KUALA LUMPUR – All is not lost with Vision 2020, or Wawasan 2020, a Malaysian ideal announced by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1991.
For one, the concept of one Bangsa Malaysia (one Malaysian race), among the nine challenges that the nation must overcome to achieve Vision 2020, is still discernible in people’s actions today.
At a recent webinar entitled Reckoning with Wawasan 2020, Prof Khoo Boo Teik said there are instances in Malaysia’s recent past in which the spirit of Bangsa Malaysia can be seen.
“For example, during the 12th, 13th and 14th general elections, think about the way people organised Global Bersih, getting the diaspora to come back or exercise their voting rights.
“There have been sightings or flashes of Bangsa Malaysia in action, from the Reformasi movement to (the formation of) Pakatan Rakyat,” he said.
Khoo, who is professor emeritus at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, Japan, said that while Bangsa Malaysia is a crucial component in Vision 2020, it is more suggestive in nature.
“Do not forget, when Dr Mahathir first published his book The Way Forward (alongside Vision 2020), he presented it at an inaugural meeting of a Malaysian business council.
“That was an assembly of state and corporate leaders, (and was aimed at getting) them on his side and say that this is our vision. It was received very warmly,” said Khoo.
In fact, corporate leaders were so convinced by the idea that they were willing to fund the translation and dissemination of Vision 2020 documents, Khoo added.
While the ideal fizzled out by 1997 due to the Asian financial crisis, Khoo said that the recent annual general meeting of the Muslim Youth Movement Malaysia (Abim) in December saw its president propagate the idea of Bangsa Malaysia once more.
In that meeting, Abim president Muhammad Faisal Aziz linked Vision 2020 to a “cosmopolitan Islam”.
Meanwhile, fellow webinar panellist and Malaysia Design Archive research lead Lim Sheau Yun said that the open-ended concept of Vision 2020 made it possible for the ideal to be interpreted in numerous ways, especially by those in the arts.
“The cultural legacy of Wawasan 2020 truly outlived its political legacy.
“It was clear for a child growing up in the early 2000s, when students were made to sing the Wawasan song and exposed to books on the concept, to picture the future.
“There is this imaginative aspect to it and the future will reveal more of it.”
The webinar was held in conjunction with Wawasan 2020: Townhall – an exhibition by A+ Works of Art held from December 31 last year to January 10.
The exhibition showcased artwork that reckons with fault lines, reverberations and the inheritance of Vision 2020.
Vision 2020 was announced during the tabling of the 6th Malaysian Plan in 1991, and envisioned the country achieving developed-nation status by 2020. – The Vibes, February 2, 2021
