Vision 2020 : Will we ever see it?

Will we ever see Vision 2020? With all the current problems plaguing Malaysia, there is doubt that we will reach our vision, better known as Wawasan 2020 (or Visi dua-puluh, dua-puluh).

Currently, the hub of Malaysia, the Klang Valley - which includes Kuala Lumpur, the nation's capital, Shah Alam, the industrial area of the Klang Valley, Petaling Jaya, Bangsar, Damansara, Klang, and even Sepang, the hub of the Commonwealth Games and the new airport, and Banting.

All the above areas are plagued with water supply problems. Kuala Lumpur being the nation's capital, was hit with the problem the first, and then the surrounding areas followed. Now the whole of the Klang Valley goes through the process of water rationing. And about 4 years ago, Works Minister, Samy Vellu, did an independent study on the water condition in Malaysia, and he said that in the future there will be water problems in the Klang Valley - but no one listened to him.

On top of that, the haze has come back to the country. And this time, it is not the fault of the Indonesians, as there is proof that it has come from peat fires in Sepang, as well as burning in the north of the Peninsular. But, many people see next to nothing in the newspapers about the haze.

TV stations have been warned not to report on the haze, by our Information Minister, since he would revoke their licenses. ntv7, the new television station did exactly that, and they got a stern warning.

These are the least of our worries. We are currently having economic uncertainty, and the ringgit is constantly fluctuating up and down. This affects the general public, as all the past lavish spendings have to be stopped.

Students studying overseas are on their way back home, most likely since their parents never expected the economic problems, and didn't plan ahead for risks. Some parents are struggling to keep their children overseas, and the students that got scholarships from the local institutions are flocking back to the local universities.

If anyone still remembers the fateful day in 1996, when we had a nationwide breakdown in electrical problems. Companies lost millions of ringgit worth of profits, and machines were shutdown the wrong way. Surges of electricity, like what happened on that fateful day, caused a lot of machinery to be spiked electrically, which in turn rendered them next to useless (if their parts were fragile), or shortened their life-span.

And what does the government have to say about all this? Factories who are effected by the water problems just have to bear with the government, as they are doing their best. While on a recent visit to Port Dickson, I visited a factory, and they claimed that they spend RM 5,000 every day, to get water from the tankers. The government says that there will be no compensation for any losses, which in my opinion is very wrong. Companies should sue, since profit losses are not their fault. The Klang Valley factories haven't been affected yet.

As for the haze, the Information Minister says its just smoke. He doesn't want the word used any longer in the media, as we don't have the haze - all we have is smoke. A new suggestion; we can all say we see snow, except for the fact that we have very high humidity!

The economic problems were blamed on George Soros, a Hungarian born Jew. Our Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir, insists it was the fault of George Soros. He says that our economic fundamentals are all in the most correct status, but Soros decided that it was necessary to bring down the economy. He even stated over television that Soros was a moron, and that this is a plot by the Jews. But when asked to apologize, he denied that he ever said it - and many people heard it over the evening news!

A report by the IMF said that Soros couldn't have brought down the whole economy by himself, or with the help of all the money managers in the United States. It was cited that because of bad economic fundamentals and policies, the country is currently experiencing the economic problems. This report never got published, but opposition leader, Lim Kit Siang has been fighting for this. For further reference and the whole report, people with access to the Internet can take a look at the report at http://www.imf.org/.

Anyone reading the Far Eastern Economic Review will also notice that there has been a recent article, where they stated that the Malaysian police force was beating up and stealing the money of the deportees, the Indonesians. And recent reports on BBC satellite TV stated that the Indonesians were poisoned before reaching back to their country - that is if they survived. Our government has disposed off all these statements, and say that they have no truths behind them. Then one question looming over my head is, why didn't they sue the Far Eastern Economic Review and the BBC on charges of libel? Though recent advances say that the newspapers might get sued – but the article in Far Eastern Economic Review came out about 2 weeks before the poisoning articles, and the Review is not getting sued.

In my conclusion, with all the above problems, will there even be a chance to see Vision 2020? The bad foreign presses, economic uncertainty, haze and water problems and the part where the local media cannot report on sensitive issues.

And the local newspapers, which by now should be called tabloids, since they never report the truth, cannot be used as a source of information at all. Anyone wanting information should signup for an Internet account, and start reading newsgroups. http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Thinktank/1212/ has a lot of information regarding the current status of Vision 2020, and there is even a countdown to Vision 2020! And the website will also help everyone get onto newsgroups, and get a world of information.

And about if we'll ever see Vision 2020? You, the reader, should decide.


Colin Charles

NOTE : This article was written for a school magazine, but it might never get published, due to blackouts :), but keeping to hacker attitude, I put it up here. 2 weeks later, our Pirme Minister, Dr. M announced that Vision 2020 will be delayed. So, I guess my article was right :)

writings.