ONE MALAYSIA

By:Sharifah Hajjar

2009

First Draft

The first thing that comes across my mind when I heard about 1Malaysia is it must be a
new political agenda conducted by the government to win people‟s heart. It seems to me that it is
a trend for every prime minister to create a vision or measure once they are appointed. I don‟
quite sure about the previous prime minister but I remember Tun Mahathir Muhammad came up
with a vision that is Vision 2020. Later, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi came up with Islam
Hadhari. Now, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced to achieve 1 Malaysia. As it appears to
be sort of political measures, many people think that it is nothing much but a political plan
created by the prime ministers so that they have an issue to talk about throughout the years as a
prime minister. This is my opinion about one Malaysia. Just like Islam Hadhari that no longer
being concerned by people, the same thing might happen to 1Malaysia. Therefore, in this essay, I
would like to talk about the success and failures of three measures taken by government to fulfill
the objective of realizing the concept of 1 Malaysia.

The first thing I would like to talk about is the measures taken to avoid racial polarization
in education. There are three different types of school in this country; vernacular school, national
school and vision school. The issue that has long been debated is about the relevance of
vernacular school. in the article Malaysian vernacular schools to continue to be apart of the
education system: Deputy PM, by ANI, Datuk Seri Najib said that as long as it is needed by
Malay, Chinese and Tamil communities, vernacular school will continue to be a part of national
education system.(2009) .But, vernacular school actually prohibit unity and cause segregation
among races. This will develop sociocentrism such as group bias and conformism. Therefore,
vernacular schools; Tamil and Chinese school should be abolished. As a matter of fact, there
should be only type of school that is Malay- based schools. In Malaysian schools to offer Tamil,
Mandarin lessons at primary level, ANI, government planned to introduce Tamil and Chinese in

1
primary school. (2009) . This measure will not only bring people together but also standardize
the education system in our country.

The second thing that I want to talk about is the range of economic development among
races in our country. In new economic policy, the focus is given only to Bumiputera. So, other
races feel like they are being treated as second class citizen. This stir dissatisfaction among other
races because they feel that they ought to get the same royalty as Malay people. However, this
claim is not relevance because as we can see Chinese and Indian are developing very well in
economic. Therefore, to overcome this, Data‟ Seri Najib had taken an effective step that is to
open the Amanah Saham Berhad share to all races. This is to show that every race in this country
is equal and deserves to enjoy every benefit offered by government.

The third and the last thing are about the social polarization in Malaysia. The best
example is in job field. A few years back, certain job were dominated by certain races. For
example, Chinese people monopolized in business, Malay people work for government for
example, as a teacher whereas Indian people work in many different areas. However, the
situation is different now. Business is no longer dominated by Chinese because there are many
Malay and Indian people have succeeded in business. Besides, many Chinese and Indian people
get involve in teaching profession and they teach in various kinds of schools either national or
vernacular. In school turns a blind eye to races, Ahmad Fairuz Othman, New Straits Times, a
Malay teacher Siti Zalina who have been teaching in a Chinese vernacular school for four years
feel that she enjoyed the job and well-versed in the language . (2009).

In conclusion, it is hard to achieve a united, multicultural country but it is always possible

if everyone be more matured and put some effort to understand, respect each other. In the article
„Respect, not tolerate to move forward,‟ Fauziah Ismail, Datuk Seri Najib says that every
Malaysian should stand together, think and act as one people under the 1Malysia concept. We
should work on fulfilling the expectation and never be selfish.

2
Second Draft

The first thing that comes across my mind when I heard about 1Malaysia is it must be a
new political agenda conducted by the government to win people‟s heart. It seems to me that it is
a trend for every prime minister to create a vision or measure once they are appointed. I don‟
quite sure about the previous prime minister but I remember Tun Mahathir Muhammad came up
with a vision that is Vision 2020. Later, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi came up with Islam
Hadhari. Now, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced to achieve 1 Malaysia. As it appears to
be sort of political measures, many people think that it is nothing much but a political plan
created by the prime ministers so that they have an issue to talk about throughout the years as a
prime minister. This is my opinion about one Malaysia. Just like Islam Hadhari that no longer
being concerned by people, the same thing might happen to 1Malaysia. Therefore, in this essay, I
would like to talk about the success and failures of three measures taken by government to fulfill
the objective of realizing the concept of 1 Malaysia.

The first thing I would like to talk about is the measures taken to avoid racial
polarization in education. There are three different types of school in this country; vernacular
school, national school and vision school. The issue that has long been debated is about the
relevance of vernacular school. In the article “Malaysian vernacular schools to continue to be
apart of the education system: Deputy PM”, by ANI, Datuk Seri Najib said that as long as it is
needed by Malay, Chinese and Tamil communities, vernacular school will continue to be a part
of national education system (2009) .But, vernacular school actually prohibit unity and cause
segregation among races. This will develop sociocentrism such as group bias and conformism.
Therefore, vernacular schools; Tamil and Chinese school should be abolished. As a matter of
fact, there should be only type of school that is Malay- based schools. In “Malaysian schools to

offer Tamil, Mandarin lessons at primary level”, ANI, government planned to introduce Tamil
and Chinese in primary school (2009). This measure will not only bring people together but also
standardize the education system in our country.

3
 The second thing that I want to talk about is the economic development among races. In
New Economic Policy, the focus is given only to Bumiputera. So, other races feel like they are
being treated as second class citizen. This stir dissatisfaction because they feel they ought to
getthe same privilege as Malay. However, this claim is not relevance because as we can see
Chinese and Indian are developing very well in economy. Therefore, to overcome this, Dato‟
Seri Najib had taken an effective step that is to open the Amanah Saham Berhad share to all
races. This is to show that every race in this country is equal and deserves to enjoy every benefit
offered by government.

The third one is about the social polarization in Malaysia. The best example is in job
field. A few years back, certain job were dominated by certain races. For example, Chinese
people monopolized business, Malay people work for government for example, as a teacher
whereas Indian people work in many different areas. However, the situation is different now.
Business is no longer dominated by Chinese, Malay and Indian people have actively involved in
business. Besides, Chinese and Indian get involve in teaching profession and they teach in
various kinds of schools either national or vernacular. In “School turns a blind eye to races”, by
Ahmad Fairuz Othman, a Malay teacher Siti Zalina who have been teaching in a Chinese
vernacular school for four years feels that she enjoyed the job and well-versed in the language .
(2009).

In conclusion, it is hard to achieve a united, multicultural country but it is always possible

if everyone be more matured and put some effort to understand, respect each other. In the article
„Respect, not tolerate to move forward,‟ Fauziah Ismail, Datuk Seri Najib says that every
Malaysian should stand together, think and act as one people under the 1Malysia concept. We
should work on fulfilling the expectation and never be selfish.

4
Final Essay

1Malaysia.The first thing that comes across my mind is it must be a new political agenda
conducted by the government to win people‟s heart. It seems to me that it is a trend for every
prime minister to create a vision once they are appointed. I remember Tun Mahathir Muhammad
came up with Vision 2020, Datuk Seri Abdullah came up with Islam Hadhari. Now, Datuk Seri
Najib Tun Razak announced 1Malaysia. In this essay, I would like to talk about the success and
failures of three measures taken by government to fulfill the objective of realizing the concept of
1 Malaysia.

The first thing I would like to talk about is the racial polarization in education. The issue
that has long been debated is about the relevance of vernacular schools. In the article “Malaysian
vernacular schools to continue to be apart of the education system: Deputy PM”, by ANI, Datuk
Seri Najib said that as long as it is needed by Malay, Chinese and Tamil communities, vernacular
school will continue to be a part of national education system (2009) .But, vernacular school may
prohibit unity and promote segregation among races. Therefore, vernacular schools; Tamil and
Chinese should be abolished and introduce Tamil and Mandarin in national school instead. In
“Malaysian schools to offer Tamil, Mandarin lessons at primary level”, ANI, government
planned to introduce Tamil and Chinese in primary school (2009).

The second one is about economic development among races. In New Economic Policy,
the focus is given only to Bumiputera. So, other races feel like they are being treated as second
class citizen. This stir dissatisfaction because they feel they ought to get the same privilege as
Malay. However, this claim is not relevance because as we can see Chinese and Indian are
developing very well in economy. Therefore, to overcome this, Dato‟ Seri Najib had taken an
effective step that is to open the Amanah Saham Berhad share to all races. This shows that every
race in this country is equal and deserves to enjoy every benefit offered by government.

The third one is about social polarization in employments. A few years back, certain job
were dominated by certain races. For example, most teachers and lecturers were Malay because
not many Chinese and Indian interested in teaching. However, the situation is different now
because many Chinese and Indian involve in teaching profession and they teach in various kinds
of schools either national or vernacular. In “School turns a blind eye to races”, by Ahmad Fairuz

5
Othman, a Malay teacher Siti Zalina who have been teaching in a Chinese vernacular school for
four years feels that she enjoyed the job and well-versed in the language . (2009).

In conclusion, it is hard to achieve a united, multicultural country but it is always possible

if everyone be more matured and put some effort to understand, respect each other. In the article
„Respect, not tolerate to move forward,‟ Fauziah Ismail, Datuk Seri Najib says that every
Malaysian should stand together, think and act as one people under the 1Malysia concept. We
should work on fulfilling the expectation and never be selfish.

6
 Works Cited

Fauziah Ismail (2009, August 31). Respect, not tolerate to move forward. New Straits Times, pp.
2-3

Ahmad Fairuz Othman (2009, August 31). School turns a blind eye to races. New Starits Times,
p 10

ANI (2008, Dec 03). Malaysian vernacular schools to continue to be a part of the education
system: Deputy PM. The Star Online, retrieved from
http://www.TheStarOnline/archieve/onemalaysia