The former prime minister reportedly said on Monday that 1 Malaysia needed further “explanation” to prevent it from being interpreted differently by various races.
Analysts feel that the slogan, first mooted by Najib shortly after he took office on April 3 last year, was being interpreted as a mere rebranding of a pro-Malay governance even as the premier’s administration is trying to win over non-Malay support.
“Yes, I agree with what Tun Dr Mahathir said; I suppose he has a point. The Najib administration has trouble convincing Malaysians on 1 Malaysia because there are still different ways of interpreting the slogan.
“It’s an image that the prime minister and the government want to incorporate, but there are still glaring inconsistencies,” said Ibrahim Suffian, director of Merdeka Center, an independent public opinion poll centre.
“Some Malays view 1 Malaysia as a rebranding of the current Malay (form) of governance. Other races think that Barisan Nasional (BN) has finally learnt its lesson,” he said.
Ibrahim claimed that a section of the Malay community — particularly those from Umno’s own ranks — are “uncomfortable” with the “vagueness” of the 1 Malaysia concept, interpreting it as Najib’s willingness to cede Malay rights to appease the country’s ethnic minorities.
“Some Malays, especially those with within Umno, view the vagueness as an encroachment of Malay rights, as a signal that the Najib administration is giving in to the demands made by minorities,” he said.
“The Najib administration wants to use 1 Malaysia to appeal to everyone. Given that the concept is vague, it’s a broad concept. At the end of the day, the Malays and the non-Malays have to grapple with the inconsistencies of the concept.
“If this goes on, Najib might fall into the trap of [ultimately] not pleasing anybody,” added Ibrahim.
Another political analyst, Dr Sivamurugan Pandian, said that 1 Malaysia needed to be consistent with the policies and leadership of the current government administration.
“Certainly, I would agree with Tun Dr Mahathir to an extent. The policies in 1 Malaysia needs to reflect the current leadership. It needs to be explained, because 1 Malaysia is a concept that is geared to support the Vision 2020,” said Dr Sivamurugan.
“Whatever policy enacted, people could easily get confused. The issue now is awareness. After one year, Malaysians know 1 Malaysia, but they have yet to fully understand it.
“Najib needs to make 1 Malaysia properly understood,” explained the USM lecturer.
Professor Shamsul Adabi Mamat of the UKM sought to allay concerns by Malays that 1 Malaysia had created “confusion” as to the government’s long-terms plans for the country.
“1 Malaysia, when it was announced by Najib, had brought up many questions among Malays. A lot of Malays feel that 1 Malaysia is like [the DAP’s] ‘Malaysian Malaysia’.
“This is the general situation, there has not been enough explanation given by the Najib administration, especially to the Malays. Malays need to understand the effects of 1 Malaysia on them,” the scholar told The Malaysian Insider.
DAP’s Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua claimed that 1 Malaysia had been created specifically to win over non-Malay support for BN.
“That sounds like the intent of Najib, to let different races have a different understanding to their own liking.
“And it’s specially conceived to win over non-Malays,” Pua told The Malaysian Insider via text message yesterday.
Najib has come under fire lately, as even veteran Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders have openly mocked his 1 Malaysia campaign, in effect branding it a “hollow” cause.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday agreed with Dr Mahathir that people did not understand 1 Malaysia despite it having been introduced more than a year ago.
However, Muhyiddin defended the slogan and explained that public needed more time to fully understand 1 Malaysia.
“I agree with his (Dr Mahathir) opinion. We did not say that in a period of one year that everybody would understand the 1 Malaysia slogan launched by the prime minister but I am confident that many have understood. I believe that many have yet to fully understand the meaning of 1 Malaysia,” he said.
In a rare compliment to the former prime minister, Tengku Razaleigh said that Vision 2020 “inspired” more confidence among Malaysians than 1Malaysia.
“When Dr Mahathir positioned a vision of 2020, the vision, its idea gives people hope.
“1 Malaysia is hollow, it must have a policy to go about it, to support it. Only then will people get involved in it,” the Gua Musang MP told The Malaysian Insider recently.
A public opinion poll by the Merdeka Center found that a majority of non-Bumiputeras in the country considered Najib’s 1 Malaysia slogan a mere political gimmick.
According to the poll, only 39 per cent of non-Bumiputeras accepted the 1 Malaysia concept despite the fact that it had been introduced for over a year.
Forty-six per cent out of 3,141 respondents interviewed felt that 1 Malaysia was only a “tactic to win over non-Malay support”, while another 16 per cent had either refused to answer the poll questions or claimed to have no understanding of the concept whatsoever.
Respondents were undecided on whether Malaysia had become more united under the Najib administration, with 48 per cent saying “yes” and 43 per cent claiming that the country was still disunited.
