Vision 2020

Short story for the day:

This was told by my sociology lecturer to our class. Several years before, he had gone to a foreign film festival which was being held in Malaysia. Hishamuddin Rais (for those who don't know who he is, he's a social activist who went into a self-imposed exile from Malaysia many years ago) had just returned to the country and he too attended the festival. They chatted amiably before entering the theatre area to watch a show. The whole thing was a pretty big do, done with government support.

Now since it's an foreign film festival, it was pretty much artsy stuff, so not really mainstream films. But since the government was involved, FINAS (the national censorship board) was involved. And since FINAS was involved... there was a lot of blurring and pixelisations at various parts of the film.

According to my lecturer, every time this occurred, Hishamuddin Rais would pipe up with, "Inilah Wawasan 2020!" (This is Vision 2020!)

[Vision 2020 being then prime minister Dr Mahathir's plan for Malaysia to become a developed nation by the year 2020]

Heh, amusing. Wish I'd been there to witness that.