V2020, Malaysia Boleh, Islam Hadhari and 1Malaysia

There is one legacy that Mahathir left behind that impresses me. To me, Mahathir was no doubt a brilliant leader. What we are seeing now and what we are enjoying now are the fruits of the seeds that he sowed when he was still in office. He will always be remembered as a visionary leader.

So what is the thing that impresses me about Mahathir? It was his Vision 2020 and Malaysia Boleh wisdom. As far as I am concerned, he was the first Prime Minister to introduce a catchphrase which was used to uplift the spirit of Malaysians to be competitive locally and globally. It was a brilliant idea. It caught on with the public and we saw people of different background and ages took the challenge and the most famous among them was Datuk Azhar Mansur who went on a solo voyage to circum-navigate to globe.

The trend did not stop there. When Badawi took over as Prime Minister, he introduced a new catchphrase himself supposedly taking a cue from his predecessor. The catchphrase which he introduced was Islam Hadari. As in Mahathir's case, both leaders tend to introduce a catchphrase to reflect their background. Mathatir being a doctor and Badawi being brought up in a strong Muslim family. Unfortunately for Badawi, the idea was not really popular with the public and it died a natural death soon after he stepped out of office.

By now, I supposed you should be able to guess what is the latest catchphrase from the current Prime Minister. Yes, the new catchphrase by Najib is 1Malaysia. A single race concept in a nutshell. Many question the origin of the concept. Some say it was hijacked from the PKR. As PKR or to be exact, RPK (Raja Petra Kamaruddin) has been preaching about it long before Najib took power even though it was not exactly called 1Malaysia then.

Putting the origin of the concept aside, among all the catchphrases, 1Malaysia has the highest commercial intent or commercial value. Within a short period of time, we see so many companies adopt the name in their business slogan. Even Tony Fernandez agrees with that in his blog. But the big question is, will Najib be able to achieve the objectives of 1Malaysia or it is just another elusive mirage that Najib has to deal with.