SO Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) has deemed it is appropriate to put Malaysia back in its hugely influential indices of free markets.
Try talking to the 170,000 account holders of the Central Limit Order Book (Clob) exchange about Malaysia's free markets.
The Singapore-based Clob market was set up to allow Malaysian companies to raise money through the deeper markets of the city state.
Then the idea of international markets sat well with Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his ruling coalition, playing a key part in funding his dream of Malaysia as a modern, industrialised country.
However, when the Asian crisis broke out, Dr Mahathir quickly forgot the benefits Malaysia had enjoyed from exposure to international markets, picked up his ball and went home.
Some of the biggest losers of this volte face are the Clob investors, mostly Singaporeans, who hold about S$2 billion (about HK$9.25 billion) worth of Malaysian shares which they cannot trade under the capital controls imposed by Kuala Lumpur last September.
Since then their anger has turned to frustration as Malaysia has refused to lift the ban. Instead private Malaysian investors stepped forward to offer to buy the shares at steep discounts, rubbing salt in the Clob-holders' wounds.
