DOES Malaysia feel more united now compared with the days before Najib Razak became prime minister?

If your answer is No,” or even “more divided than ever,” then you’re probably in the vast majority of Malaysians.

As the current government’s 1Malaysia website explains, “It is a concept that encapsulates the very idea of unity in diversity, and emphasises on the importance of national unity regardless of race, background, or religious belief for a better tomorrow.”

Whatever. Besides the abysmal grammar of this nonsensical word salad, Najib’s 1Malaysia has failed spectacularly.

The current BN-led government’s latest approval rating is at its lowest level ever, at 23%, partly because Najib’s polarising policies have worsened Malaysia into one of the world’s most divided societies.

An eye-popping CIMB Foundation research study of 1,504 peninsular Malaysians found that most people tend to be friends with people of the same ethnicity – they rarely befriend people from outside their race. A Merdeka Centre telephone interview study of 4,502 respondents across all of Malaysia and a recent CENBET research study, appropriately titled “Are Malaysians Racist?”, found similar disturbing results.

Barisan Nasional has also allowed naked bigotry and extremism to flourish in the country. Perkasa and other racist groups have been allowed to be vocal about the idea of “ketuanan Melayu” – the idea that the Malay people are the “tuan” (masters) of Malaysia. Malay supremacy is no different than Charlottesville-style white supremacy, but no criticism or condemnation of this idea has ever emerged from the office of the prime minister.

Malaysia also has over six times the rate of Muslim citizens leaving to join the Islamic State as Indonesia has, and polls also show that roughly 11% of Malaysians (nearly 3 million) support IS and suicide bombings.

An atmosphere of intolerance has led some Malaysians to establish Muslim-only laundry businesses, bully churches into removing their crosses, slap women for not wearing the hijab, and ban books promoting liberal Islam. A fear of this violence and bullying has silenced many decent Malaysians.  As Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson stated this January, “In a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country, Najib should defend the rights of everyone in the country to speak freely and practice their religion without fear.”

Unlike most normal multicultural countries in Southeast Asia, Putrajaya’s so-called “bumiputera” preference policies institutionalise discrimination, which completely contradicts Najib’s stated ideal of “national unity regardless of race, background, or religious belief”.

As The Economist wisely pointed out, a better government policy would be to provide social assistance to different types of Malaysians based on their needs, not on skin colour.   

In 2015, when Oxford Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan (correctly) criticised Malays on his Facebook page for treating fellow Malaysian Chinese as “second-class citizens”, some angry Malay Malaysians tried to respond by showing that the majority of Malaysian millionaires were ethnic Chinese – as if this top 0.0001% of millionaires mostly from one city (Kuala Lumpur) represented the entire 6 million Chinese population in Malaysia.

But of course, the reason why many ethnic minority groups feel like second-class citizens are because of structural problems in Malaysian society that the BN-led government has created, such as frequent racist discrimination, blocked career paths, and civil rights violations.

A recent small but high-quality Universiti Sains Malaysia study found that people still don’t understand 1Malaysia concept as it “seems to be complicated, problematic and contested in people’s minds.”

The “1Malaysia” concept clearly needs to be replaced with better policies and action. What are the obstacles? Government laziness. Scare tactics. Poor leadership. Hypocrisy. Only a new government can create positive change.

Fortunately, voters will soon have that opportunity. – March 29, 2018.

* Athena Angel reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.