GREAT IDEAS, ZERO EXECUTION: Najib gives new unity team 6 months to submit blueprint to Cabinet

KUALA LUMPUR - The newly-appointed National Unity Consultative Council has been given six months to submit a blueprint to the Cabinet on effective long-term measures to ensure peace and harmony in the country.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said the council must base its discussions on the Federal Constitution and the Rukun Negara, using them as its main guidelines.

"The discussions must be based on the Federal Constitution and whatever that was agreed upon by the founding fathers of the country.

"Any effort to break that agreement will cause problems for all," he said in his speech at the presentation of credentials to 29 members of the council today.

The council is headed by Employees Provident Fund chairman Tan Sri Samsuddin Osman, whose deputy is social activist Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.

Najib said the government is totally committed on the issue of peace and harmony.

"I am not interested in winning legal matters, I am interested in winning peace and harmony in Malaysia," he said.

"There is no substitute for national unity. The 1Malaysia idea should also be taken into account for social justice – to move from tolerance to acceptance to celebrate our diversity."

Najib said to ensure unity, peace and harmony, the country's wealth should be shared "inclusively, fairly and equally"; thus the council should also look into the New Economic Model.

"Whatever we do in our community, either in the context of race or religion, we should not hurt others and others should not hurt us.

"If we can do this, then we are safe. We must also take care of the sensitivities of the people," he said.

Najib said that this practice is quite prevalent in the country where non-Muslims offer halal food to Muslims and Muslims serve vegetarian food when inviting Hindus.

Citing the example of organising a durian fest to unite the people after the May 13 racial riots in 1969, Najib suggested that the council look into organising programmes with common interest for everyone involving the environment, health and sports.

"We can make the country stronger through unity but the challenge is big. The country is too complex but our complexity should not be an obstacle to national unity," he said.

Also present were ministers in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, Datuk Shahidan Kassim and Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom as well as Chief Secretary to the government, Datuk Seri Ali Hamsa.

The Sundaily