One means undivided. One means unity and one means power. When there is unity there is power. Men try to gain power and glory and men know that they cannot gain power and glory without unity. Men try to gain unity through many ways and history has shown us that most of the attempts to unite the people have failed.

Men will unite when they have similarities and most great leaders of the past have tried to use the factor of race to unite the people. Genghis Khan had tried to unite the Mongols and Hitler had tried to unite the German. These great leaders try to achieve unity using race as the factor for unity. They unite their race by inculcating in their heart the same desire.

They inculcate the desire to become great people by conquering other people and to amass their wealth. Without having unity of purpose, people cannot be united unless they have the same desire or goals .Genghis Khan and Hitler inculcated in the hearts of their people the same desire to become great people that conquer and control others

In order to unite the people, the leaders try to make the people have the same goals or desires. The easiest desire to inculcate is the desire to have power and wealth. However, this desire is short-lived and once this desire vanishes, the strength of unity fades away. Genghis Khan and Hitler could only unite their people and became conquerors for a very short period of time. The empires that they set up dis not last very long.

Once people have achieved their goal of achieving wealth and power, they became disunited. They start to become jealous of each other and internal rivalry starts to occur between them. As a result, they lose their unity and their strength and finally, they cease being a strong and powerful nation. The British Empire didn’t last very long as they could not maintain the unity between the nations that they had colonised

Malaysia now wants to unite the people with the concept of ‘1Malaysia’. ‘1Malaysia’ is a concept and upon this concept we hope to unite the people. We must know the difference between a concept, a goal and ways to achieve the goal. ‘1Malaysia’ is a concept that we want all Malaysians to agree to. Will all Malaysians agree with this concept?

‘1Malaysia’ must start with one desire. What is the desire that we want all Malaysians to have? When we do not have the same desire or goal to achieve, then we will never achieve a united Malaysia. ‘1Malaysia’ is based on what the goal or desire is to achieved. We must expound the goal or the desire very clearly to the people.

Now we are only talking and singing the song of ‘1Malaysia’ and no doubt this will instill an awareness on the importance of having a united Malaysia but real unity can never be achieved by just having mere songs and slogana. Malaysians are very fond of having grand slogans but at the end of the day we still remain the same as we were before or even become than we were. We must clearly know what we have to do in order to achieve our goal or desire .What it is that is meant by ‘1Malaysia’. Does it mean we are all the same in all respects? Does it mean all Malaysians have the same and equal opportunities to excel?

If ‘1Malaysia’ means equal opportunities to excel then this is not a new concept. Poor Malaysians irrespective of race must be helped to excel. Poor Malaysians must be given subsidies, scholarships and extra training to excel. The weaker students must be given extra care and training in order to excel. The weaker students must be given opportunities to study in residential schools. Everyone irrespective of their race is to be given equal opportunities to excel in their life. All Malaysians should be the same in term of opportunities.

The rich Malaysian must be asked to help the poor Malaysian. The responsibilities of helping the poor and the less fortunate must not only lie with the government but also on the shoulders of rich Malaysians from among the Chinese, the Malays and the Indians. The government must have some way to make the rich Malaysians contribute some part of their wealth to the poor and the less fortunate Malaysians

Our goal and desire should be to make everybody in Malaysia - irrespective of race - have equal opportunities to excel. Everyone who desires to excel must be given these opportunities. There should be no hindrance to success for those who desire to succeed and all help must be given to them to succeed. Everyone must be helped to succeed. No one Malaysian should be left behind. Everyone must help each other to become excellent.

The rich Chinese can help the poor Malays and Indians and the rich Malays and Indians can help the poor Chinese too. The sentiment that ‘I should only help my people’ should be eradicated from the minds of all Malaysians. Malaysians should help each other to excel and help each other to make Malaysia a land of equal opportunities for all.