The prime minister Najib Tun Razak also introduced his hallmark 1 Malaysia campaign to unite the country although many maintain that the country is united by default and political parties are the source of problems.
While Barisan Nasional has tried to reach out to non-Malays, particularly with the prime minister adopting a more inclusive message, Pakatan Rakyat’s de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has gone one step further and said that he would rid Malaysia of the “culture” of racial discrimination if he were in power.
Wan Saiful Wan Jan, chief executive of Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), said that the feelings of non-Malays was understandable but stressed that racial discrimination existed everywhere, even among the non-Malays.
“I don’t blame non-Malays for feeling like this,” he said. “This is what you get when you have a political system divided along ethnic lines.”
He added that Malays too feel discriminated against when they see job advertisements seeking only Mandarin speakers or business associations formed by Chinese clans.
James Chin, a political science lecturer at Monash University said that for the Chinese Malaysians, the political framework was always one of marginalisation and feelings of being treated as second class.
Minority voters meanwhile are likely to carry their discontent with them to the polling booth.
Simitha says that her vision is one where Malaysians were not divided according to their race.
“I would like to see Malaysia as a single unit a not a compilation of one majority and various minorities,” she said. “I hope for a country where people focused more on human rights rather than my-race-rights.”
Najib Tun Razak met today with young Malaysians, personally seeking their ideas on how to solve local community issues through a new government initiative that could help boost Barisan Nasional’s (BN) urban youth support in the coming polls.
For close to an hour this morning, the country’s sixth prime minister sat face-to-face with some 50 young leaders, including activists, bloggers and media representatives, at a well-known coffeehouse in upper class Bangsar, churning out ideas on several day-to-day concerns affecting Malaysians.
Among others, they brainstormed on road safety issues, street cleanliness, the country’s education system, ways to improve customer service in Malaysia and how to attract more tourists to the country — topics that the Najib administration often garners criticism for.
The informal chat session was held for the launch of “Genovasi Malaysia”, a new online challenge to attract new ideas from young Malaysians in a holistic “crowd-source” approach on how to improve local neighbourhoods and solve community problems.
Najib told the youths to cast aside their political differences for the sake of participating in nation-building, praising them for raising sound ideas that he said could help propel Malaysia forward.
“I am here as the leader of this nation. I am not here because the election is behind the door,” the prime minister told the crowd gathered Chawan.
“The important thing is we want to build a nation, and as the PM, I want to listen to you and I want to use some of your ideas… I believe some of them are great.”
“It’s all about nation-building. At the end of the day, this is our country. Malaysia is where we were born, Malaysia is the country we are going to live in, and eventually we want to be buried in Malaysia… we must make Malaysia second to none, and I believe we can.”
Speaking to The Malaysian Insider later, several participants at the brainstorming session lauded the government’s approach to engage with young Malaysians, agreeing that the initiative was a step forward in helping to create a sense of belonging among the community.
“It is a very good concept because at the end of the day, the rakyat want to feel as though we are involved. And these programmes make us feel like our voices are being heard,” Malaysian Young Activists founder and president Izzati Rahman said.
“When we speak to the prime minister personally, we are actually able to gauge his reaction to see if what we say makes an impact…. and it makes us feel like we have done our part for the country,” she said.
“But because this is a new concept, I would not dare say how effective it is yet.. although it does feel good to be engaging with the top powers,” she added, with a smile.
Aaron Gill, the technical lead for interactive taxi service company MyTeksi.com, echoed the same, saying it was a positive step forward for the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration to try and interact directly with Malaysian youths.
Najib Tun Razak said it was time for the government to stop trying to fix everything on its own but instead to source ideas from the young and those with fresh ideas on how to improve the local community.
“They should not fix everything themselves, or just throw money at everything…. before doing so, try to find out from those who have the ideas, those who have the will and those who want to step up to fix these concerns,” he said.
But the youths also noted that implementation and sustainability were more important factosr in these youth interactions, adding that it was “still too soon” to gauge the government’s sincerity in reaching out to the young.
“It is a good programme… but sustainability, and how the government plans to execute these ideas — that is the question,” said MyHarapan activist Syed Hanif Syed Sofi.
The PM’s son Nor Ashman contributes an idea to the discussion board. — Picture by Choo Choy May
Youth Trust Foundation CEO Nurfarini Daing pointed out that Malaysian youths were a more discerning and educated lot now than ever before, and would not willingly offer their support for a government based on mere promises.
She said one-off programmes would not work, as youths today want long-term ideas and programmes that would benefit their lives.
“With activities like these, youths will step up to help with nation-building,” she said.
Najib’s son Nor Ashman, who was also seen mingling with youth leaders during today’s brainstorming session, told The Malaysian Insider that the “Genovasi Malaysia” challenge was a great opportunity for young Malaysians to pitch their ideas on nation-building forward to the government.
He said no idea should be viewed as too small or insignificant, pointing out that, “the smallest idea might become something revolutionary’.
“The generation of ideas is one of the major ways that a country moves forward,” the youth said.
The “Genovasi Malaysia” challenge, driven by the government’s Agensi Inovasi Malaysia(AIM), is a series of national challenges that will be launched throughout the coming year to inspire Malaysians to ”assume ownership, innovate and take action”.
The first leg of the challenge, which is open to submissions from all Malaysians aged above 14 years from today until December 15, invites ideas on how to improve and enliven neighbourhoods in a variety of aspects including cleanliness, happiness and wellbeing, income levels, and others.
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