The prime minister said each citizen of this country also had a role to play, to ensure that Malaysia realised its aspiration to achieve Vision 2020, that is, becoming a developed nation by then as envisaged by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
"I want each one of you to feel that we belong to this country. We can say thank you to our country. There are 28 million ways to say thank you to Malaysia.
"If you are a teacher, you educate, if you are an artist, you use colours to paint pictures of Malaysia, if you are a government servant, you work with full dedication. These are some of the ways we can say thank you to Malaysia," he said at the launching of the Music, Arts and Style International Festival (MASiF) at The Pavilion, here, Wednesday night.
Najib said without unity and diversity, Malaysia might not have been able to achieve the kind of success enjoyed by today's generation.
"With these two pillars (unity and diversity) and the 1Malaysia spirit, we will definitely achieve the nation's goals by 2020," he said.
Najib praised the MASiF organisers for their inaugural event which was a special curtain raiser to the Malaysia Day celebrations.
"I am attracted to the concept of MASiF. Usually, such ideas would come from the government but this time, from Malaysians from the post-independence generation, and I thank Tun Dr Mahathir for being the patron of this festival," he said.
Dr Mahathir, in his welcoming address, called on Malaysians to continue remembering Malaysia Day and make it as the basis for building a peaceful, stable and prosperous nation.
He said the formation of Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963, was the fruit of the people's fortitude throughout the trials and tribulations before the federation was established.
"Many things had happened and we went through it all. Therefore, let's together commemorate Malaysia Day irrespective of our race and religion.
"As Malaysians, we should not think of our differences but to continue pursuing the development and success that we hope for."
Dr Mahathir said the Malaysia Day celebration would be meaningful for all citizens of this country as on that day, all the states that were colonised agreed "to form a nation as what it is today".
The five-day MASiF 2010 beginning Wednesday, organised in conjunction with Malaysia Day, features various arts, fashion and musical events involving over 100 local and foreign participants.
The foreign artistes include Ruth Sahanaya and Tengku Ryo from Indonesia, Rachelle Ann Go from the Philippines and Mint from Thailand.
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