In anticipation of the coming of Year 2020, the Youth and Sports Ministry will be spearheading a national conversation on post-2020 Malaysia starting next year.

Its Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar, said this is to gather feedback on the ground on what Malaysians’ aspirations are for the country when it turns 100 years old in 2063.

“If 2020 was the brainchild of one person, former prime minister or Malaysia Dr Mahathir Mohamad, I want Malaysia at 100, Malaysia at 2063, the brainchild of all of you - collective vision, collective approach, to what our country and nation will look like in 40 years time,” he said in Kuala Lumpur today.

Khairy was speaking to a group of students who had gathered at the Tunku Abdul Rahman College for the Annual National Youth Congress, which he officially opened.

He said he has already presented a briefing of programmes to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, and he has insisted that government should not talk down to people and only listen.

Vision 2020 was the brainchild of the then-PM Dr Mahathir, who introduced it in 1991.

Among others, it envisages a Malaysia that is economically just and prosperous, with a society that is liberal, tolerant, and holding strong ethical and moral values, by the year 2020.

Speaking to reporters later, Khairy said it is important to hold the conversation because 2020 is only four years away.

“It will be open to all Malaysians, but be led by youths.

“So we need to think about what should be our vision for the next 40 years, and this vision needs to come from the people,” he said.

Meanwhile in his speech, Khairy lamented that youths of today are not asking enough tough questions about Malaysia’s future, but are instead obsessing over “completely unimportant rubbish”.

He then spent about 15 minutes quickly listing questions that need to be considered and challenged the audience to come up with a solution.

These include how to rid Malaysia of its oil dependency, how to improve Malaysia’s universities, how to encourage entrepreneurs to be less risk-adverse, how to address the lack of automation in Malaysian industries, and many others.

“These are the tough questions that you have to ask. No one is asking these questions, because the only ones asking questions are asking why isn’t KJ (Khairy Jamaluddin) wearing trousers? Why is he wearing shorts? […]

“I just wanted to start the conversation so that you all know, these are the important questions you should be asking. Ask youth minister, I am not seeing enough of these questions being asked by young people,” he said.

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