By Tunku Abdul Aziz

If, by 1Malaysia, the Prime Minister is merely invoking the undoubted virtue of, and the equally vital necessity for all of us to strive to live in peace and harmony, then I believe he is more than a half a century wide of the mark. Living peacefully together, cheek by jowl is something we are rather good at, and frankly we do not politicians, particularly those from race-based parties to tutor us on this.

In the interest of self-preservation, we have been doing just that finding accommodation with our racially and culturally assorted neighbours.. And, so, it is not entirely surprising that the same Malaysians that Prime Minister Najib is so desperately anxious to unite should feel a little peeved, and confused especially when rumour has it that enormous sums of public money – dare I venture to mention slush funds, have been expended to mount a campaign that has all the appearance of a damp squid, with apologies to all the squids of this world.

Malaysians are fed up with being continually bombarded and harangued by Najib on his slogan the significance of which he is not sure about. To the millions of us preoccupied with making ends meet on a daily basis in Najib’s economic haven, 1Malaysia cannot be disguised as anything but what it is; a hellishly wasteful and hollow symbol by any reckoning. And, that is putting it as charitably as I can.

His latest attempt at giving substance to a brain dead concept was on Al Jazeera a few days ago. No rumpled suit for him, but the discomfiture was writ large all over his face when he failed to make sense of what he meant by 1Malaysia. His convoluted response was downright shifty Najib knew that his savoir-faire had just, when he needed it most, deserted him, leaving him looking like a very dishonest second hand car salesman.

He was mercifully let off the hook when the comely interviewer suddenly and gratuitously changed tack, describing him as hailing from “a political aristocracy.” He lapped it all up, and there was imperceptibly a trace of ill-disguised suppression of delight at the reference to his elitist pedigree. Najib, I am pleased to say is human after all, and is not averse like all of us to a little flattery.

Even an accomplished aristocrat-turned politician like Najib, on occasion, is not above being a trifle economical with the truth. A truthful and honest politician is a contradiction in terms. That said, he is not, in my book, a practised compulsive liar, and I put this down, in part, to good breeding. His one single act of Machiavellianism in the Perak affair has blotted his copy book, marked him out as an immoral, nasty piece of work. It will be a badge of infamy that will now be part of his excess baggage to lug around..

When Najib became prime minister a year ago, I said in a column I wrote then that I would impose on myself a year’s moratorium before commenting on his performance, in place of the time-honoured 100 days so beloved of political commentators. It would be churlish to deny him, on balance, his pass mark. He is known for his grand standing, the broad brush big picture artist, or perhaps more appropriate, the ultimate grand illusionist. Not for him the despairingly soul-destroying realities that dog this country in social, political and economic terms, such as the debilitating impact of the ever widening circle of grinding poverty among our rural and urban communities alike, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak. While it is not really fair to blame Najib for the ills of the world, he must address the issue of poverty holistically and comprehensively now, including confronting corruption in the executive mansions and suites in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. Many of the problems associated with the plight of our fellow citizens in The Land of the Hornbills and The Land Below the Wind have been brought about without exception by a succession of callous and unbelievably corrupt chief ministers who have been robbing their people blind, in broad daylight.

Let us see whether Najib the Prime Minister has the stomach for a grand putsch against the architects of Grand Corruption who have raped and impoverished this potentially rich competitive nation. Najib must naturally lead by example, not always easy, in this and as in other matters of critical importance to the future of his 1Malaysia, already in danger of joining the ranks of the mythical Camelot.

I am not opposed to the idea of 1Malaysia simply to be bloody minded, but it has to be a Malaysia that is fit for all Malaysians. We cannot expect people to swallow some vague promise of a bright future for all while in the same breath he declares that the NEP will forever remain a sacred cow. How on earth can he hope to reconcile special treatment for the Bumiputeras for eternity and equal opportunity for all Malaysians? I do not expect UMNO to see any contradiction in this formula for a happy country. I think the NEP as cobbled together after the 1968 race riots was a brilliant attempt to redress the economic wrongs of the past. Unfortunately, the overarching objective of alleviating poverty across the board irrespective of race was deliberately ignored in order to make way for the corrupt and the greedy to gorge themselves off the same grubby trough. Therein lies the critical challenge for Najib.