Najib’s 1 Malaysia means total acceptance of diversity
(The Malaysian Insider) – Datuk Seri Najib Razak today attempted to revive his battered 1Malaysia concept by urging Malaysians to adopt its paradigm of “total acceptance” of the country’s diversity instead of mere “tolerance”.
The Prime Minister launched his 1Malaysia idea when he took office last April but a recent spate of racial and derogatory remarks from his Umno party has further divided rather than united Malaysian behind his Barisan Nasional government.
His efforts to liberalise government policies and create a more inclusive, more open policy towards all races appear to have riled Malay right-wingers who now fear that his 1 Malaysia would cause them to lose their rights to the minority races.
“We started off with one basic paradigm and that is tolerance. We say we tolerate or we live in a society that is tolerant of one another. But in the concept of 1Malaysia, being tolerant is just the beginning.
“The next paradigm is a shift from tolerance to total acceptance. This is when we accept the differences of our people, when we accept diversity as something that is unique, that provides us with a very powerful chemistry in our society… something that can actually give us strength and not otherwise,” Najib said at the Sin Chew Daily’s Chinese New Year open house here.
He added that the third and final paradigm of 1Malaysia was to celebrate diversity.
