Nation Building

The Road To 2020 Exhibition

Addressed by Tan Sri Lim at The Road To 2020 organised by Students of Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology in Kuala Lumpur
28 August 2002

On behalf of the Institute, may I warmly welcome everyone.

We are privileged to have as Guest-of-Honour Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad, who as many of us know, is one who has been very closely involved in the political and social development of this country.

Tan Sri Abdullah knows more about our struggle for independence, the chapters of our history and the long road ahead of us, than most, including those who claim to be political leaders, in this country. His presence is very much an encouragement to us all. Always a thought-provoking speaker, we look forward to listening to what he will be telling us.

With each passing year and every step we take, we move further and further away from the euphoria that greeted the freedom fighters of our independence.

I use the term “freedom fighters” to describe the unyielding tenacity and the painful sacrifices made by those who fought to get back our freedom from those who came to colonise this country.

Today we celebrate the forging of this nation. But the euphoria now is more for the holiday that Merdeka Day brings. We have forgotten so much and, time, I guess, is the guilty culprit that lessens the impact of that historic day.

I myself was a very young person in 1957. I know that most of you here were not even born. But I remember, the young nation struggling to emerge, to stand up – the struggle to come together and stand together as a nation. I remember well some of the traumas that surfaced, and which had threatened the stability of this country. The future was not always certain.

In 1957, it was a very different world. Bangsar was a sleepy little corner of Kuala Lumpur, nothing like the flashy place it is today. All we had was a row of very small houses occupied by workers, mostly Indians, who worked on the railways nearby.

As an independent nation, we are just 45 years old, still very young compared with the super powers that control the world. But we have actually come a very long way.

When you walk through the exhibition, you will see how far we have come from the days when we were a colony.

Our sense of identity and history begins with the Malacca Sultanate and we have lived through more than 400 years of foreign rule and domination under the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and for a short while the Japanese.

If you like, our road to independence started more than 400 years ago.

The young generations of today have little inkling of the significance of Merdeka Day. To many it is just a holiday.

But we must know that there are countries out there that don’t really have independence day to celebrate, they don’t have true freedom. The tanks, the soldiers, the snipers, the gunboats and the war planes are on the prowl everyday, and they shoot with real bullets, and people run to hide from real bombs that kill and destroy. In these places, people are getting killed everyday.

Here in this country we are indeed most fortunate. Our progress since independence has been relatively smooth and the pace of development has been fast.

But, to be sure it has not been completely trouble-free. There were anxious moments and there were times of uncertainty. There were times when our resolve to live as a free and independent country was challenged.

And there were times when our cohesiveness as a nation was tested and threatened.

But we are fortunate that we have always had a stable Government. The transition of leadership since independence has been smooth and uninterrupted, allowing us to continue our plans for the future.

We are especially fortunate that for the past 21 years we have a leader who fights tenaciously to preserve our sovereignty and to fast-track the nation’s development. Our Prime Minister, Dato Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad has given the country a global profile that is respected and revered.

The policies he has helped to introduce must be seen in the light of what is happening worldwide. He has given us the most precious gift that runs a close second to freedom. It is the confidence to achieve. It is perhaps his most precious legacy to us.

After 45 years, we have arrived at this stage when confidence to achieve gives us the ability to take charge of our destiny.

In these very fast changing times, much of what will happen to the future of this country depends on our ability to sustain this confidence.

Much of our strength comes from our being a cohesive multi-racial nation, and it comes as a result of our commitment to unity as a people.