The Keluarga Malaysia slogan should come with implementation plans or it remains as a concept only, says DAP Women’s chief Chong Eng.

The Keluarga Malaysia concept unveiled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri is similar to the 1Malaysia mooted by former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, also the same with DAP’s founding principle – a Malaysian Malaysia.

Without political will and a set of comprehensive plan to roll out the implementation, the concept remains as it is.

Chong Eng, who is also the Penang exco for social development and non-Islamic religious affairs, said for a concept to become a reality, it requires setting up framework and resources.

For instance, to ensure women’s participation in all sectors, the Penang state government set up Penang Women’s Development Corporation and drafted the gender inclusiveness policy.

It also launches the policy of setting the minimum threshold for women’s participation at decision making level at 30 per cent so that both men and women would have at least 40% of representation.

The Ministry of Unity has been around for many years, what has it accomplished? From the Barisan Nasional era till Perikatan Nasional and now with Ismail Sabri’s government, Malaysians have not been getting more united but are more polarised instead.

People want to witness the presence of a mechanism and an effective implementation of said mechanism.

Re-packaging old concepts with new slogans no longer win people’s hearts.

At the end of the day, financial resources are spent on promoting the new concept but raced based agenda remains a priority.

Malaysians are no longer convinced by such strategies which were repeatedly used by Barisan Nasional.

Press statement by Chong Eng

Padang Lalang assemblywoman