Our PMs had the following slogans for their respective administrations:
Mahathir 1.0
- Malaysia Boleh
- Pandang Timur
- Wawasan 2020
Badawi:
- Islam Hadhari
- Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang
Najib:
- 1Malaysia
Mahathir 2.0
- Shared Prosperity 2030
Muhyiddin:
- Kita Jaga Kita
Ismail Sabri
- Keluarga Malaysia
Have I missed out anything?
Keluarga Malaysia, Kita Jaga Kita and 1Malaysia may sound corny but they nonetheless preached the spirit of togetherness kicked off by Badawi’s declaration “I’m prime minister for all” when he first took office.
Mahathir, on the other hand, doesn’t even bother to pay lip service to the ideal that all the races have a place here.
In that sense, the four PMs are unlike Mahathir who said, “Tujuh juta orang asing masih berada di sini sekarang ini”.
Note that Chinese Malaysians presently number seven million.
Gottit.
Seven million of us here are still “orang asing” because the country granted Merdeka citizenship to undeserving people of “foreign origin”, according to Mahathir’s oft-repeated reminder.
BELOW: In 2017, Hannah Yeoh encouraged her DAP turkeys to vote for Christmas
As far as I’m aware the four other PMs have not mentioned anything resembling Mahathir’s ”orang asing” narrative.
Again, I have to ask my readers if I’ve overlooked anything as I only have one pair of ears, after all, and cannot humanly keep track of the PMs’ varied sayings.
Therefore if Badawi, Najib, Muhyiddin or Ismail Sabri have ever called the Chinese “orang asing” that I’m unaware of, please update me in the comments below.
As far as I know, it is Mahathir who has been obsessing about the foreignness of Malaysian Chinese these last 50 years and more (since his Malay Dilemma manifesto).
It’s thus unsurprising that a mere week after GE14, Mahathir – assuming office as second-time PM – instructed that Najib’s ‘1Malaysia’ slogan be chucked in the bin. See Malaysiakini article on 16 May 2018 — ‘Mahathir arah tiada lagi ucapan salam 1Malaysia’.
Najib in turn explained that his 1Malaysia aspiration was among the reasons why Mahathir started to hate him. See Straits Times article below.
I believe Najib.
Helen Ang 
Really?
Methinks, the biggest mistake Najib may have made in his life in not to bin Mahathir when he had the opportunity. …
That opportunity is now a lost cause……….?
unlike the other four malay pm, could it be this malay wannabe is as insecure as the 5%?
A coin has two sides.
I recall when Najib attended a church Christmas event, instructions were given to the church to remove certain religious symbolism prior his visit for fear of offending Muslim sensitivities should photos of Najib with crosses appear on media.
Point is, Najib may be a moderate. His UMNO voter base is not.
I do agree Najib is the most statesman-like PM around. Too bad moderation is seen as weakness rather than virtue in the Ketuanan playbook.
And why is no one talking about Najib’s graft conviction related to 1MDB?
(1) It was a non-Muslim special officer who said about removing any cross symbol from Najib’s rostrum. Her name is Hardev Kaur — I remember because she was an editor from NSTP (newspaper group I used to work for).
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2011/01/07/no-orders-to-remove-christian-symbols-says-pms-special-assistant/
(2) They were afraid of another Tengku Razaleigh (‘cross’ pattern on his Kadazan headgear) controversy. Kuli was set up through that fake scandal during Mahathir’s regime.
(3) Why there’s little talk about Najib-1MDB: it’s the Bicycle Shed theory. When topic is simple, everybody is able to chip in — like discussing how to build a pondok basikal.
When topic is complex, like how to build a nuclear reactor, the Average Joe has nothing to contribute to the discussion.