Achieving Vision 2020

Dr Mahathir has just pronounced judgement on the country's ability to succeed in the national mission of achieving Vision 2020. He has said that Malaysia will fail to meet the goals set out in the plan to achieve developed country status by the year 2020 due to the "political instability" that now exists in Malaysia. The present political instability confronting the nation is the result of chaos brought about by the irresponsible conduct of three groups. The first group belonged to the extremists and supremacists who want our society to continue to be split along racial and religious lines. The second group comprised the self-centred and inward-looking leaders of the Barisan National who still have not learned anything much from the setbacks in the last general elections. The third culprit is of course Dr Mahathir himself. The supremacists and extremists in Malaysia want to re-live the kind of atmosphere that existed in the days shortly after independence, when political power was in the hands of just one particular community and others were regarded as squatters or aliens. Civil rights was something unknown living perhaps on the moon then. Our BN leaders are still lacking in moral courage and have been unable to change with the times. They want to rule the country, but at the same time they are willing to allow the extremists and supremacists to dictate upon society their despicable desires and whims as and when they wished. These evil elements in our society have shown time and again they they would resort to the use of violence whenever that was needed. Dr Mahathir did much lasting harm to the country when he held the post of Prime Minister for twenty-two years. Corruption and discrimination were the twin pillars that marked his more than two decades in power. The movement of foreign workers into the country grew from a mere trickle into a ceaseless and swollen flood that has helped crime to rise to new levels never before experienced in this country. If we were to take all three groups and put them together, we would be able to find two common factors that they all shared with each other, namely, ( the sources of ) racism and crime. It is sad that in the BN coalition, some people are more than equal compared to others. And many of them are only interested in political power and the posts that they get rewarded with. The sufferings of the ordinary citizen are not their concern at all. At most they could only pay lip service to the ordinary citizen's woes but these people would never at all forget to pay homage to the supremacist and racist power brokers that still control the corridors of power in Malaysia. With the ruling BN still so sorely lacking in integrity, the police surely are not expected to provide or give exemplary service either. The inevitable result is spiralling crime rates in almost every area of the country. The lawabiding citizen is at the mercy of lawlessness and insecurity. How could the country achieve vision 2020 ? Dr Mahathir has behaved like the proverbial backseat driver ever since

he stepped down from power in 2002. His constant interference in the administration of the country has helped to make sure that the current PM had even less ability than he could ever muster to cure the various ills affecting the country. Thus the current PM has behaved AND acted exactly like a lame duck that Dr Mahathir wanted. As a result of the concerted actions of all the three groups, Malaysia has to continuingly struggle with the issues of racism and crime, rather than mapping out the changes needed to succeed in achieving vision 2020. Hopefully, when the post of PM changes hands next year, the country could still yet steer in the right direction. For now, we have to contend with the dangers of polarisation, extremism and lawlessness.