Even before the official launch of his new campaign to replace his earlier lame-duck “1Malaysia” slogan, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has to grapple with the headache whether his new “Endless Possibilities” campaign should be aborted some three weeks before launch as it is mired in a double-barrelled Israeli and Mongolian controversies.
On the Israeli knot, the Prime Minister’s Office has officially responded to The Malaysian Insider reports declaring that the new “Endless Possibilities” campaign is not lifted from an Israeli campaign idea, claiming that Putrajaya had launched the campaign globally in January before Israel launched its version.
This is a revisit of the earlier 1Malaysia slogan which faced the charge that it was a copy of the 1Israel campaign.
Before the dust could settle on the controversy of the Israeli link of the “Endless Possibilities” slogan, it is now mired in a second controversy involving of all countries Mongolia.
This was reported by The Malay Mail Online today about a video advertisement marketing Mongolia using the exact same tagline which had been uploaded onto YouTube nearly one year before Najib first mentioned the “Malaysia ‘Endless Possibilities’” nation branding concept at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland in January 2013.
As reported by MMO, a short clip titled “Mongolia Endless Possibilities by CNN” has been available on YouTube since it was uploaded on February 19, 2012.
The Mongolian knot of Najib’s new national branding slogan is equally if not more embarrassing than the Israeli knot, especially after the “shocker” yesterday with the unanimous acquittal by a three-member Court of Appeal of Special Action Unit officers Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar of the charge of murdering Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu, plunging the system of justice in Malaysia to its worst crisis of confidence in the 21st century.
To ordinary Malaysians, the more pertinent question about Najib’s “Endless Possibilities” campaign is not it is a copy of Israeli and/or Mongolian campaign ideas, but whether it would be a clarion and inspirational call to all Malaysians to scale new heights of national endeavour in nation-building and all fields of human accomplishments or it would symbolise the country plumbing new depths of all that is bad, dark, evil, new injustices, exploitation and oppression – the very opposite of the Malaysian Dream for justice, freedom, accountability, transparency, good governance, national unity and harmony for all Malaysians.
#1 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 3:09 pm
So, ha, ha, Najib is a Zionist.
What is wrong with that?
Don’t you all love Einstein? He is a Jew.
Fritz Haber…. Ammonia? He is a Jew.
Boris Pasternak? Harold Pinter? Niels Bohr?Henry Kissinger? Yitzshak Rabin? Paul Samuelson ? Milton Friedman? Mogdiani and Miller?
Oh, and Mahathri loves Joseph Stiglitz – who is no Palesetinian but a Jew?
All Nobel Prize Winners… and so many more.
YB LKS… don’t talk of 1Israel as if it is a dirty word. Jews are bright people too… if only UMNO has more Jews and less idiots.
#2 by cemerlang on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 10:25 pm
and Malaysia will be a much richer country in terms of money
#3 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 3:11 pm
If Mongolia seeks the Genghis-Kublai Khan justice, then UMNO will be crawling knee-high in $#!T!
#4 by cemerlang on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 10:26 pm
if the Khan clan ride in with their horses once again, read the history to know their chances
#5 by yhsiew on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 4:28 pm
How can Malaysia ever be an innovative nation when even our leaders are fond of copying other people’s work?
#6 by cemerlang on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 10:27 pm
can if your relative is a datuk
#7 by Di Shi Jiu on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 5:34 pm
It’s really quite astounding!!
Yet another feel-good campaign copied from somewhere else.
So, let me see –
Endless Possibilities – none of them original
#8 by cemerlang on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 10:28 pm
that is why it is endless
#9 by Loh on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 5:36 pm
///11. Just imagine how many billions more would be saved if I had stepped down earlier before building the North-South Highway, Penang Bridge, KLIA, West Port, Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, the twin towers of Petronas and a host of other mega projects. We would be sitting on a mountain of Ringgits.///–Mamakthir in Chedet
If he had not been a prime minister, the country would have been saved from becoming a failed state, and not just trillions of dollars from the petrol ringgit. AAB is certainly useless, but that is because Mamak only allowed useless persons to remain as leaders in UMNO.
#10 by cemerlang on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 10:29 pm
Malaysia’s pride in having useful leaders
#11 by KhairulAnwar on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 7:40 pm
Mr lim kit siang,
Wouldnt u agree that the intention of this initiative is good? Have u seen the core values of Endless Possibilities?
The question shouldnt be abt it has been done before or not. Shouldnt the question to be ask is how to get malaysian to be involved in this effort to brand our nation?
Are u suggesting that we take divisive politics and let it stand in the way of marketing our country out there in the global world? Korea, japan and switzerland all have their respective nation branding initiative, just like thailand and also india, are u suggesting that due to political differences we should abandon the effort all together?
We should see the content rather than just what’s on the surface.
Thank you Sir.
#12 by cemerlang on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 10:30 pm
you mean re-branding
#13 by Di Shi Jiu on Sunday, 25 August 2013 - 12:54 pm
KhairulAnwar,
Personally, I am not into the branding aspect. It cheapens the nationalistic pride that every Malaysian should have of being Malaysian.
I want to be a Malaysian not because of some sugary sweet slogan.
Intent alone is not enough to unite Malaysia.
A clean government with good governance which cares for it’s rakyat, regardless of race or religion, seems a lot better.
For example:-
– How about using income levels, instead of race and religion, as the benchmark for government assistance?
– How about ensuring that cronyism is wiped out?
Slogans mean nothing to me.
Concrete actions which address the injustices Malaysians face mean a lot more.
Endless Possibilities – and no intentions of implementing the good ones.
#14 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 7:50 pm
Boycott Tanda Putera – irresponsible movie-making at its worst.
A bad case of profits and senselessness over social conscience and goodness.
#15 by Bigjoe on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 8:03 pm
Is there any point in even asking him to drop it? Its not like rich kids all show and no spine actually care if anything fails even if he spends his own money what more some others..
Seriously, just hound Mahathir for his opinion and decisions on anything – after all its the only one that really matters..
#16 by good coolie on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 10:32 pm
With regard to posting #6, Khairul Anwar seems to miss the purpose of the widespread ridiculing of the PM’s latest slogan. Sloganeering is anti-intellectual, and is often the vehicle for disguised agenda. Najib has been overly active in cooking up “alphabetical soup” ; hence the cynicism, skepticism, and ridicule that attends his seemingly abstruse slogans.
Sloganeering also assumes that the people who are fed the slogans are, in some sense at least, like a herd of cattle, prone and happy to be brain-washed.
#17 by john on Saturday, 24 August 2013 - 11:02 pm
His main aim now is to ensure he remains Bumno’s topshit comes October. This E P is to accomodate ALL eg. the cow-girl, One Mamak-Botak, Bodowi-Kari, Moo, ALLLLLLL in order to cling to power as no-way he can cleanse completely Altantuya gruesome murder case.
This Nation is being saddle shamelessly as their shithouse by Bumno’s crooks and cheats mainly One Mamak, cunning Bodowi, now this Pee M and their clones and ‘clowns-stupidity’.
#18 by buylower2003 on Sunday, 25 August 2013 - 12:00 am
All talk big, new campaign, same old shit behind, lol
#19 by Jeffrey on Sunday, 25 August 2013 - 1:06 am
///Have u seen the core values of Endless Possibilities?///Branding is Ok if product meets customers’ satisfaction on quality and the promises it implies. Using Endless Possibilities becomes butt of joke if people’s felt experience is not possibilities for the good and the better and the fair but the absurd, the unjust, the ridiculous and the hypocritical. They laugh at a foreign national being blown up in some forests here though records show that she was not in the country; that she was killed yet there was no killer on whom responsibility could be pinned for justice. Or people detained under preventive detention laws for their own protection; whistleblowers of corrupt acts being punished; or people ‘interviewed’ in course of investigation finds the place suitable for committing suicide; great speeches on how moderate voices should drown extremist’s voices when actually the extremist voices are given the loud speakers and the moderate ones silenced; people who speak truth to power charged for sedition whilst films with messages of seditious tendencies could seek justification and defence behind creative interpretation in the name of Art. These are just a few examples and the tip of an iceberg whose narration is too lengthy for the small space here.
#20 by yhsiew on Sunday, 25 August 2013 - 8:18 am
Najib should change “Endless Possibilities” to “Ample Opportunities” or something along the same line, lest the country being labelled as an “international copycat” or a “rogue plagiarist”!
#21 by digard on Sunday, 25 August 2013 - 8:42 am
Has Najib not denied that he ever met Altantuya? – Now the proof is there that he must have met her and learned of that slogan from her. ;-)
#22 by boh-liao on Sunday, 25 August 2013 - 9:14 am
D previous trial was a JOKE, a farce!
Ghani Patail appeared 2 control how d trial was 2 b conducted n 2 decide who could b questioned
He firmly decided dat d former aide-de-camp of AhCheatKor was not relevant 2 d case
He engineered d trial n now we hv NO ANSWER, NO GUILTY person/persons
Furthermore, now Baginda n d two faceless mata2 r free n cannot b charged again 4 d same murderous act
A PERFECT crime indeed! Congratulations, Ghani Patail
#23 by CitizenNet on Sunday, 25 August 2013 - 10:32 am
Think we should see where this is heading to. It’s a branding campaign. The name might be similar, but the brand is not. Israel and Mongolia can’t sell what we are selling. We can’t just go and condemn everything without seeing the results first.
#24 by negarawan on Sunday, 25 August 2013 - 11:39 am
I am just waiting for the time when Najip and UMNO will face a major international diplomatic embarassment because of UMNO’s blatant hypocrisy and lies. Cakap tak serupa bikin.
#25 by good coolie on Sunday, 25 August 2013 - 11:52 am
I think the Israeli fellows are trying to infiltrate Malaysia through Najib’s slogans. If there is a third slogan from Najib (after “1 Malaysia” and “Endless Possibilities”), please reject it outright.
#26 by sheriff singh on Sunday, 25 August 2013 - 12:14 pm
Endless Pointless Possibilities (EPP).
#27 by balance88 on Monday, 26 August 2013 - 12:46 pm
I find it extremely amusing we are going into a slogan controversy. First of all, the govt should cut the crap on slogans as these are just lip services. We can have fantastic slogans but it is meaningless because it is not backed by actions. These are just nice sounding phrases that make the BN feel good.
It does nothing to reforms. Secondly, with a population of millions and with a huge talented and smart base of people (even with all the brain drain, we still have a huge pool of smart people), we can’t come out with the slogan that is unique!
#28 by cskok8 on Tuesday, 27 August 2013 - 4:07 am
Well, this is as original as the rebranding of Telekom Malaysia to TM and that of Bank Pertanian to Agro Bank. With similar millions being paid to the CONsultants.