KUCHING: Even though most citizens are proud to be Malaysians, not many think the country will achieve Vision 2020.
According to Ipsos Malaysia in its new nationwide study to understand how Malaysians feel about Vision 2020, opinions are split regarding the nation achieving Vision 2020; with only 40 per cent Malaysians thinking that the country will achieve the same.
Surprisingly, even after three decades, 22 per cent Malaysians are still unsure or unfamiliar with what Vision 2020 is or plans to achieve.
However, the bright side is that 89 per cent of those polled are proud of the fact that they are a Malaysian.
When asked what Malaysia has done successfully to achieve Vision 2020, 62 per cent of those polled agree that Malaysia has successfully fostered and developed a mature democratic society.
This is supported by the World Affairs Study done by Ipsos in November 2019 which revealed that 44 per cent Malaysians agree that the political system in the country does a good job of representing the views and interests of its citizens.
This is much higher than global average of 27 per cent and is just behind China (69 per cent) and India (56 per cent).
Arun Menon, managing director of Ipsos in Malaysia in a statement said, “Wawasan 2020 was undoubtedly a visionary thought conceived by the government almost three decades ago.
It created a roadmap for Malaysia to achieve the status of a fully developed nation.
“In the last 30 years, Malaysia has grown by leaps and bounds politically, socially and economically. Malaysia may not have achieved Vision 2020, but the next decade would surely be a litmus test for the country to prove its detractors wrong.”
What’s more, the Ipsos Malaysia study further revealed that more than half of those polled agree that Malaysia has successfully established a prosperous society with an economy that is fully competitive, dynamic, robust and resilient (61 per cent), established a scientific and progressive society (55 per cent) and ensured an economically just society, in which there is a fair and equitable distribution of the wealth of the nation (54 per cent).
Moving forward, Malaysians are quite worried when it comes to concerns related to national unity and safety.
As per the Ipsos World Affairs Study, majority Malaysians are worried about eruption of violent conflicts between ethnic or minority group in the country is quite real.
Threat of conflict between ethnic or minority groups is high in Malaysia (67 per cent) compared to global average of 60 and 65 per cent in UK.
For Malaysians, this threat is quite significant as it has risen by 12 per cent in just a span of one year.
Malaysia is 6th in the pecking order after South Africa (88 per cent), Turkey (83 per cent), India (79 per cent), US (72 per cent) and Colombia (69 per cent).
Although there is a genuine concern, more than half of Malaysians (61 per cent) are confident that appropriate levels of security and protection would be provided by the government and its agencies if a violent conflict were to break out in the next 12 months between ethnic or minority groups in the country.
This shows the confidence that Malaysians have in the government in handling such conflicts.
Ipsos Malaysia study further revealed that 59 per cent Malaysians do not think that they have reached a high-income nation status.
However, more than half (58 per cent) Malaysians believe that Malaysia’s overall economy will improve in the next one decade.
While 39 per cent believe that the overall economy would maintain status-quo in the next 10 years, only a small minority of three per cent think that the Malaysian economy would worsen by 2030.
This clearly shows that most Malaysians are quite optimistic about the next decade.
When it comes to global aspirations, the Ipsos World Affairs study revealed that Malaysians are quite positive in their outlook.
A total of 90 per cent of Malaysians agree that Malaysia should work towards global goals, even if the country does not always get what it wants.
This is in stark contrast as current global situations like US-China trade war and Brexit are putting a dampener on the global economic environment.
The optimistic viewpoint of Malaysians has put the country right on top of the table among the nations surveyed and 11 per cent higher than the global average of 79 per cent.
The Ipsos World Affairs study further revealed that a little over half of the Malaysians polled (51 per cent) feel that China offers a political and economic model that they would like to emulate as opposed to the United States (35 per cent).
This is higher than the global sentiment of 39% who feel China is the country to emulate.