Whatever happened to the dream of making Kuala Lumpur a great city?

Some alleys in KL, like this one in OUG, are usually covered in rubbish, and infested with rats and flies. — Photos: LEESAN

In 1990, Malaysia was considered one of Asean’s four “Little Tigers”. In 1991, the country brought on its “Wawasan 2020” proclamation, to go along the goals of making Malaysia a developed nation. Some of us would still remember this morale-lifting vision back then, right?

We had a vision to create a more diverse range of national cars, to build the record-breaking Petronas Twin Towers, and to have a much-improved per capita income by the year 2020. We even had a vision to achieve a high-income society boasting a high education level, with everyone in the country having a roof over their heads.