KUALA LUMPUR: Instead of keep blaming the past administration for the fiasco of policies and visions for the people, the present government should treat it as a valuable lesson to avoid repeating the same mistakes, and to better chart and steer the nation to a better future.
Tan Sri T.C Goh, president of The Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong) said, “We do not wish to see the repeat of the same fiasco for Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 (SPV2030). We must not disappoint our next generation.”
In his 2020 New Year message issued today, he noted that Vision 2020 was once a popular and promising slogan that was mooted and introduced by the current prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1991 during his tenure as the 4th prime minister of Malaysia. It was launched concurrently with the 6th Malaysia Plan with the chief aim of transforming Malaysia into an advance nation.
When Dr Mahathir became the 7th prime minister of Malaysia following the change of government in 2018, he had said that due to tampering by the former prime minister, Vision 2020 can only be achieved in 2025 (five years of delay).
However, one year later, in October 2019, Dr Mahathir introduced the SPV2030 to replace Vision 2020.
In fact, during the Barisan Nasional (BN) era, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was not optimistic about Vision 2020, hence in 2016 he decided to come out with his own vision – National Transformation 2050 (TN50) to replace Dr Mahathir’s Vision 2020.
“Regardless of Vision 2020 or TN50, the fact remains that they are a glaring fiasco of political struggles. We must avoid repeating such a terrible mistake at all cost,” said Goh.
He then called on the Pakatan Harapan government to strive to foster a greater national unity and racial harmony, as emphasized in SPV2030, towards making Malaysia a progressive and respected nation.
“In the past one year, the nation and its people were troubled by political disputes between politicians from both sides of the divide, racial and religious conflicts perpetrated by a certain quarters, besides discouraging economic situation caused by global economic meltdown,” he said.
He also acknowledged that after close to two years of change of government, the people are largely still full of hope and expectations under a New Malaysia.
“We hope the present government could pay greater attention to the people’s aspirations. It must not keep making such lame excuses like “we are the first time government”, “give us more time” etc and make the people wait for another 10 years to see the intended results of the Shared Prosperity Vision.
“Instead, the government should adopt a strong political will and step up efforts to carry out reforms, revive the economy, and resolve pressing issues affecting the people. That’s the right move in the right direction of nation building, and also the wish of the people when they voted for change in the last general election,” he concluded.-pr/BNN
