by Martin Jalleh December 7, 2012
1 Malaysia concept vague ‘by design’, says PM
When Najib Razak first introduced “One Malaysia” to Bolehland, no one except him knew (or we thought he knew) what it really meant. As time passed by his Cabinet ministers and his cohorts chanted the slogan trying to convince the rakyat that they knew what it really meant.
Now, three years later, the man who mooted the concept says he had “deliberately not defined the idea so its meaning could absorb different views over time”.
PM: I didn’t define the concept very clearly, but that was by design. I had decided it needed to have an “element of strategic ambiguity” when I introduced it three years ago so that the concept could be broadened to include other views from the public.
MJ: So vague is now the vogue of your premiership, Mr Prime Minister? What a “strategic excuse” when after three years of your tenure 1 Malaysia has become one big absolute joke and being mimicked by your Cabinet and cohorts who pretend to know what it all means!
PM: The concept I envisioned, to promote the idea of inclusiveness among the races, has been translated into policy and was clearly understood now even though some quarters have been sceptical at the onset.
MJ: The results of your vague vision are very clear – never before has this country been so divided by race and religion than now! Indeed, Umno’s exclusiveness has never been as evident than now!
PM: They may not see 1 Malaysia as something practised within the entire government system. But then again people must realise this is a journey. (He said this in response to scepticism from the minority races outside the ruling Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Malay party, Umno.)
MJ: Indeed, it has been a long journey of flip-flops, farcical transformation, fanciful public relations, fraudulent claims and foolhardy decisions by you and your government, Mr PM.
PM: My idea is more comprehensive than had been previously envisioned by the country’s past leaders as I have promoted the fundamental principles and values of social justice, inclusivity and moderation.
MJ: “Social justice, inclusivity and moderation”? Alas, you choose to have only a vague idea of what is really happening in this country, Mr PM. It was only yesterday that you admitted that Umno has not changed and your party has everything to do with the very opposite of “Social justice, inclusivity and moderation”!
PM: This is the first time that we’re trying to really define it in terms of the principles and values associated with 1 Malaysia. In the past, people talked about working together, but there was no real operational definition of what that meant.
MJ: In the past, there was no need of sloganeering and rhetoric like yours! We learned to live together, we co-existed, there was interdependence. Then the Umnoputras got greedy and corrupt and began to bleed the country dry. The Malays were mislead, manipulated and made to believe that their sufferings were due to the non-Malays!
MJ: Please note – with each passing day, the future of your premiership is becoming very vague!
(Quotes taken and adapted from Malaysian Insider, 7 Dec 2012, which highlighted excerpts from an interview published in the Malay Mail today)