Opinion Poll: 1Malaysia Showstoppers

Technorati tags: Poll Position, Opinion Poll, 1Malaysia, Failure Factors

Truth be told, Walski has no problems with the 1Malaysia concept. As he understands it anyway – everyone seems to have their own idea about what this rather nebulous concept is all about.

To Walski, it’s pretty simple – 1Malaysia will eventually lead to the positive erosion of each citizen’s ethnic identity, such that an individual sees his/her-self as Malaysian first and foremost. And by “positive erosion”, he doesn’t mean that we forget our roots and heritage, but rather regard them as the required flavors, contributing to a greater sense of belonging to one nation.

And to him, that’s a good thing.

As most of you would have gathered by now, Walski’s stand is that as citizens of Malaysia we should be Malaysians first and foremost. The reality today is that despite almost 53 years of independence, and 47 years as a nation called Malaysia, we still identify ourselves by our ethnicity first.

Back in September 2006, a survey administered by the Merdeka Centre found that 73% of Malaysian Muslims polled saw themselves as Muslim (if they could choose only one identity) first, and only 14% as Malaysians first. Walski had blogged about this back then, but more from the viewpoint of another finding: that Malaysia is an Islamic state.

But that was then, and this is now – and so we come back to the concept of 1Malaysia.

The political rumblings that we hear on a daily basis – be it through the media mainstream, blogs, or these days more likely Twitter – tell us that racial identity is something that’s not only still strong in this country, but something that seems to be almost nurtured to remain the status quo way of seeing ourselves.

And so, Walski felt that this survey was something he had to do… 
(survey details, and more, in the full post)

If you’re new to this blog, the survey resides in the sidebar, to the right of the page. You’ll find it towards the top (its position changes from time to time, by the way).

Walski has given you a few choices to pick from in order to answer the question of what you see as the biggest hindrance against achieving the concept embodied by 1Malaysia. He thinks that while these might not comprehensively cover all the possible hurdles, they do represent the most major ones.

The poll will remain up until midnight on Sunday, March 28th. That should give you ample time not just to vote, but to tell your friends to pitch their opinion in as well.

One note about the “Other” choice – the space beside it is for you to enter what you think is the hindrance. It’s no fun just selecting “Other” and not specify what it is, no?

Now, a poll of this nature is most effective when the participants come from various walks of life and of differing outlooks, and so to help spread the word out, Walski would appreciate it if you could post it on your own blog (if you have one).

If your blog lives in a Blogspot environment, simply click on the “Add to Blogger” button immediately below the poll widget – that will allow you to embed the poll onto the sidebar of your Blogspot blog. If you’re more of a Wordpress person, you can use the following Wordpress shortcode: [polldaddy poll=2926347] (with thanks once again to Zurairi of Unscientific Malaysia).

So, what do you think – what is the biggest factor that can potentially derail the 1Malaysia concept?