KUALA LUMPUR, 24 April 2009: KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak must clarify his 1Malaysia concept as to whether it reaffirms the principle of equality to all, said former de facto law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim.
He said if Najib was truly committed to reforms, he must explain and expand the 1Malaysia concept, noting that some Umno leaders had dismissed the Bangsa Malaysia concept while several media reports had highlighted the danger of Malays losing their special rights.
“If he (Najib) cannot even utter that we are all Malaysians, we are all equals, we are all people of this country, then he can forget about reforms,” Zaid told a public forum last night entitled Can Najib Deliver His Reform Promises?
According to Zaid, there seemed to be a lack of political will on the reforms initiated by the newly appointed premier, stressing that the Internal Security Act (ISA) and the Printing Presses and Publications Act could be repealed or reviewed if Najib was interested in immediate changes.
Describing the Umno presidency and the prime minister’s posts as “most powerful in the world”, he pointed out that Najib’s administration must be able to reaffirm the fundamental rights of citizens such as by rectifying the Indira Gandhi case which involved forced conversion of her three children to Islam.
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This article first appeared on Friday, 24 April 2009 in www.theedgemalaysia.com under the same title. Used with permission
Steven says
I personally believe that the concept, ‘1Malaysia’, advocated by our new PM is only a gimmick. That slogan, the release of ISA detainees and the promise to review ISA are all part of the plan to ‘revitalise’ BN, in particular Umno.
If one were to observe carefully, since his appointment as the new PM, Datuk Seri has slowly shown his weaknesses in not being able to lead the country. The latest embarrassment is his ‘proposal’ to not contest in the latest by-election, which prompted our former premier to suggest otherwise.
As a result of that utterance, Datuk Seri is now in a predicament. Should there be a decision to contest, he will be seen as giving in to our former premier and going back on his words in which case he will be known as indecisive. If, however, he chooses to stick to his words, he will be going against our former premier, something I believe Datuk Seri will not want to! We all remember what Datuk Seri’s predecessor went through before being ‘forced’ to step down.
crook says
People from Umno are crooks. Wanting them to be uncrooked, they would rather die. Umno only knows how to take the country’s wealth away.
Eric says
Zaid hit at the right angle. My bet is Najib and Abdullah are two wolves of the same skin. Islam Hadhari may have been replaced by 1M’sia, people first and performance now. But, we hear and see the same old. Talk grandly about freedom of press, reviewing ISA, changing bumiputera quota and … no action whatsoever.
This has to be contrasted with the fact that Najib knew he’d be in the job over six months prior to the handover and had plenty of time to plan. With Abdullah, we’ve seen real bad, with Najib we’ll see even worse.