1Malaysia

1Malaysia official logo

1Malaysia (pronounced One Malaysia in English and Satu Malaysia in Malay) is an ongoing programme designed by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak on 16 September 2010, calling for the cabinet, government agencies, and civil servants to more strongly emphasise ethnic harmony, national unity, and efficient governance.

National campaign

1Malaysia Square in Malacca.

The 1Malaysia concept is being promoted through a wide range of activities.

Prime Minister Najib has instructed the National Civics Bureau or Biro Tata Negara (BTN) to use its courses and seminars to educate present and future civil servants, politicians, and community leaders about 1Malaysia and promote national unity. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad stated, “We will ensure that the BTN courses also inculcate the 1Malaysia concept and its eight values, namely high performance culture, accuracy, knowledge, innovation, integrity, strong will, loyalty and wisdom.”^[1]

Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) and private television channels have incorporated ideas from 1Malaysia into numerous TV programs. The use of multi-lingual hosts and actors from different ethnicities is one of the methods uses to promote national unity.^[2]

Logo and slogan

An official logo and slogan has been introduced along with the launch of 1Malaysia concept. The logo is the symbol of '1' which incorporates the national Jalur Gemilang flag and the word Malaysia. The government has spent RM38 million to promote Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s 1Malaysia concept in 2010, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department T Murugiah.^[3]

Slogan

Public policy

Improving government efficiency is an important aspect of 1Malaysia. The use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), metrics and targets more typically used in private business, and National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) is thus naturally an important part of the 1Malaysia effort. Najib says, "The government is committed to carrying out a transformation programme as its main agenda based on approaches and philosophy of 1Malaysia – people first, performance now."^[4]

Immediately after assuming the office of Prime Minister of Malaysia Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak introduced a series of KPIs to measure and improve the efficiency and quality of government services as well as realising the 1Malaysia concept. Najib said that KPIs were implemented to ensure “the people’s satisfaction...whether they are satisfied with our service, whether we have solved their problems.”^[5]

Najib's announcement of the KPI effort was generally well received. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the KPI formula was a yardstick against which the people could measure the performance of Najib and the government. He said the KPIs would provide motivation for every minister to perform well.^[6]

The KPIs provide a mechanism for the evaluation of ministries and other government agencies including performance reviews carried out every six months. Each ministry has been required to establish specific KPIs including that focus on policy outcomes over the traditional emphasis on inputs typically found in government performance assessments and planning. KPIs include detailed job descriptions and goals for ministers, deputy ministers, and some other senior government officials.^[5]

Najib has identified six major policy areas in which KPIs will play an especially important role in improving the effectiveness of the Malaysian government. These are known as National Key Result Areas (NKRAs). The NKRAs include crime prevention, reducing government corruption, increased access to quality education, improvements in the standard of living for low income groups, upgrades to rural infrastructure, and improvements in public transportation.^[7]

Najib also introduced a new cabinet position to support the Unity and Performance Minister in implementing the KPI system. Idris Jala, the former CEO of Malaysia Airlines, was appointed Minister Without a Portfolio and CEO of Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), to work with Dr. Koh Tsu Koon in training over 500 government officers to implement the KPI system. As CEO of Pemandu Idris will support the work of Koh, who is the minister in charge of National Unity and Performance Management.^[8]

Public services

1Malaysia clinics

Prime Minister Najib's Budget 2010 includes funding for 50 medical clinics to provide basic medical services for illnesses and injuries such as fever, cough, colds, wounds and cuts, diabetes, and hypertension. Malaysia citizens are charged RM1 for treatment and medication. Non-citizens are charged RM15.^[9]

1Malaysia Community WiFi

To boost internet penetration in the country, the government launch free Wi-Fi services as part of the 1Malaysia campaign which known as (Kampung Tanpa Wayar - KTW) (Village Without Wire) in 2011 for rural areas resident.^[10][11][12] The Wi-Fi services have since been renamed as WiFi Komuniti (WK) - Community WiFi.

1Malaysia email

It was announced that the RM50 million contract was awarded to a company called Tricubes Bhd to run the 1Malaysia e-mail project as part of the government's social networking project in which free email accounts would be given to the public to communicate with the government.

1Malaysia Development Berhad

A government-owned firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad was formed through the renaming sovereign wealth fund called Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA). Through Najib's efforts the company has focus on strategic development projects in the areas of energy, real estate, tourism and agribusiness.

Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (1Malaysia People's Grocery Stores)

In 2011, the 1Malaysia franchise was branched off into a grocery store franchise going by the name Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M), with the first store being located at the Kelana Jaya Line Light Rail Transit (LRT) station in Kuala Lumpur. The franchise was aimed at allowing the low income group to obtain cheaper groceries and lighten their burden besides bringing Malaysians closer to the significance of 1Malaysia.^[13]

Non-governmental organisations

1Malaysia Foundation

The 1Malaysia Foundation (Y1M) Foundation was established in 2009 to promote and develop the idea of 1Malaysia. Y1M works to co-ordinate and supplement government and private-sector activities related to 1Malaysia. Chairman of the Y1M Board of Trustees, Dr Chandra Muzaffar said, "Y1M is planning to expand and strengthen the commitment from all Malaysians towards national unity through various activities to increase public awareness and community development."^[14]

1Malaysia Youth Fund

The 1Malaysia Youth Fund was launched to provide financial support for young people to undertake creative projects that nurture national unity. RM20 million was allocated for the fund under Malaysia's budget passed in 2010. The fund was proposed by the Barisan Nasional Youth Lab.^[15]

Prime Minister Najib said that 1Malaysia Youth Fund reflected the government's commitment to empowering young people. "The scope and the projects should address three criteria – focus on nurturing unity in Malaysia, have a multiplier effect on the general community, and be led by young people. The objective is to encourage youths to use their imagination to the fullest. We want them to be creative and innovative. Maybe their ability may exceed our expectations and maybe they can do something which has not been thought of by us,” said Najib.^[15]

'1 Malaysia People's Welfare AssociationBig text'Big text

1 Malaysia People's Welfare Association, known as KER1M, was established on 18 November 2013 with the approval of the ROS registration PPM-005-18112013. KER1M Society Publications also obtained approval from the Ministry of KDN PP18539 / 07/2014 (033,954). In 2015, Unity KER1M been registered with the Department of National Unity (JPNIN) under the Prime Minister Department. YAB Dato Sri Najib fully supported KER1M towards the ground services which has been providing to various communities especially for those stay at rural area. The numberous programme conducted was " 1 Malaysia Wheel Chair Aid Programme ( BKR1M)', HIV/AIDS Awareness Programme, Publication of YAB Dato Sri Najib 40 Years Celebration in Politic, Crime Awareness with PDRM dan RELA and more to come.

Here are the goals of the Association KER1M: -

1. 1 Run the program and activities towards the development of character and self-esteem.
2. 2 Implement programs and activities related to social welfare.
3. 3 Cultivate good values to children and adults to create a generation of virtuous.
4. 4 Encourage programs and health activities with the purpose of giving birth to a healthy society.
5. 5 Provide programs and activities to create a generation of educational quality and can contribute towards the country's progress.
6. 6 Running charity work for the welfare of disabled people are too poor, neglected, abused (Abuse) and who do not have academic subjects (Illiteracy) Through the mission and vision of the Association KER1M, we hope that people will always support and provide commitment to further develop our state of life in a more comfortable and secure.

We hope that many more volunteers will join us for the success of the noble goal over time. Please visit www.1malaysia.info

Public response to 1Malaysia

Interpretation

A year after the concept's introduction, Mahathir Mohammad reportedly said he "still doesn't understand (masih tidak faham)" the concept.^[16] Almost two years later, the public similarly, based on an opinion poll in July 2010, were wary of the concept. In particular, the non-Malays surveyed, according to The Malaysian Insider, "were almost split on the Najib administration's national unity agenda with 46 per cent of the respondents believing that the 1Malaysia concept is only a political agenda to win the non-Malay votes," and "only 39 per cent of the non-Malays believed that the concept introduced by Najib after he took over the government was a sincere effort to unite all races in Malaysia".^[17]

Criticism of public services

The 1Malaysia clinics was criticised for its service especially for their lack of equipments, expired medicines, unqualified assistant medical officers and lack of civil manners by its nurse staff towards patients.^{[18][19][20][21]}

The 1Malaysia Village Without Wire programme (Kampung Tanpa Wayar - KTW) has met with a lot of criticism from the rural areas community with many of them labelling the project as "failed" due to the frequent malfunction and slow Wi-Fi services.^[22][23][24]

The 1Malaysia email have been criticised by the public and the opposition Pakatan Rakyat on the waste of money involved and that Tricubes used to be in financial difficulty. After the public outcry Najib had to backtrack stating that this was a private sector initiative and that acceptance of the email accounts was voluntary.^[25][26][27] Protests has been organised against the project on Facebook and parodied on a website.^[28][29]

The 1Malaysia Development Berhad company has been saddled with controversies such as the purchase of overpriced land from Tadmax Resources, a company linked to the Port Klang Free Zone scandal.^[30][31]

Complaints have been received that the groceries sold at KR1M were more expensive compared to those sold in hypermarkets around Malaysia.^[32][33] There have been allegations of poor product quality in its product line, namely children's milk formula, fresh milk, condensed milk, sweetened condensed creamer, oyster sauce, fruit jam, canned chicken curry, mango cordial, ghee compounds, peanuts, creamy peanut butter, crunchy peanut butter, crispy peanut butter and tinned sardines in tomato sauce.^[34][35][36] KR1M has instructed its suppliers to send their products for periodical laboratory testing.^[37]

Bumiputera rights

Prime Minister Najib's efforts to liberalise government policies and create a more open policy towards all races with 1Malaysia led Malay rights group Perkasa to seek further clarification on the policy, as they feared that his 1Malaysia would undermine Malay or Bumiputera rights in favour of minorities in Malaysia.^[38]

Anwar Ibrahim's suspension from parliament

On 22 April 2010, Anwar Ibrahim the leader of Malaysia's opposition, was censured by Malaysia's parliament for remarks he made during a press conference in parliament on 30 March 2010. Anwar had claimed to have documents linking 1Malaysia, One Israel, and the public relations firm APCO, but refused to allow access to the documents when challenged^[39] It is against Malaysia's foreign policy to have any dealings with Israel and the appointment of APCO has deeply angered the sensitivities of the Muslims in the country, who wanted Najib to terminate the contract with the company. The Malaysian government and APCO have strongly denied Anwar's allegations. The censure motion passed by the House of Representatives referred Anwar's case to the Rights and Privileges Committee which will recommend a punishment for approval by the full chamber. Such punishment could include being banned from parliament.^[40][41][42] Anwar has retaliated by producing the two documents to back up his statements and refute the government's denials.^[41][42] It was announced that Anwar was to be suspended from parliament by the Parliamentary Rights and Privileges Committee based solely by a contents of a letter by APCO without him being able to put up a defence for himself.^[43][44][45] On 16 December 2010 Anwar and three opposition MPs, Karpal Singh, Azmin Ali and Sivarasa Rasiah were suspended from parliament without any debate being put forward. Anwar has blamed APCO Worldwide for his and his fellow opposition parliamentarian's suspensions.^[46][47][48]

See also

• Bangsa Malaysia
• Malaysian Malaysia
• One Israel

References

External links

• Official website
• Mobile site
• 1Malaysia on Facebook
• 1Malaysia on Twitter