Prime Minister Najib Razak today defended his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin for his ‘Malay first, Malaysian second’ statement, arguing that it did not contradict his 1Malaysia concept.

muhyiddin yassin and najib and umno"Being a Malay doesn't mean that you are against 1Malaysia or you don't think like a Malaysian.

"Similarly, if you are a Malaysian Chinese, it doesn't mean that you don't think like a Malaysian or subscribe to the concept of 1Malaysia," he said.

Yesterday, Muhyiddin, in response to a challenge from DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang, said that he was a Malay first but that did not mean that he was not a Malaysian at heart.

He had said that he would be shunned by all the Malays if he were to say that he was a Malaysian first and a Malay second.

NEM: More details to come

Commenting on the New Economic Model (NEM) launched two days ago, Najib said he had received positive feedback and it was a very clear direction of the government.

It meant that the direction and transformation to be implemented by the government was very clear and no longer vague, he said.

"The people as well as the market know what is stated about the direction and also the end objective. What's needed after this at the second stage is more details, especially the key economic activities or areas," he said.

The same applied to the timeline, he said, adding that the model would be implemented in three phases this year.

- Bernama