1Malaysia and Nation Building

The concept of 1Malaysia was first mooted by our Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak shortly after he took office on April 3 last year. Until today, the concept was somehow 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. However, that kind of interpretation, if being considered too much, it would never help Malaysia to the building of its nation.

 The concept of 1Malaysia in my point of view is beautiful enough which I believe it has its own ‘power’ to bring Malaysia to the top of the world. The core element of the concept is ‘unity’ which is very important to be understood and to be interpreted correctly by all Malaysians due to the fact that Malaysia consists of various races and cultures with different religions. However, some people might condemn this concept based on the argument that, if we are talking about unity alone, there is nothing new that has been brought into this concept. This is because, everyone knows that historically it has been proven and well believed that Tanah Melayu managed to get its independence due to the unity of the Malays, Chinese and Indians at that upon of time. So, today in the year of 2010, what is the special point behind the 1Malaysia concept? Unity is not a new thing.

Yes. The argument is not wrong. However, I would like to stress here that in order for Malaysia to develop, the Malaysians need to change the way they see. If we tend to look into the negative side, then the negative outcome will appear. But if we wish to have the positive impact, then we have to see something positively. I personally believe that the 1Malaysia concept has its own strength where it lays down the core principles of 1Malaysia namely; the principle of acceptance, principle of nationalism which builds with cross reference to the Federal Constitution of Malaysia and the Rukun Negara and lastly the principle of social justice. These core principles do not stand by its own alone because the government has laid down the attribution of moral values to be inserted into the 1Malaysia concept. The moral values are; modesty, humility (tawadhuk’), and respect which supposedly to be well understood and well practised by the Malaysians in order to see the good impact of this concept.

It is believed that the 1Malaysia concept can be a stepping stone for building the nation. This is because if all Malaysians do digest the message behind this 1Malaysia concept and they do practise it, we would be able to develop and produce a great value of human capital. Great value of human capital will then be the great asset of the nation to be developed and moved forward to be on top of the world.

Why am I so confident in saying so? This is due to the clear plan of 1Malaysia concept where the government has drafted along the attribution of aspiration values which basically focusing on creating and developing the culture of high achievement, knowledge and education, punctuality in time, integrity, innovation, loyalty and intellectuality. All these values are important in order for Malaysia to be well built and developed. The future of Malaysia is depending on the youths of Malaysia, today. In order to plan for a bright future, we should have trained and developed the youths to ensure that Malaysia in future will achieve the Mission 2020 where it is believed that the 1Malaysia concept is the supporting effort in achieving the Mission 2020.

In order to build the nation, people must see beyond what the eyes can see. 1Malaysia concept is not only uniting the Malays, Chinese and Indians on the same dinner table or in the same classroom but it is more than that. Nowadays, we can witness the Malaysians celebrating the big-day of every cultures such us through Deepa-Raya, Kongsi Raya, Muhibbah Dinner and many more. But what is more important than that, is the understanding of the real concept of 1Malaysia and try to have the value of ‘acceptance’ towards each other regardless the diversity in the cultures, races and religions.

The people should respect and appreciate the government’s effort in building this nation through the 1Malaysia concept. What we are facing today is the terrible problem of social issue among the teenagers. Why is this happen? Should we blame the government for this problem? We should not. This is because the government has successfully planned the concept, the values that we should insert into ourselves but we are the ones who refused to do so. Then, why should the government be blamed? We have to change the way we see something in order to put ourselves, our nation to the best place of the world.

One of the motivational speakers in Western country; Les Brown has once said that, ‘Life has no limitations except for the ones you created’. Thus, in order to achieve our Mission 2020, to put Malaysia on the top of the world, we should not put any limitation on the relevancy of the 1Malaysia concept. Government has done its very awesome job; the rest is all upon us. What are we waiting for? Grab and digest the 1Malaysia concept and be proud of it. On your mark, get set, go!

Written by;

Fateen Najlaa Idayu Binti Mohamad Nor

Bachelor of Law (Hons)

Multimedia University (Melaka Campus)

Malaysia Delegate for the 2nd Global Model United Nations (GMUN 2010)