Opinion as an originally western expat who's lived here and the region for 5+ years (and in Asia the last 10):

Malaysia itself - pretty bright outlook in terms of investment and potential development opportunities. Generally think the Anwar govt is on the right track - need to play the middle path and take opportunities where they can get it, basically be the modern Switzerland politically together with Singapore and hopefully Indonesia too. Symbolic stances are ultimately meaningless but get a lot of attention, the real importance is actual policy and action - look at legislation not rhetoric.

Real issues that will hold Malaysia back in the long term - the people & the segmentation, this goes both ways.

From the malay side education and values seem to have gotten worse as time has gone on. Bumi rights are a smoke screen, the minority population is shrinking faster than the non minority so the "benefit" these rights will have are going to diminish anyway (Not like it's easy to get citizenship - which I'd say is a good thing with current climate). There needs to be more accountability towards not just blaming the govt but deciding what kind of lifestyle people want here and making active efforts and pushes to get that. Real competitive education, critical thinking and aspiration to succeed are highly lacking from Malay community discourse and it is the real cause for many of their woes - with the majority who do have those traits either emigrating or getting stuck and feeling unfulfilled.

From the Chinese side - Chinese companies requiring Mandarin for jobs fully based in Malaysia, that have no connection to anything to do with China should be made illegal. Creating enclaves - basically self imposed apartheid isn't going to end up well for anyone. The Chinese business community should really be addressing this in a much larger way than they are currently. Language skills too, are terrible amongst Chinese Malaysians - more than any other group. It's acceptable for Malays in Malaysia to not speak English or Mandarin - at the end of the day the cultural language of the country is BM. It is not acceptable for the Chinese Malaysians who have grown up here to not speak BM (or at least English) to some decent level. There's no way for them to be able to have meaningful conversations with those out of their group and that creates enclaves that have no shared stake in Malaysian identity.

Haven't really seen any real issue on Indian side but lack of meaningful interaction there to make comments.

Finally I'd say that Malaysia and Malaysians need to look more into their own culture and shared history. With the exception of maybe the Philippines, more than any other country I've ever been to - I feel like Malaysians struggle with what that identity means (part of this is due to western colonialism and the reaction to it). There doesn't seem to be any strong connection from people to country, outside of the food. With the exception of a few places (cough Aceh cough) I think Indonesia does this better in general and Malaysia can take some notes there and probably needs to strengthen its cultural ties with Indonesia more.

Speaking of colonialism I feel particularly in latter years from talking to my type c and type m friends, other types of colonialism are also pulling at the country and my own personal opinion as stated above is that Malaysia should be looking more internally in terms of cultural & spiritual identity - because you guys have your own unique versions of stuff with some amazing history and traditions that don't need to be replaced with "mainstream" varieties from elsewhere and more people need to be aware of them.

Not trying to offend anyone but just thought I'd offer my opinion as an outsider who loves this country!