PM NAJIB DENIES 1MALAYSIA CONCEPT ORIGINATED FROM ISRAEL

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab

SINGAPORE, April 7 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak
said the 1Malaysia concept was an original idea and not copied from Israel
or anywhere else in the world.

"It is purely mine and some of my colleagues together" he told over 100
Singapore-based foreign journalists at a gala dinner organised by the Foreign
Correspondents' Association (FCA) of Singapore here Tuesday night.

Najib said the 1Malaysian concept was a Malaysian one and he categorically
denied claims by some people that it originated from Israel or other countries.

Recently, People's Alliance (Pakatan Rakyat) adviser Anwar Ibrahim had
claimed that Najib’s 1Malaysia concept had similarities with the One Israel
concept.

The Prime Minister said although the one concept was not new as many
countries such as China used it to promote a sense of belonging or togetherness
among its people, the 1Malaysia concept went beyond that, that it was 1Malaysia
– People First, Performance Now.

Najib who arrived here this evening with his wife Rosmah Mansor
upon the invitation of the FCA addressed the crowd for half an hour before
taking questions from the floor for another 45 minutes.

The Prime Minister who began by speaking at length on the 1Malaysia concept
said upon helming premiership, he realised that the Malaysian electorate wanted
a massive transformation, and not in an incremental manner in the running of the
country.

Najib said the tsunami in the last 2008 general elections when the Barisan
Nasional (BN) for the first time lost a two-third majority in parliament, was an
indication that the people wanted massive changes politically and economically.

The Prime Minister explained how the 1Malaysia concept was conceived and its
succeeding programmes came into being, such as the Government Transformation
Programmes, New Key Results Areas and the New Economic Models, which became the
main pillars of the concept.

He said the concept was a guiding philosophy for his government to serve the
people irrespective of their race and culture, emphasizing that the ultimate
goal of any government was to serve the people.


The Prime Minister said he now felt more relaxed since he had laid down the
foundation for the development of the country and the immediate move now would
be to execute all the programmes for the benefit of the people.

He said the ratings on his leadership as shown by recent private polls
indicated that there was a strong confidence among the people as there was now a
sense of direction on where the country was heading.

During question time, Najib said there was no possibility that Malaysia and
Singapore would re-merge in future, saying "realistically, it will not be
happening and too traumatic to have a political reunification."

He said he would rather see the people from both countries work together in
all fronts, especially economically.

Najib also said there was no immediate plans to privatize the national oil
corporation, Petronas, except for its two subsidiaries, as announced recently.

The prime minister and wife left for Kuala Lumpur after the dinner.

People's Alliance is an informal Malaysian political coalition formed on
April 1, 2008. The political coalition comprises a group of Malaysian political
parties, namely, the People's Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party
(DAP), and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), who collectively worked together
in what was colloquially called the Barisan Rakyat (People's Front) during the
12th Malaysian general election in 2008.

--BERNAMA




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