By Tay Tian Yan

“You can be unhappy with Malaysia today, but this should not stop us from building a better future.”

During a dinner gathering with the media, youth and sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin set the tone for the 2050 National Transformation (TN50). From his body language, I could see his powerful passion for this project and expectations for the future.

Among so many of our government leaders, Khairy is perhaps the most qualified minister to talk about “future”.

He is young, only 41, and has a long future to look forward to, compared with the others.

The mandate given to him to lead the TN50 initiative shows Prime Minister Najib Razak’s faith in him.

Actually Khairy was the first person to have come up with the TN50 concept that was later adopted by the prime minister. As such, TN50 could be said to be Khairy’s “baby”.

“TN50 will lead the transformation, not just economic expansion, and explore future development, such as the needs in areas like environmental protection, population ageing, public transportation, employment and manpower.

“For example, automation will take over human labour, reducing job opportunities in the future. What if our young people become jobless?

“Our lifespan is getting longer and the ageing population problem becomes increasingly serious. How are we going to cater to the needs of our senior citizens? How are we going to maintain a healthy lifestyle if the quality of our environment and medical care declines?”

How is the country going to deal with problems of the future? To be frank, it won’t be much different from any other country in this world.

Some of the problems have already occurred in other countries. An ageing population in Japan has taken a heavy toll on its development while many young people are out of job in Europe as a result of the economic transformation.

All these will inevitably happen in our country in future. But the thing is, Malaysians seem to be indifferent to the dramatic changes now taking place in the outside world, but have instead engrossed themselves in non-stop arguments over domestic issues, in particular ethnic and religious controversies.

Sure enough this is what we have to come to terms with being in a multicultural society.

I asked Khairy whether TN50 would deliberate the racial and religious issues Malaysians have not been able to agree on for decades.

“We can’t evade such issues. TN50 will look into these aspects but I can’t say for sure we will end the bumiputera-first policy.

“We will adopt a different approach, and try to be more accommodating and focus on what we all have agreed.

“Our objective is to think for our future so that we can move on towards the future and discuss with sound reasoning and wisdom.”

During Deng Xiaoping’s visit to Japan in 1978, he was asked how to resolve the Diaoyu Islands conflicts.

Deng replied, “Our generation lacks the wisdom such that we cannot strike an accord on this issue. Our future generations will be more intelligent than us and they will certainly find a solution acceptable to all.”

Perhaps Deng’s method can be applied to our own racial and religious problems. Let’s put all the arguments aside for the time being and concentrate on the country’s development, especially on the economy and people’s living and environment. This is where TN50 can come into play.

Once the country has developed to the level of developed nations and when most of our people are in the middle class, we will become more accommodating and mature in thinking. Racial and religious controversies will then get watered down.

While many of us have a lot to grumble about this country and have grown disenchanted with Vision 2020 or 1Malaysia, please, don’t kill our hopes for the future.

TN50 is a future national framework formed out of mutual discussions among individuals, experts and the government. Whether you like it or not, you must not stay out of it completely. Young Chinese Malaysians, in particular, should make an effort to actively participate and discuss through various channels available.

This is the future we all will embrace.

Tay Tian Yan writes for Sin Chew Daily.

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