PETALING JAYA, Oct 24 ― Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has picked an opportune moment to steer the nation away from former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, says analyst Prof Hoo Ke Ping.

Hoo described the new National Transformation Plan 2050 or TN50, as a bold departure from the "Mahathirist” style of policymaking.

"Entrusting the Youth and Sports Ministry to lay the ground work for a new national agenda is a far cry from how Vision 2020 was imposed on Malaysians,” he said.

"Instead of a top-down approach, Najib has cleverly chosen to make this a bottom-up initiative, thus legitimising his national plan as it depends on public, especially youth feedback.”

Hoo said TN50 would help Malaysians forget the worst excesses of Dr Mahathir’s administration and set the tone for the country’s development over the coming decades. 

"When he held the top post, everyone praised him for his supposed successes especially for the Twin Towers and Proton, but his legacy is one of bailouts and cronyism.

"His hastily cobbled together Vision 2020 has run out of steam and is in need of new ideas,” he said.

Hoo also said TN50 should be seen as being a genuine attempt to move the country forward instead of a political manoeuvring. 

"Some will argue this is merely another move against Dr Mahathir, but we need to be realistic and objective,’’ he said.

"Vision 2020 is less than four years away and what happens then? Does it mean all our goals as a nation have been achieved and we should just relax?” 

Najib announced TN50 as the new nation building roadmap while unveiling Budget 2017 on Friday.

However, Najib did not mention Vision 2020, the goal envisioned by Dr Mahathir for Malaysia to achieve a developed nation status.

On Saturday, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the first phase of TN50 would be a comprehensive consultative process among stakeholders and youths on a range of issues.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Perdana School geo-strategist Prof Azmi Hassan said the country needed to move past politicising the nation building agenda and focus on development.

"The perception is TN50 was introduced to erase Mahathir’s Vision 2020 but I beg to differ as we are still working towards developed nation status,’’ he said.

"But we need to move beyond that and this is where TN50 comes into picture. It is especially encouraging that Najib has mandated that the youth thrash out the policy rather than force his ‘vision’ on them,” he said.

Azmi also said among the key thrusts of TN50 was the need for greater integration and national unity as this was not a key element of Vision 2020.

"That plan focused on technology, infrastructure and economy but did not place emphasis on strengthening our social fabric, which has begun to fray due to excessive politicking.

"This is the single most critical issue we need to address as a multi-racial and multi-cultural nation. It should be made a priority as we have become polarised and this trend must be reversed,” he said.

MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the party’s Youth movement must also be involved in holding dialogues with the younger generation to furnish a more indepth input on TN50. 

He said TN50 would become an important topic for MCA Youth to focus on.

"I have given them a suggestion to immediately hold dialogues on TN50 concerning what we want to see in 30 years, where we are heading, targets, and what is the aim of the national struggle by 2050,” he told reporters after opening the 47th Selangor MCA Youth movement annual general meeting yesterday.