THE online advertisements are slowly coming out and a video featuring top chief executives singing and playing acoustic and electric guitars with drums is already in cyberspace this week – both with similar phrases – Hebatkan Negaraku, Hebat Negaraku.

It might not sound like anything else in the world unless you translate it in English, Make My Country Great – a familiar and similar phrase to businessman Donald Trump’s presidential campaign slogan Make America Great Again in the 2016 elections.

Advertising industry insiders said the taglines are for the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) campaign for GE14 and are based on Negaraku – the line that has been used in the past year with 1Malaysia that was used in the 2013 elections. 

The new 1Malaysia Negaraku logo – a figure of “1” in blue with the national flag and the words Negaraku at the base – is on both the online advertisement and music video. 

The online advertisement seen in some news portals carries the slogan Utamakan Yang Perlu, Hebatkan Negaraku (Prioritise what is necessary, Make My Country Great) and features BN chairman and Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is seeking his second mandate, and some of his achievements.

Among the achievements shown are the cash handout programme 1Malaysia People’s Aid Scheme (BR1M), the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, affordable housing under the Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1MA) 1Malaysia scheme and Klinik 1Malaysia.

The music video titled Hebat Negaraku (My Country’s Great) with a catchy tune sung by top management and executives of government-linked companies (GLCs) ranging from CIMB Group chief executive Tengku Zafrul Aziz Tengku Abdul Aziz to UEM Sunrise chairman Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa.

The 4.32-minute video has more than 10 chief executives, who are named, with a number of other company officials in a choir singing the Hebat Negaraku song which has a chorus that goes “Hebat, Hebat, Hebat, Hebat, Negaraku”.

An earlier version of the song was performed at a GLC day with the PM at the Axiata Arena Stadium in Bukit Jalil last month.

The Hebat Negaraku music clip appears inspired by a video featuring economics minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan and his team for a Hari Raya video greeting two years ago.

Rahman, seen as a rising star in the Najib government, is said to be leading the team working on the BN manifesto that is due to be launched on April 7 – the clearest indicator that the next general election is just weeks away.

Malay daily Berita Harian, seen as the government’s voice, yesterday broke the news that BN would announce its candidates on April 2, which is the last week for the current parliamentary sitting.

A new simultaneous schedule for both the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara sittings that now end on April 5 has reinforced belief that Parliament will be dissolved by the first week of April.

Najib’s BN will seek to keep its mandate and recover both the popular vote and the super-majority of two-thirds of the 222-seat Dewan Rakyat, which was lost in the 2008 elections.

Analysts and foreign fund managers have told The Malaysian Insight that BN can easily keep Putrajaya despite the onslaught from the main opposition front Pakatan Harapan led by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad – who repudiated Najib in 2014 over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal. – March 23, 2018.