Until today, Malaysians still had a very scant idea of what One Malaysia is all about. Conspicuously, the amount of ‘1Malaysia’ information latched to the minds of the Malaysians after being bombarded by the Barisan Nasional overfed, controlled media is difficult to determine.

This is not a big ‘why’ question that needs plenty of grey matter upstairs. Whatever it is, it will be a futile effort for anybody to blame the ordinary Malaysians for not trying hard to understand or being too lazy to learn the hazy ‘1Malaysia’ concept of Najib in the first place.

But the moment they start to get the gist of the matter, his deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin, strongly decrees the opposite, he does not want to be Malaysian first. Malaysians are confused - is there another Malaysia? A second Malaysia? One for the bumiputera and another for the non- bumiputeras?

None from the top beneficiaries of the ‘1Malaysia’ plan came out to explain this. If they did, only vaguely. As a result, Malaysians continue to be confused. Hulu Selangor presented the best opportunity for the Barisan government to explain to Malaysians the real meaning of the ‘1Malaysia’ concept.

But they blew it all away and eventually they missed the boat or sampan . The only thing that they could come out with was the Kamal-Alan-Nathan thing to represent a Malaysian entity.

Apart from this whimper, they had nothing else to show except going into overdrive with their election machinery to generate an avalanche of hate, slander, defamation against Zaid Ibrahim.

Towards the end of the campaign, Barisan’s top leaders were so convinced of the 3,000 to 6,000 majority that they were willing to swear on the stacks of their remaining leaflets that this could be easily achieved.

Although ordinary Malaysians in general had speculated far in advance that the gargantuan amount of money thrown into this by-election should earn Barisan an ultra-expensive double RR – Rolls Royce - but unceremoniously, the voters gave them a Kancil.

Conspicuously, this massive, ruthless, racial, jingle backfired and Barisan managed to secure a Kancil size majority of only 1,725 votes. Thus, by tolerating these racists’ viewpoint, it had inevitably blemished the ‘1Malaysia’ concept and drive a substantial voters away from Barisan.

Shouldn’t these racists be living at the fringe? In the US and the West, they are shunned by the local populace and pinned down to the outskirts of the mainstream politics and society. But in ‘1Malaysia’ it is different.

It is different as to the fact that these tiny-minded characters are given the recognition as respectable domiciles of ‘1Malaysia’ and are undeservingly rewarded a cozy spot under its roof.

1. If one is serious with the ‘1Malaysia’ concept of ‘national unity, ethnic tolerance and government efficiency’, there must be a strong political will on the part of the top leadership in the Barisan to steer away from all forms of racism.

To best describe this political will, I wish to take a few excerpts from the book by the late Harry Truman (president of the US) illustrating his unshakable will to fight for justice and moral values even at the cost of losing the senate race. In his book, Give ‘em Hell Harry! , he wrote:

‘In those days, the Ku Klux Klan was a real power in my part of the country. They were a rough bunch. In my campaign of 1924, a bunch of Klan boys came to my office and said they had a problem with me. They said they understood that my grandfather was a Jew, but they’d give me a special dispensation and their support if I would join them. Well, I looked at those miserable creatures and I said that my grandfather was not a Jew and that if he was, I’d be proud to say so, and that they could keep their support. We parted enemies, thank God! I lost that election. They beat me, but I was never prouder to lose anything in my entire life.’

In his second run for the US Senate, the principles he held still were with him:

‘I stood up and said on the courthouse steps in Sedalia…a stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan, and there wasn’t a black face in the crowd. Friends and neighbors, I said, I just want to get something off my chest. I believe in the brotherhood of man, and not just the brotherhood of white men…

The Negroes have been forced into segregated slums. They don’t have the necessities of life. They don’t have any job opportunities. As free men, they’re entitled to something better than that. Some of you don’t quite agree with me, but you got to agree that if we push the Negro down into the depths of degradation, the white man is going to go down with him. I won this election by 8,000 votes!’

In conclusion, I guess Najib has taken the first step to begin this journey but the second step is already off course. Inevitably, the third one would be heading towards the direction of Abdullah Ahamd Badawi’s Islam Hadhari – it disappeared with his departure.

Apparently, the Islam Hadhari concept was hard to understand and difficult to implement.

The ‘1'Malaysia’ concept is different - it is easy to understand but hard to swallow. Soon it will disappear if nothing is done about it.