Prime Minister Najib Razak today urged Malaysians to work together with the government to realise a better future for the country.

Najib said the future success of the country was not a dream but was within reach if all parties were willing to plan carefully and work hard to achieve it.

"Nothing is impossible if we could dream, indeed our best days are still in the future and have not been left behind in the past as historical events," he said in his 2012 New Year Message which was published in the www.1Malaysia.com.my blog today.  

Najib described 2011 as a very monumental year for the country as it witnessed the complete 'roll out' of government initiatives under the National Transformation Policy (NTP) (2011-2020) and the fourth National Outline Perspective Plan (NOPP) since it was introduced in 1971.  

The NTP is the last component in the realisation of the national vision to become a developed and high-income nation by 2020 starting with the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) followed by the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and the launching of the New Economic Model (NEM), Political Transformation Programme (PTP) and the Rural Transformation Programme (RTP).  

"All these policy initiatives are not just empty announcement or unrealistic plans because if they were properly implemented according to schedule, we would witness the emergence of a New Malaysia.

The New Malaysia, according to Najib, is a country which is not only developed from the economic aspect with prosperity shared with each strata and segment of people but also sees the birth of a traditional democracy with constructive dissent.

The prime minister also said the government is committed to the transformation and rejuvenation programmes in all fields and aspects of national life as these are the desires and aspirations of the people who want a better life for them and their children.

"This is the effort so that the future generations of Malaysia deserve to grow in an environment of hope and not gloom. We would not give in to pressure by any groups who wish to undermine our noble objectives," he said.

Balancing national security with individual freedom

However, he said the government believes in building a new Malaysia, a country free from its historical burden.

Towards this, Najib said the PTP which aims to balance national security and individual freedom as guaranteed under the country's Constitution, for example, the government has taken the initiative to abolish three emergency proclamations which have been in effect more than four decades ago.

With the same spirit, the government had also announced the abolition of several acts relating to security and public order such as the Internal Security Act, Restricted Residence Act, Banishment Act and Section 27 of the Police Act which had been replaced with the Peaceful Assembly Act 2011 that assured the individual freedom to assemble peacefully as provided for by the country's highest law, the Federal Constitution, he said.

"This effort would continue in the parliamentary session in 2012 to abolish ISA and the tabling of a new bill to replace and amend the UUCA (Universities and University Colleges Act) and the Printing Presses and Publications Act, he said.

He said through the 2012 ‘people's budget’, which had been passed by the Parliament, the government today would continue with its welfare nation tradition which has become the practice of the ruling government since independence.

"We have never forgotten the interest of the rural residents or urban folks, the lower income group or the middle class as well as those who have high income, as we have always been protecting the interests of all Malaysians and would continue to feel their pulse and aspirations, he said.        

- Bernama