Blurry vision on 1Malaysia

Published at 2:09 AM in Politics

By CHAI SIEW KIM

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced 1 Malaysia on September 16, 2008. It is now over two years since that announcement but till today no one is clear of what 1 Malaysia is all about.

According to the 1 Malaysia website which is the personal website of Najib, it was stated that: “1 Malaysia provides a free and open forum to discuss the things that matter deeply to citizen.”

What makes Malaysia unique is the diversity of our people. 1 Malaysia’s goal is to preserve and enhance this unity in diversity which has always been our strength and remains our best hope for the future.”

A slogan was also created with mission statement “People first, performance now.”

But there are no forward-looking objectives to what the future of Malaysia and Malaysians will be. It will be difficult for all communities in Malaysia to work together without the long term objective.

It has happened among the members of the Cabinet as different member have different views on unity. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin has again stressed on the unity of the Malays as a prerequisite and to him, he is Malay first and whatever else comes after.

In such an atmosphere, can the 1 Malaysia concepts achieve unity?

The intention is noble, but the objectives and goals of 1 Malaysia have to be clear. And there must be proper follow-through to achieve these objectives and goals. This has not happened and instead each community is looking towards creating unity within itself.