Wawasan 2020: Success or Failure?

At the beginning of the year, I said I will review and give my own evaluation of the success or failure of Wawasan 2020 or Vision 2020 (link here).

But the CoVid-19 and busy work schedule happened.

I said I would write a separate commentary on each goals and objectives, but it looks like that is not possible.

So, what I would do is rate each goal on a scale of 1 to 10; 1 being least successful and 10 being most successful. Please bear in mind that this is totally subjective based on my own opinions and views. No objective data was used and no surveys were done.

Before we proceed, a bit of commentary.

The events of General Election 2018 and CoVid-19 pandemic of 2020 really tested Malaysian citizens in the 9 areas or objectives of Wawasan 2020. It gave me a sort of measuring stick to "judge" the success or failure of the vision.

Here goes.

1: Establishing a united Malaysian nation made up of one Bangsa Malaysia (Malaysian Race).
Rating: 5

We are at a tipping point as a Malaysian society. The 2018 GE and the pandemic proved that we can come together as a nation when the nation needed us the most. This makes me optimistic.

But other events, which I will not mention here, makes me pessimistic. Some people still think in terms of "us vs them", along racial, religious or some other arbitrary lines.

Social media amplify both the united front and the divided fronts. There is a tug of war for the soul of the nation. This is why I said we are at a tipping point.

My reading of history also tell me this. The famous quote where it is said, you are doomed to repeat history if you do not learn from it, is true. This is why I give rating 5 for this.

2: Creating a psychologically liberated, secure and developed Malaysian society.
Rating: 4

Are we as a society psychologically liberated? Psychologically secure? Psychologically developed? I do not know.

I think this is about mental health. I confess I rarely read articles about the mental health of Malaysians. 

But I notice many people still blame the supernatural when their family members and friends developed some mental health issues. 

So, rating 4.

3: Fostering and developing a mature democratic society.
Rating: 6

The courage of Malaysians to vote out the BN government that has been ruling for 61 years, showed a more matured democratic society. But that was just one election. Can we sustain our rational judgement and wisdom when voting in future elections? Voting along what is best for the nation rather than "us vs them" mentality.

But a democratic society is so much more than just voting during elections. Other democratic measures such as freedom of speech are still lacking and restrictive. We cannot handle full freedom of speech. We are not yet mature enough for it. Hence Rating 6.

4: Establishing a fully moral and ethical society.
Rating: 4

Why rating of 4? Some people becomes more religious but they are not more moral or ethical. In fact, they use religion to justify their immorality and non-ethical acts.

Recent events proved this, not to mention when religious political leaders are caught with their pants down, they use religion to justify their actions. Their followers also support the leaders using religion. Those who are silent are also guilty of this, in my opinion. 

Even those who use "jangan war-warkan aib orang lain" are hypocrites. First of all, they only use this when their religious leaders are accused of something and not for other people. Also, they conflate and compare "aib" with criminal acts. They use religious teaching of hiding other people "aib" to justify covering their criminal acts, when "aib" is obviously referring only to "personal sins" that do not involve harming or hurting other people. (Just to be clear, molestation and rape are crimes or criminal acts, NOT "aib" to be hidden or covered up.)

And don't get me talking about bribery and corruption. I am sure many of you have your own stories.

5: Establishing a matured liberal and tolerant society.
Rating: 5

Like I said, we are at a tipping point. I think we are becoming more liberal and tolerant. But then some people defined "liberal" as something bad and discourages becoming more liberal. I suppose it depends on your definition of "liberal".  I have my own take on this. I may write this in another post.

6: Establishing a scientific and progressive society.
Rating: 5

Again, my reading of history says we are at a tipping point. We want to encourage STEM but when we revert the teaching of STEM from English to Bahasa, I am pessimistic. Whether we like it or not, the language of STEM worldwide is English and if we want to accelerate STEM education, we have to do it in English.

Also, when science and religion collide, people still use the phrase "sometime we cannot use akal or reason for some things". If I consider this alone, the rating would be 1, but there are other hopeful reasons, which I will not write here for now. This struggle between "reason and religion" deserves its own post.

7: Establishing a fully caring society.
Rating: 8

The pandemic of 2020 alone proves we as a society are caring and compassionate and generous. No need to say more.

8: Ensuring an economically just society, in which there is a fair and equitable distribution of the wealth of the nation.
Rating: 4

This is a bit more difficult to assess. However, based on the number of people that is classified as B40 and on the number of people that is eligible for "Bantuan Sara Hidup" scheme, I think we are at rating 4, maybe even lower.

9: Establishing a prosperous society with an economy that is fully competitive, dynamic, robust and resilient.
Rating: 3

Our economy is still full of monopolies and oligopolies. There are still too many barriers to free trade and free enterprise. Too many restriction to fair competition and free access to economic activities.