Our sixth prime minister, Najib Abdul Razak fired off his first salvo - a ‘1Malaysia’ like 1 Utama - when he took the mantle of high office. Surely his 1 message, with 1 mouth meant 1 measure and must have stirred emotions of happiness in the hearts of all, or almost all, Malaysians.

To put this slogan into practice, he made his tours in Petaling Street (where the Chinese heart i ), Brickfields (where the Indian heart throbs) and Jalan Raja Muda (where the Malay heartland is) to show that he meant business to unify all the races in this beloved nation.

Then he went back to Putrajaya. Hopefully, the walks in the three symbolic areas will be the beginning of the end and not the end of the beginning. Now comes the hard part: deeds.

He pronounced, and rightly so, that he would be the prime minister for all Malaysians and that the 1 message with 1 mouth will translate ‘1Malaysia’ into 1 measure for all Malaysians. This is the same message which Lee Kuan Yew had when Singapore was in Malaysia in the 1960s. He proclaimed on the steps of Parliament his single slogan a ‘Malaysian Malaysia’.

This slogan rang through the country for four decades; and Alliance then and BN later just brushed it aside until the political tsunami swept the nation on March 8, 2008. It was a traumatic experience for the BN component parties, requiring immediate post-mortems and immediate surgery; and the immediate excision of the PM! Now, has the new leadership learnt the painful lesson?

To have ‘1Malaysia’ means a united Malaysia. To have a united Malaysia means that all Malaysians without exception have a place under the Malaysian sun. To have a place under the Malaysian sun means that all Malaysians are given equal opportunities to pursue education up to the highest level each individual is capable of; and each individual who scores high grades in SPM, STPM, etc be given scholarships to chase their dreams.

Each student could choose a career path he wishes. Each man will be given a licence to start his business provided he has the capacity to do so, without resorting to illegal trading. Each graduate coming out from a university is given an equal opportunity to get a job; and each person, once employed, is given an opportunity to be promoted.

Each contractor is given an opportunity to bid for tender of a government job; and the tender process is transparent and opened to public scrutiny (preferably, it is displayed on the Internet so all bidders could see how the winner is chosen. Reasons could be given in the ‘Remarks’ column why one bid is better than the rest).

Where education is concerned, there should be 1 measure for picking teacher trainees, head teachers, senior assistants and vice-chancellors. Since the only visible way we could choose candidates for training is through examination results, then let us pick accordingly.

Where special skills are required (for sports, games etc), then the additional qualifications should be for the particular skills required. For academic qualifications, only the exam results should suffice.

To have the best universities, nothing but the best will do. If we do not have the calibre, let us admit it and head-hunt through the foreign universities They may be from the UK, US, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Australia or Singapore. Where they come from does not matter. We want the best.

Of course, there is a high price to pay. It is the same as picking the best football players in the world (they do not come cheap). If we want cheap goods, we may go to the ‘pasar malam’ (night market)! This is the only way we could uplift the standard of education among our seventeen or eighteen public universities.

Sad to say, none of our Universities are on the radar screen of world rankings at the moment. Are we contented to stay under the coconut and be the best among third-class coconuts ?

The second step is to take in the best students. Exam results are the only way (unless we have found a better system of measurement). Here again, 1 measure of standard – STPM or an A-level equivalent. No matriculation, which is sub-standard. Have a level-playing field so that no student could shout ‘curi ayam’ when the different matriculation and STPM courses are lumped as one and the same.

Four kilogrammes of ‘musang’ durians are not equal to four kilogrammes of coconuts! Let us not be intellectually dishonest and fool students and the public. So get the best students into the Universities and get the best end-products who can raise their heads high in the job market.

Sad to say, yearly, thousands of graduates are rolled out into the market unemployable. Why? Simple. Rubbish in, rubbish out, as in a computer. So, 1 measure, please, for ‘1Malaysia’.

Again, 1 message to all Malaysians; not one message to one group and another to another group and a thrid one to yet another group. 1 message on law and order. The police, the judiciary, the home minister all should have the 1 message and 1 message alone - security for all and judgement, fair and square.

Police permits for rally apply to all and all the conditions are the same with no exception. A judge has 1 message to all parties in any dispute. Grounds for accepting or rejecting an appeal, for example, should be spelt out first before making a decision You cannot put the cart before the horse.

A judge cannot be a prosecutor and the hangman as well. His job is to judge based on facts and facts alone (on evidence). He has only 1 message: he is a judge of evidence. What is the probability? Where, finally, lies the truth?

Finally, ‘1Malaysia’ can only be created, nurtured and sustained if there is 1 measure, 1 mouth and 1 message, not otherwise.

Every citizen in any nation cries for justice, fair-play, integrity and honesty - all of which can only be done by 1 measure, 1 mouth and 1 message.