The great 1Malaysia hijack

COMMENT To be honest, there is much to be admired about the concept of 1Malaysia. although despite the pretensions of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and orchestrations of his hired-gun propaganda machine or spin-meister Pemandu CEO Idris Jala, it is neither unique nor new.

Behind all the glitzy platform, sugar coated slogans and tongue-twisting acronyms, it is just another reimplementation of the good old Muhibbah campaign, Satu Bangsa Satu Negara exhortations and dare I say it, borrowed ingredients from DAP’s Malaysian Malaysia.

Indeed there are also similar programmes in Indonesia, Israel and even Australia, in the ‘one’ ring of their names if not in actual specifics. Mostly these are ‘one’ concepts created by political movements to bind their members.

Much like the one ring of Sauron - depicted in JRR Tolkien’s fantasy cult classic 'Lord of The Rings' - that was meant to bind the races of elves, dwarves and men to his dark will, Najib similarly hopes the fireworks of his 1Malaysia will keep the public mesmerised and docile.

But let us not contend with whom it was who came up with our premier’s much-claimed pet-project, lest we be shoved the short end of the stick as had happened to opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was slapped with his Parliamentary suspension for questioning the same.

Let's instead give credit where credit is due. The one finger must be pointed squarely to one Mr Najib as the progenitor of this one concept, plagiarised or not.

But that in itself is nothing new, as adage goes, “to the victors belong the spoils”. In this, Najib is probably only following in the footsteps of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad ( left ), someone who was said to be his ‘mentor’.

Ever pragmatic and practical, Mahathir was tacitly said to allow credit for accomplishments by his predecessors to be imputed to him. Some of the landmarks of Malaysian development during his time were said to be the work of previous administrations.

As a family member - who was attached to the Economic Planning Unit - told me when I was exhorting Mahathir’s virtues (I was much blinkered and quite pro-establishment then), it was a case of “ lembu punya susu, sapi dapat nama ”.

‘History written by the victors’

Nor is this out of character with the Najib regime, that seems to follow the dictum that “history is written by the victors”, to quote Winston Churchill.

Observe the rushed-through Finas and National Geographic collaborative documentary on Najib’s father and second Malaysian premier Abdul Razak Hussein ( right ). How history was re-written in that film, notably through the omission of then-deputy premier Ismail Abdul Rahman’s role.

Or the unashamed abridging of history and shameless self promotion in the comic 'Transformasi Najib' depicting a ring-around-the-roses tale of our premier’s privileged life. The ‘graphic novel’ was written and scripted by Najib's former press secretary, no less.

But what is worrisome is that the 1Malaysia concept glossed over by the hired ‘strategic communications’ experts, seems to provide no clear cure to Malaysia’s woes; in actual truth more like an overcoat that Najib is using to hide the sores evident all over.

As they say politics is all perception, but governance must be about deliverance. Something that all the smoke and mirrors of the 1Malaysia campaign has so far failed to deliver.

Pemandu, that is supposed to drive the government towards change and efficiency, is still nothing more than a propaganda arm rather than the driver of any real change.

And instead of any new plans and clear roadmap for a high income economy, the much-touted ETP seems to be a re-packaging of existing corporate projects and government internal studies.

Idris Jala himself said that most of the projects listed as EPPs are actually projects the private sector had come up with on their own, the government’s only role being in granting approvals and acting as facilitator.

Such lame planning almost makes one wish for Mahathir’s dictatorial hand, as when he plans something it is genuine and new.

And the Pemandu director himself related in an on-air damage control interview with BFM that the projects were shortlisted from discussions in Pemandu labs and other such initiatives that they had spearheaded.

The 1Malaysia Email in particular.

Slap on a label, take the credit

It is interesting to note how proud Idris was of the labs that cooked up the 1Malaysia Email, only to have his boss Najib turn around and say that the government had nothing to do with the project.

Nothing to do with, perhaps, but only to hijack. This seems to be the pattern with 1Malaysia; find a corporate project that looks good and have Pemandu slap a 1Malaysia label in front of it and take credit. Another ' lembu punya susu, sapi dapat nama ' hijack.

That and dress up an internal government initiative and pass it off as an entry point project (EPP). For example the RM3 million ‘study’ of e-government that is said to pave the way for future development and the upgrading of the customs department to use RFID chips for cargo verification.

What are we paying Pemandu and Mampu for, again? Those should be in-house initiatives, so why are government improvement projects listed as EPPs? EPPs must be new projects that drive the economy.

Pemandu is in fact merely re-issuing of projects to make up the numbers.

And when the public objects to any project, the PM unashamedly denies any involvement. Case in point, the 1Malaysia Email and the infamous 100-storey Warisan Merdeka tower.

I wonder if Pemandu is actually the IMF or Impossible Mission Force that was made famous in the 80s TV series 'Mission Impossible'.

One can imagine, like in the TV series, Idris’ voice on the mission briefing to Tricubes CEO Khairun Zainal Mokhtar:

“If you choose to accept the 1Malaysia Email mission, the government will happily attach our name and the 1Malaysia label to it, but if you were to fail, we shall disavow all knowledge or connection with your project. Good luck, Khairun.”

I state again that in its ugliness, 1Malaysia would actually have been a good concept if it were sincerely done.

Alas for us, it is increasingly evident it is nothing more than a policy of hijack for political gains, without much positive impact to the rakyat.