Malaysia to shoot for post-crisis growth; polls may be called

Kuala Lumpur

THIRTY years ago, when then-Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad introduced Vision 2020, he would have had little inkling on how differently things would turn out for the South-east Asian nation.

Under Vision 2020, better known as Wawasan 2020 to Malaysians, the country was to have become a self-sufficient, industrialised and prosperous nation, with a strong economy and a mature, democratic and ethical society.

The reality today, however, is that Malaysia has found it hard to check many of those boxes, with the country hit last year by the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and an extremely rocky political landscape.

Finance Minister Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said as much in a recent commentary published in The Star newspaper. "What many envisioned as the year of transformation for Malaysia unfolded into an annus horribilis of economic contraction, which exposed systemic issues, and the vulnerab…

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