2020. Where does one even begin to describe the year… that WASN'T! I remember back in 1991 when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad launched Vision 2020, where the goal was for Malaysia to become a "fully developed country" by 2020, it seemed like such a long time coming.
Still in the early blushes of my first job, I couldn't even visualise what Malaysia, or the world, for that matter, could possibly be like in that "distant future".
And then it came. Year 2020. Without realising it, the year that had promised so much crept up on us. But not in the way anyone could have possibly envisaged.
Instead of optimism and jubilance, it brought destruction, despair, tensions and a sense of hopelessness. It felt like Mother Nature was saying padan muka (take that!) for all the bad things that we'd inflicted on the environment.
First, there were the bushfires that raged across Australia, burning millions of hectares of land and killing countless animals.
And who can forget the incident when the US drone hit Baghdad International Airport and took down an Iranian Major General?
As if things couldn't get any worse, racial tensions over police brutality reached a boiling point in the US.
The absolute nail on the coffin? The worst pandemic in recent history — Covid-19.
In mere days from now, we'll be happily waving goodbye to 2020. But has the year really been a TOTAL disaster for all? Let's find out.
LIFE-CHANGING YEAR
Datuk Ramli Ibrahim, 67, chairman and artistic director of Sutra Foundation; from Kajang.
"2020 was planned with productions, tours, exhibitions, teaching and lecture-demonstration. Our full-length Odissi production Triple Frontiers was the main focus with many smaller studio performances for the younger dancers.
The reality? Our dreams and proposed activities were shattered. But the greatest tragedy was when the regular classes had to be stopped. The cancellations were a great loss as the creative graph as well as earnings took a plunge. Sutra suffered a loss of income and mental anguish.
That said, I've always been a survivor. I thrive during difficult times. There's always growth for me as an individual.
During the MCO, I gardened, painted, read, cooked, wrote and spent quality time thinking.
As a dance institution, Sutra has not only survived but thrived for four decades in an environment not sympathetic towards the arts.
However, miracles did happen. This came in the form of Malaysia's first virtual arts festival, Gerak Angin, sponsored by MOTAC and co-presented by Sutra Foundation, Masakini Theatre and Surprise Ventures.
Gerak Angin was the light at the end of the tunnel, both financially and creatively for 17 artistic institutions in Malaysia, spanning music, dance and theatre.
If there's one thing that the lockdown gave me, it's even more strength than I thought I had.
I had to be the positive energy to level off the bumps and knots within a closed system shaken not only by the pandemic but also riddled with those undergoing stress and mental instability.
This was partly due to the lockdown but also because of their state of unpreparedness for 'Murphy's Law' — that when things can go wrong, be sure it will!
In retrospect, the pandemic has made me evolve further, mentally and spiritually, to be a better person.
My dreams for 2021? Well, my destiny was already written; that is, to serve the people through my art."
OF SURVIVING AND SURVIVAL
Yudi Yap, 50-plus, singer-songwriter, musical theatre doyenne; from Pahang.
"For 2020, we'd planned to go on tour and hold concerts; I was even looking forward to the opportunity to perform in Singapore again where I've enjoyed successful outings with my solo concerts.
In addition, I was excited about the prospect of my YUDIMAMAS coconut candy business and homestay business in my hometown of Bentong.
Before the pandemic, we enjoyed a steady stream of tourists. We were expecting so many things but the reality? Everything was affected.
We tried to organise online concerts but that didn't really take off because people were unwilling to pay for their entertainment that way. I've been using some of my song-writing royalties to cover some expenses. Anyhow, I managed to get my coconut candy business online. So that's a small start.
What did I learn about myself as a result of the pandemic? My ability to adapt is one. I realise that with the environment outside changing so rapidly, I needed to be able to change as fast too, especially with how I do things. Now there's a lot of Zoom calls, online concerts, e-shop promotions… I feel like an octopus trying to reach everything!
My hopes for 2021? That I can still continue to do meaningful things. In fact, Modern Nanyang received a little funding from CENDANA (Cultural Economy Development Agency) and we're producing six documentary-style episodes of Nanyang oldies.
That aside, it's my hope that this challenging period will teach us all to appreciate going back to basics and the simpler things in life."
A STEP AT A TIME
Brian Johnson Lowe, 42, founder and CEO of POPTRON; from Penang.
"In my previous role as the co-founder of My Performing Arts Agency (MyPAA) — an arts consultancy and arts event management — we'd planned for a series of projects in 2020 to help the arts and creative industry, namely our 'Borak Arts Series ' (BAS) which is a performing arts conference and market that creates opportunities and builds capacity through the congregation of Southeast Asian industry players.
BAS is a well-known arts conference and synonymous to MyPAA since 2013. In recent years, it made its international debut in Adelaide, South Australia at the OzAsia Festival.
Another unique project in the making was the development of a world-class Malaysian culture show that tourists could experience throughout the year on a daily basis and book well in advance, which till today is non-existent in the country.
On a personal note, I'd planned to travel to Europe for two weeks to visit friends and family there.
Obviously, things didn't go as planned. I had to shut down MyPAA because of the pandemic. It was sad to see this come to an end after seven years in operation.
But I don't resent 2020. It rewarded me with time and attention I needed for myself, to reflect, plan and finally kick-start my brainchild project — Poptron.Co.
This lifestyle social commerce platform is specially curated and connects micro-brands to a like-minded global audience.
The pandemic has hit them hard too, so it was great timing.
The e-commerce site was successfully launched in September 2020 and certainly paid off despite the obstacles and pandemic.
I lived through 2020 with purpose and a lot of grit. Not that I didn't have a purpose before, but 2020 taught me that with a clear purpose, I can get the strength and tenacity needed to get through anything.
If there's one thing I've learnt from this period, it's that it is monumental to have a healthy relationship with myself before I can have meaningful relationships with others around me.
2020 has taught me to discover, listen and trust my inner voice.
This has been a rough year for many people. I'm not expecting 2021 to wash all that away, but I'm hopeful to grow as a person and bring Poptron.Co to the global arena one step at a time… a feat currently in its way!"
UNPREDICTABLE YEAR
Gianni Subba, 27, Malaysia's top flyweight and ONE Championship athlete.
"I'd envisaged doing a lot more shows for ONE Championship (the biggest martial arts promotion in the world) in 2020. I thought I was going to travel a lot, see more places.
But the reality? I've stayed put in Kuala Lumpur since March but it's not a bad thing as I got to spend a lot of time with my family, especially my niece. I've got to know her really well, watched her grow up and start speaking. We've become like best friends!
I've also managed to help my brother, Keanu, get back on track from his injury and fighting again. Even though the result didn't go the way we wanted, seeing him back in the Circle was really a big step forward.
Meanwhile, I've had a lot of growth too in terms of skills, just training with my brother every day.
When you spend so much time by yourself, you end up having a lot of time to think about yourself. I was travelling so much before so I never got the chance to really breathe and get a bit more introspective so I could better understand myself.
I'm just trying to be positive now and improve myself, spend time with family and just be grateful for the things I have instead of looking into things I didn't have or don't have.
For the coming year, I'm just hoping that everyone, especially my family, can just stay healthy.
I also want to keep working and keep on seizing opportunities that come. I'm looking forward to the day the borders can open again so I can travel.
Finally, I hope to get better, mentally, physically and work-wise as well."
BOLD AND BRIGHT
Agilan Thani, 25, Malaysia's top welterweight and ONE Championship athlete; from Sentul.
"For 2020, I had plans to level up, especially in my career. I invested in a training camp in the US, to train with world champions such as Aung La N Sang and Martin Nguyen, but the pandemic put a stop to that plan!
Throughout the year, I also made some decisions that didn't end up too well, and experienced things that didn't work out, in addition to spending money on stuff that I didn't really need!
On the bright side, I created many new memories outside of my professional fighting career with ONE Championship.
I got to spend a lot of time with my fiancee, Anchali, whom I'm hoping to tie the knot with in 2021. We've had plenty of time to ourselves to catch up on movies and engage in random bickering — all great fun, of course!
I'm also thankful to have got the chance to spend time in the weight lifting gym with my coach Conrado Furlan, with whom I've managed to reach some goals in the gym that I never thought I'd be able to.
A definite disappointment was seeing some of my friends and coaches having to return to their home countries due to the pandemic.
If there's one thing I've learnt from this whole period, it's that we need to value what we have, to treasure relationships and not argue with people we like!
In 2020, life was a combination of fear, struggles, hustles, dashes of negativity, but peppered with huge doses of love, happiness and positivity. I don't really have any specific goal for 2021; I prefer to see what unfolds… "
COUNTING HIS BLESSINGS
Fairul Izmal Jamal Hisne, 37, environmental consultant/marine conservationist; from Sabah.
"2020 has definitely passed by both slowly and quickly. I started it with big plans as one often does in a new year but they were put to a halt unceremoniously.
I embarked on a new career, planned new projects with MareCet, a non-profit NGO in Malaysia dedicated solely to the Marine Mammal Conservation and research in Malaysia, and thought of various new places to visit.
Instead, I ended up spending most of my time at home. It has ceased to be just my home this year; it's my office, playground, and sanctuary. My window to the world has been confined to within the square boxes of my laptop screen.
That said, I've learnt to appreciate the time I have in this world and pursue the things I've put off in the past. I learnt to focus on what matters to me, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable the situation may be.
I discovered that it's not that hard, not as hard as I thought it would be, and definitely not as hard as what others may be facing in their own life. I re-evaluated commitments and relationships, and actively pursued those that are important to me.
In retrospect, I'm counting my blessings as I've had a better run of it than most. I got to spend more time at home than I've ever done.
I'm grateful to remain employed and to have caring and supportive people around me.
If I were to sum up 2020 in one word, I'd choose 'sobering'. I'm hoping for a better 2021 and for us all not to forget this year.
Wherever we are in this planet we call home, despite our differences, we share our joys, pains, hopes and dreams — as one!"
YEAR FOR PERSEVERANCE
Dr Chen Pelf Nyok, 39, researcher, conservationist, co-founder and executive director of Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia.
"Last year, we received a grant to conduct 15 Turtle Camps in 2020. We purchased the necessary materials, including goodie bags, button badges, story books and activity books, but all that didn't happen, so I was quite disappointed.
We've also had to cancel a few nature awareness programmes because of travel restrictions. Our guests were to come from England, in two batches, and we'd planned their activities and meals, but that didn't happen either.
However, we managed to publish four Turtle Educational Units (in PDF format) as resources to help parents/educators entertain their children/students.
Each unit contains a short story about a particular turtle species, some activities such as crossword puzzles, maze, wordsearch, followed by a few pages of information about these turtles that are meant for adults.
These units are available for free download on our website: www.turtleconservationsociety.org.my/shop.
We also had to cancel a terrapin-release event scheduled for March 21.
As a result, we were raising more than 700 terrapins in captivity. We turned to social media to raise funds, and I was pleasantly surprised by the way the public responded to us. Many good Samaritans sent donations to help us purchase pellets for the terrapins.
The terrapin conservation project went on despite my absence from the village! However, Pakcik Wazel, our project assistant, wasn't able to properly record hatching data, so we've gathering hatching data from this season.
The first MCO wasn't that bad, possibly because we weren't the only ones who had to adapt to a new normal. Everywhere in the world, people were learning new ways to do certain things, including grocery shopping. Sales were slow, donations trickled in.
But after getting into a new routine myself, including moving my office back to my home, and sharing a workstation with my daughter, who needed my phone for her e-learning classes, I re-started my engine.
I attended numerous self-development classes, including digital and email marketing courses, sales talks, leadership classes and I also worked on our TCS website — something necessary that I almost always never had time for.
On a personal front, I made time for reading. It's something I love doing but always put aside because of other 'more urgent issues.'
I've spent significantly more time in the kitchen too, because nine-year-olds are always hungry, aren't they? And who knew I could cook decent meals that don't give my family food poisoning!
My husband is a RELA volunteer and he's been on duty since March 18, seven days a week, so that takes a little bit of adjusting to. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about him getting Covid-19 unknowingly and spreading it to us. But we all have to do what we have to do, kan?
2020 has been a year of fear and uncertainty, but it has also taught us to continue helping one another.
My hopes for 2021? Good health for everyone."
STAYING AGILE
Yenni Law, 40-something, award-winning chef, founder of Meatology KL and author; from Perak.
"For 2020, I made plans to renovate Meatology, my restaurant in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI), in addition to going full steam with a second outlet in Bukit Bintang.
When Covid-19 came, we had to swallow the bitter pill of seeing the closure of the Bukit Bintang outlet and almost had a similar scare with Meatology too.
2020 has been mind-blowing, to say the least. But if there's one good thing to have come out of this year, it's the way the teams from both my TTDI outlet and Bukit Bintang rallied together to ensure that we could continue with operations. The overheads had been overwhelming but thankfully, I've not had to lay people off.
I've been blessed to have my business coaches from Owners' Circle, Jonathan and Raymond Chou, guiding us, and Dr Bai Shi Yin mentoring my wellbeing.
Our family, friends and loyal customers have stood by us through this challenging time. For that, I'm truly grateful.
On a personal note, this period has taught me to conquer my fears and doubts, especially when faced with new things.
I've learnt to exercise religiously to stay healthy and to eat more protein to keep myself strong and agile. Oh, I've also learnt how to cut my own hair now!
In 2021, I aspire to harness the strength of a pack of wolves so I can get out there and bring more value to the community and spread a lot more love by nourishing people through my food!"