Society’s ethics far from living up to 2020 vision.

 Among the Prime minister’s answer towards Tun Mahathir’s critics is that he has already done many transformation programs to achieve a developed country status by 2020, the vision that had been set up by Tun Mahathir himself. Moreover, Datuk Seri Najib claims that his plan has started to see the fruition in the form of 5 percent of GDP growth, the PRIMA, the second Penang bridge, the MRT, the Borneo highway.

Amid petty argument between both two respected leaders, it is good to hear as this year will see the last Malaysia plan (Rancangan Malaysia) to reach that vision. Based on economic developments, many Malaysians are still optimistic that the vision is achievable, despite the controversy of 1MDB, national debt, and the drop in the price of crude oil that only to be assumed as temporary problems or political interests.

However, if our country to become a high-income economy as expected, coupled with rapid physical developments, are it enough to declare that we are a developed nation? Or just a developed economy? 24 years ago, Dr Mahathir has listed 9 challenges for Malaysians before achieving the 2020 vision.

The challenges are:-

1. Establishing a united Malaysian nation made up of one Bangsa Malaysia (Malaysian Race).
2. Creating a psychologically liberated, secure and developed Malaysian society.
3. Fostering and developing a mature democratic society.
4. Establishing a fully moral and ethical society.
5. Establishing a matured liberal and tolerant society.
6. Establishing a scientific and progressive society.
7. Establishing a fully caring society.
8. Ensuring an economically just society, in which there is a fair and equitable distribution of the wealth of the nation.
9. Establishing a prosperous society with an economy that is fully competitive, dynamic, robust and resilient.

To overcome these challenges is the benchmark to be a developed nation according to Tun. Even if there is no standard definition of “developed country”, but world's best countries commonly are measured by their education, health, quality of life, economic dynamism, and political environment. In other words, they are not merely counted by their wealth, but also by their citizen’s maturity.

To date, I never heard the word of Bangsa Malaysia used formally or informally. At the same time, religious and racial tension always shackle our move to be a liberated society. On top of that, looking for our citizens’ attitude in dealing with current or political issues via social media is embarrassing. The language, ethics and value of comments reflect the standard of our mentality. 

While the government continues their plans and efforts to put our country on par with the other high-income countries, our society mentality and ethic still unimproved even are worse than their past generation. Do we have enough time to change it in the next five years?