Amidst criticisms that the 1Malaysia concept is still “vague” to the public, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar has come to its defence.

However, the Oxford-educated Rembau MP came close to getting caught in a crossfire with former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad by disagreeing with the latter who had previously said that the concept is still not fully grasped by the public.

khairy jamaluddin kj interview 190310 “I don’t agree with him because every government campaign needs constant and consistent messaging and communications to the public. But to say that the public don’t understand it is not correct.

“I think that the general acceptance by the public is high. They understand the concept and the policies,” said Khairy ( right ).

Speaking after a meeting with several bus and taxi associations, he said that even the function was 1Malaysia in the working.

“Well, not the 1Malaysia part, but the ‘people first’ part because we are trying to suggest policy reforms so that we can get rid of policies and laws which are unfriendly to the public, which is the manifestation of 1Malaysia,” he said, referring to the concept’s tagline “People First, Performance Now”.

He had met representatives from 14 associations who had come to him to complain about the postal summons (saman ekor) at his office at the Umno headquarters this evening.

‘People generally understand 1Malaysia’

“I think that people understand it and the level of understanding will only get higher as long as the government keeps on promoting the concept,” Khairy said.

mahathir ikmal presidential lecture 290410 Mahathir ( left ) had, at a function in Penang on Monday, said that the different races in the country had differing views on what is 1Malaysia.

However, the first-term lawmaker deftly avoided confronting the vocal former premier head on, refusing to be drawn into another spectacle with Mahathir.

When asked if he thought that Mahathir had gone overboard with his criticism of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s policies, Khairy kept mum.

“I wouldn’t know how to answer that,” he said with a smile.

Mahathir’s past disdain for Khairy has been well-documented, with the former accusing the Khairy of being the brains behind the “fourth floor boys”, a group of young professionals who had been accused of influencing former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

At the height of the spat between the two former prime ministers, Khairy - who is also Abdullah’s son-in-law - had been the target of salvos by Mahathir, who claimed Khairy had a massive say in government and party policies during Abdullah’s five-year tenure.