1MALAYSIA ALSO A HIT WITH FOREIGN DIPLOMATS

By Nor Faridah Abd Rashid

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 (Bernama) -- The 1Malaysia concept espoused by Prime
Minister Najib Razak is not only spreading like "wildfire" among Malaysians but
is apparently also a big hit with foreign diplomats.

Uzbekistan ambasador to Malaysia Shukur Sabitov, for one, feels that his
country of 27 million people of some 100 nationalities can emulate this idea.

"The idea is very good for us as there are similarities between Malaysia,
which is a multiracial country, and Uzbekistan, which has more than 100
nationalities living in the country," he told Bernama recently after a
roundtable conference on the upcoming Uzbek parliamentary election.

The ambassador, who took up his post about six months ago, said that the
1Malaysia concept promoted racial solidarity and advocated living together
peacefully to develop a country.

"Living in peace is one way to develop a country. I know in Malaysia there
are many races, Malays, Chinese, Indians and others living peacefully together
to develop the country. Likewise, in Uzbekistan there are over 100
nationalities. We need to be together to develop the country and for us that is
very important," he said.

He said that being a relatively young country, Uzbekistan, which obtained
its independence from the Soviet Union only 18 years ago, had looked at and
studied other countries to find some kind of "model" to emulate.

In this aspect, he said, Uzbekistan could learn a lot from Malaysia, which
gained independence 52 years ago, as there were plenty of similarities between
the two countries.

"However, although Uzbekistan may be a young country, it is steeped in
history with many historical cities like the capital, Tashkent, Samarkhand and
Bukhara," he added.

Malaysians liked to visit these cities which were famous for their Islamic
heritage, he said, adding that Muslims made up about 85 per cent of Uzbekistan's
population.

Sabitov, however, lamented that many Malaysians still did not know much
about this young country.

"We have huge economic potential, tourism, sports, culture. And to make
people more aware of Uzbekistan, we have invited Malaysian observers for
Uzbekistan's upcoming election," he said.

Uzbekistan, a country 447,400 sq km in size and surrounded by Afghanistan,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, will hold its election on
Dec 27 with four parties contesting to pick 150 candidates.

The parties are the People's Democratic Party, Adolat (Justice) Social
Democratic Party, Liberal Democratic Party (Movement of Entrepreneurs and
Businessmen) and the Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) Democratic Party.

Touching on bilateral relations, Sabitov said it had always been good and
this was could be reflected from the strings of "high level exchange visits"
between the two countries since diplomatic relations started in 1992.

He said that Uzbekist President Islam Karimov had visited Malaysia twice --
in 1992 and 2005 -- while Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Jamalullail visited
Uzbekistan in 2003 when he was the Malaysian King.

Sabitov said former prime ministers Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi had also visited Uzbekistan, while the trade missions included a
delegation from the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade).
-- BERNAMA