and adopting the policies such as industrialization, privatization, export development, economic stability, foreign investment, being influenced by the Japanese development model, knowledge-based economy, national technology development, management and governmental decision-making, enhancing economic efficiency, economic planning, national development of communications and information technology and so on. It seems that the Malaysian government has played the most important role in Political-Economic development of  the country. The modern Malaysia, especially the Malaysia at  Prime Minister Mahatyr. M time, is a good example of a development-oriented state affirmative action. To answer this research question, descriptive - analytic study is utilized.