KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today said his Wawasan 2020 (Vision 2020) dream for Malaysia had turned to ashes due to the good for nothing administration of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

He said nothing was done to develop the country when both of them were in power from 2004 to 2020.

In his latest posting on Facebook, the 98-year old responded to DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang's posting that all the nine strategic challenges spelt out by Dr Mahathir when launching Vision 2020 in 1991 were abject failures.

Dr Mahathir - who served as prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and 2018 to 2020, said he acknowledged that Vision 2020 had failed.

"However, it is not my failure. There is nothing to show that vision was headed for failure until I stepped down in 2003.

"This vision was set aside as soon as Tun Abdullah and Datuk Seri Najib took over...they set aside all the policies and direction which I had charted for Malaysia," he said.

Citing examples, Dr Mahathir said Abdullah Badawi - who is popularly known as Pak Lah, had cancelled the rail project, crooked bridge to replace the causeway, and expressway projects even after promising that he would see them through.

Dr Mahathir said Pak Lah - who was prime minister from 2003 to 2009, had instead prioritised projects involving the latter's children and son-in-law.

He lamented about the fourth floor boys at the prime minister's office then who played a major role in determining government policies and approval of projects.

"The money (wang ehsan) which was to be given to Terengganu for development purposes was instead used to build a hotel, mosque gardens and organise yacht races.

"The people eventually rejected Abdullah Badawi and five states ended up in Opposition hands when the elections were called," he said, adding Pak Lah was eventually forced to step down in 2009, only to be replaced by Najib, who served from 2009 to 2018.

However, he said Najib too did not care to continue with Vision 2020 and instead focussed on enriching himself.

Dr Mahathir said Najib ended up putting the country billions of ringgit in debt besides getting involved in various criminal activities.

"There was no effort at all by both of them to achieve Vision 2020.

"Vision 2020 failed because of Abdullah Badawi and Najib."

The nonagenarian also called on Kit Siang to reflect on why the country could not even achieve the first challenge of establishing a united Malaysian nation with a sense of common and shared destiny, as outlined in Vision 2020.

Dr Mahathir said this was not achieved because many Malaysians did not speak in the national language but prioritised other languages instead.

"That is why we could not even achieve the first challenge which I outlined in Vision 2020.

"Kit Siang himself did not even try to get everyone to speak in Bahasa Malaysia so that we could become a united nation," he said.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/politics/2023/03/892204/dr-mahathir-blames-pak-lah-and-najib-turning-his-vision-2020-dream