KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin is optimistic about Transformasi 2050 (TN50) because it is all about the people’s aspirations for the country and themselves.

The 30-year initiative mooted by the prime minister is at the "listening stage”; TN50 engagement sessions are happening right now to hear what people want.

"The important thing is people will get excited because it is their aspirations. When they see the final document, they will go out there and want to make it happen… cause (sic) it came from them.

"If it came from us, the collective drive to make it happen may not be as powerful,” Khairy explained.

The Rembau MP said, "I went down and explained (to the people) it is a bottom up process and not filtered. None of our talks are scripted. There is no script or planted questions.

"A lot of people, even in their scepticism, will say okay let’s give this a chance. It’s been pleasantly surprising… there is still some scepticism but that will always happen.”

Critics of the initiative have called it an election gimmick as the general elections is just around the corner while others have harped on the money spent on TN50 so far. Khairy said his team’s efforts to ensure that the programme remains transparent and sticks to a "lean budget” are making people more accepting of TN50.

"The fact that people know about it and are talking about it… and the Opposition is starting to attack it, that only can mean we are doing something right,” Khairy added.

The Umno Youth Chief who has been put in charge of the TN50 programme is adamant that they are open to any suggestions, aspirations and questions from the Opposition.

One of the earliest TN50 engagements was with Opposition parliament members.

Khairy also urged Opposition lawmakers to hold their own TN50 programmes to gather any aspirations that they would like to share with the government.

"I’ve briefed the Opposition members in parliament. One of the first briefings I had was with them but not a lot of them came. I told them do your own events and give me your aspirations.

"I’ve encouraged people to do their own dialogues. I shouldn’t be the only one driving this, it should be by everyone. They should be coming to the government and saying what they want for 2050. It might be completely different but at least we will know what their aspirations are,” he said.