Accept Our Diversity As A Blessing, Says PM

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak Friday urged Malaysians to accept the country's diversity as a blessing, a source not just of cultural vitality but also of economic advantage.

He said Malaysian diversity could not be "dissolved in a melting pot" and that the challenge of living together would not yield a single, once and for all solution.

"We have to deal with our problems in a concrete and pragmatic fashion.

"We make alliances, build bridges and share power on community-by-community basis," he said in his keynote address at the Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit here.

Najib said to those accustomed to tidier schemes, this might seem an impossibly complex situation, especially for a country going through the growth pains of early nationhood.

However, the Prime Minister said, Malaysia had resisted cultural assimilation in favour of pragmatic bridge-building and power sharing.

"Instead of grand social plans, we favour rolling up our sleeves to form alliances, to make friends and build links.

"We have relied on good sense to make compromises and come to accord on specifics.

"We have preferred growing our unity organically, beginning from where we were, rather than forcing down schemes conceived at the top," he said.

Najib said the 1Malaysia concept was not a ready made programme being pushed down by his administration but a reminder of the single most important issue facing the society, one that would make or break the country, the Malaysian unity in diversity.

Najib said 1Malaysia was not an answer but a question which had to be repeated constantly and in different real-life circumstances such as on community building, forging unity out of diversity and managing tensions that set a community against another.

"1Malaysia is a steady focus on mending alienation, preventing polarization, and bridging social divides because there cannot be unity without the basic equity and a deep rooted sense that we all belong here," he said.

He said Malaysia was not alone in facing the challenge of diversity and two things were happening which made the challenge of diversity global.

One, the Prime Minister said, was that nations were becoming more diverse through emmigration due to cheap air travel and communications, and as a result, people had assimilated less rapidly by remaining connected with their past.

"A second trend is that all over the world, we have seen ideology recede and identity rise to replace it as the organizing principle of social complex," he said.

Najib said 1Malaysia was also a question about the unfinished business of nation-building with a full appreciation and acceptance of Malaysia's robust and complex diversity.

"To Malaysians, it is an invitation to find answers to the problem of unity within the specifics of Malaysian life; with neighbours, friends, in the local community and in our work places, schools and universities.

Earlier, he had told the delegates of the summit themed "The Changing Face of Leadership: Crisis and Opportunity" that the conference was particularly important as there was a need for discussion of tomorrow's leadership.

The Prime Minister said ongoing and fundamental changes to the political, social and economic environments would define the leadership needs of the next generation.

Managing change, he said, would be increasingly what leadership would be all about and that tomorrow's leaders must be ready to rise up to the challenge.