KUALA LUMPUR: Back in 1992, Datuk Norman, Yusry and Edry Abdul Halim of KRU came up with a tribute to Vision 2020 in their debut album Canggih.
And now, 28 years later, the catchy song Wawasan 2020 has made a comeback, going viral via a YouTube video of the tune, which was uploaded by Netizens shortly before New Year's Day.
The music video which showed the younger KRU dancing and singing Wawasan 2020, got Netizens interested for two main reasons.
Firstly, 2020 has finally arrived and the lyrics which speak of a modern and progressive Malaysia have been realised in terms of the country's advanced infrastructure.
A second and more coincidental reason is the brothers' frequent use of the word 'bersatu' ('united') in its lyrics. Some Netizens quipped that Norman, Yusry and Edry have been able to "predict the future" where Parti Pribumi Bersatu (Bersatu) ended up running the country, via its leader Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who returned to the premiership in 2018.
Dr Mahathir was also the country’s fourth Prime Minister who came up with Vision 2020 in 1991, a vision and mission to make Malaysia a developed country by that year.
In a news report yesterday, Norman said that Wawasan 2020's current popularity was a heartwarming surprise to the veteran pop trio who disbanded in 2018.
"We didn't realise that we would be led by the party Bersatu in 2020. That's purely coincidental, but still a pleasant surprise nevertheless," said Norman.
"Wawasan 2020 was meant to be a patriotic campaign song to educate Malaysians about Vision 2020, Dr Mahathir's vision for the country to become a developed nation in 2020."
Norman added that Wawasan 2020 was pure edutainment and did not contain political undertones. "It was all about Malaysia becoming a developed country."
He revealed that Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) once banned the song because they uttered "2020" in English instead of Malay.
"Fortunately RTM lifted the ban after we made the necessary changes. From then onwards it received good airplay on TV1 and TV2, and the music video was even co-produced by RTM."
Last year, KRU fans requested that the brothers re-record Wawasan 2020 to mark the arrival of the year 2020.
Norman said: "Edry also suggested this, but I think one version of the song is good enough. It's much better to upload the original music video, and it looks like Netizens have beat us to it."
Wawasan 2020 video