KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — Two-time former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today blamed his two successors Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Datuk Seri Najib Razak for failing to realise Wawasan 2020.

Responding to DAP's Lim Kit Siang's attack on the vision he formulated during his first tenure, Dr Mahathir said the two former prime ministers had brushed aside policies and methods that were introduced during his administration.

“Yes. Indeed, I announced the failure of Wawasan 2020. But it is not my failure. There was no evidence of the failure of Wawasan 2020 until I resigned in 2003.

“As soon as Abdullah and Najib took over the leadership of the country, they set aside the policies and methods explored by me,” he wrote on Facebook.

Abdullah, also known as Pak Lah, took over the prime minister post after Dr Mahathir announced his retirement in 2003.

Najib later took the office in 2009 before he was unseated by Pakatan Harapan which was led by Dr Mahathir in 2018.

Dr Mahathir said both former prime ministers had abandoned his policies and ideas to improve the country’s infrastructure and made bad administrative decisions during their tenure.

“The failure of Wawasan 2020 is caused by Abdullah and Najib. They did not directly try to develop the country from 2004 to 2020,” he added.

Yesterday, it was reported that Lim had urged government leaders to look back at the failure of Wawasan 2020 which was introduced by Dr Mahathir.

He said that by doing this, they would find the cause behind the decisions that set back the country in the last six decades.

During his second tenure in 2020, Dr Mahathir said although Wawasan 2020 did not fully achieve what was planned, Malaysia has made a lot of progress following the launch of the vision in 1991.

In 2017, Najib had introduced the National Transformation 2050 plan which effectively replaced Wawasan 2020 as the country’s roadmap to first-world nation status — claiming it was a continuation of Dr Mahathir's vision. - malaymail