Reasons for failure of Vision 2020

It seemed that the Vision 2020 which was played out during Dr. Mahathir's era is being sidelined and gradually discarded by Najib's administration.  The reasons for its non-relevancy is explained in this article...>>>http://www.malaysia-today.net/your-missteps-made-vision-2020-unrealisable-minister-tells-dr-m/

Points to ponder for historical fact jotting :--

“I think Dr Mahathir needs to get real..(Vision 2020) was a plan mooted under an ideal situation but 1986 and 1997 proved that there is no such thing as an ideal situation.

“Dr Mahathir’s Wawasan 2020 is no longer possible. So he wants to find someone to blame rather than accept the fact that he was wrong and the plan was not really workable,” Salleh said.

The minister said Dr Mahathir had depended on oil profits to finance his Vision 2020 plans but the project suffered serious setbacks first in 1986 when oil prices plunged by two-thirds, slashing government income and forcing development scaledown.

The second setback was the Asian Financial Crisis, which forced Malaysia into recession and sent the market crashing, Salleh added.

In a blog posting apparently aimed at the Najib administration, Dr Mahathir said yesterday that during his tenure, the world believed that Malaysia could achieve its Vision 2020 target.

Dr Mahathir, who has for months been openly campaigning for Najib’s ouster on corruption grounds, also accused the current government of embarrassing Malaysia over a slew of financial scandals.

“There was a time not so very long ago when Malaysia was admired for successfully raising itself from an impoverished third world country into a stable newly industrialised country.

“No one doubted that its announced intention to become a developed country by 2020 would be achieved,” Dr Mahathir wrote yesterday.

But Salleh defended Najib and pointed out that Dr Mahathir himself had gone through some internationally embarrassing episodes when he was prime minister.

As examples, he noted that Dr Mahathir had quarrelled with then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and launched his “Buy British Last” campaign.

The former prime minister had also bickered with then US President Bill Clinton, resulting in the Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating calling Dr Mahathir a recalcitrant.

“Most Malaysians were embarrassed by those events,” Salleh said.