So Dark the Con of A Man

Development

• noun 1 the action of developing or the state of being developed. 2 a new product or idea. 3 a new stage in a changing situation. 4 an area of land with new buildings on it (Oxford English Dictionary)

For many years, the word development was synonymous with Vision 2020 in Malaysia. Thanks to the foresight of one man (or the lack of it, depending on which camp you sit in), we embarked on a mild form of the industrial revolution. Factories and plants were the in-things, we were led to believe. It seemed what would make this country competitive with the rest of the world was the setting-up of dozens, nay, hundreds of industries and development projects. Concrete was king, cement was nobility. The word on the street was 'build, build' build'. And so, due to this one man who was touted as a visionary, buildings sprouted upwards, grey displaced green in many towns and cities. It was worth being an engineer is some manufacturing plant in Kulim or Bayan Lepas or Batu Tiga. Protons were rolling out of Glenmarie like cavalry on a spurious charge to a battle somewhere.

In 1991, Malaysia was gung-ho about this vision. People flocked to the dream (think Leeds United). Children sang songs glorifying this dream, politicians mouthed off words like 'dynamic', 'progressive' and 'productivity'. Oh, the positive vibes reverberating around KL raised spirits, to be sure.

Yet in 2008, it remains just that, a vision, a dream, a plan flawed to the core and doomed to failure. Nine challenges were identified, but were never going to be met by the government. Nine challenges which proved too strong for the two-faced politicians who line the hallowed halls of the Parliament like lechers seeking a penny.

And what were these challenges, I hear you ask. They were (drum roll, please):

1. Forming a nation as one
Right. This coming from a government that discriminates, practises segregation and racial politics. Enough said, this challenge was doomed to failure.

2. Producing a society that has freedom and strength and self-confidence.
Three words: police, ISA and NEP.

3. Developing a mature and democratic country
As long as the government was voted in every election, the country was considered mature and democratic. A vote against the BN was considered symptoms of an unruly and easily-influenced-by-opposition nation. Hence the heavy-handedness in 1999.

4. Forming a society with strong ethics, morals and religious values
There's a reason why this is point number four. Government officials would have been dumbfounded had this been the first reason. Words which are an anathema to the BN. Corruption, oops, money politics, religious extremism and fundamentalism, imposition of morals upon those who do not acknowledge such demented moral values, and Islamisation have all rendered this challenge a no-brainer, literally.

5. Cultivating a tolerant society
Yep, we're all very tolerant of one another. The majority lets us live here, and in return we acknowledge their supreme power over us. Yep, most definitely a tolerant society.

6. Creating a progressive science community
Now in this challenge that Malaysia has made inroads. Though she has not achieved her truest potential in this matter. The infrastructure is there, for sure. The personnel? Lacking and far and few between. Academicians who hardly know what they're teaching, researchers more interested in short-cuts and a space programme based on sales and purchase of antiquated Soviet-era arms. To give the government credit, they tried, they have tried, and they keep trying. Yet they keep shooting themselves in the foot. Just get rid of the politician-academicians and the change will be all-so apparent.

7. Cultivating a society with loving culture
We don't believe in love. We're rude, obnoxious, perennial peeping Toms and socially graceless. Oh, and we love arresting couples for holding hands and kissing in public.

8. Ensuring a fair economy
This is a country where middlemen thrive. A country where Approved Permits (a result of discriminatory economic policies) are held by a privileged few. A country where rubber tappers slog for hours in the estates to earn a measly RM 300 per month. Yet synthetic rubber remains a best-seller. Sime Guthrie and gang mint millions a year, yet they steadfastedly refuse to increase the standard of living in the estates. How can a fair economy be fair when the rice farmers and fishermen hover around the poverty line while the middlemen monopolise the rice and fish industries?

9. Cultivating a prosperous community
Most definitely workable. A community where the top 10% of the ruling party in BN and associated cronies take 90% of the available assets in Malaysia. Has anyone come across a poor BN official? (Long pause) I thought as much.

It is said people intoxicated by marijuana or opium tend to have visions and delusions. Could it be, just maybe, that our friend was high?