However, a few embarrassing facts came out clearly at the awards night: there was no top leadership at the occasion, which was supposed to be used to gauge how far the nation has travelled in its bid to achieve the ideals of the national vision. The President was not there, nor his VP, not even Cabinet ministers, except for a junior minister. The corporate world was also left out of the whole arrangement. In fact, the awards that were flaunted, at times appeared like a mockery. Surely our economy is driven by companies that are much, much bigger than the ones that were rewarded on Friday night, while we also have many, many selfless individuals who volunteer their resources and time to contribute to the economy. Those were not acknowledged either. Those men and women who contribute in a big way, were strangely nowhere to be seen on the night. The awards night proved one thing, that either the coordinators failed dismally to get important stakeholders on board, or even worse, that the Vision 2016 coordinators might be failing to get their message where it is supposed to go - right to the drivers of the economy.
At a time when we have so many companies that have embraced community social responsibility initiatives, it was extremely embarrassing that those companies that continue to invest in communities in which they operate were not mentioned or recognised that night.
