The difference between Pesta Blogger Theme and 1Malaysia

Recently there have been very interesting and conflicting comments made by prominent bloggers in Malaysia and Indonesia of the parallels, or differences, between Pesta Blogger 2009’s theme: One Spirit. One Nation and the new Malaysian Premier’s  slogan of 1Malaysia.

Rocky Bru seems to think that the discussions around the logo for the One Spirit One Nation theme is “nowhere near the 1Malaysia concept that the [Malaysian] Prime Minister is trying to push through.” It’s a very curious piece of observation.

Pesta Blogger 2009 Chairman Iman Brotoseno begs to differ and in this posting he makes it clear that Rocky’s statement could be read as ” tanpa bermaksud mencela, logo itu mirip konsep 1malaysia “or that the Pesta Blogger concept is a take off from the 1Malaysia concept.

If this is the case, Iman argues, Rocky had better think again. Unspun‘ll let the postings speak for theirmselves as both bloggers are both erudite. What Unspun finds fascinating, as a Malaysian who’s chosen to live in Indonesia, is the nature of the debate surrounding the Pesta Blogger logo and the 1Malaysia concept. In it lies am emblematic tale of the huge difference in sense of nationhood between both countries.

In the Pesta Blogger logo debate (see comments here), the debate centered around the looks of the logo. Some remarks were fillipant, others serious, some liked it and some were critical, but everyone was good humored and supportive. They were free to express themselves but at the end of the day there is a feeling that this was their show, the logo was by a blogger for bloggers, no one wa trying to ram anything down their throats and they wanted it to succeed. There is something very organic in the entire process.

Then there is the debate surrounding the 1Malaysia concept. There is something very ersatz about it. You have Najib trying to make his mark as a Premier and Umno leader after  his predecessor Badawi crashed and burned. Under Badawi the Barisan Nasional and Umno lost the support of many voters, including Malays who have been solidly behind Umno in the past.

So Najib comes up with the 1Malaysia concept like some mantra that would get all the races together toward some Utopian Malaysia. But look at the dicussions on the blogs about 1Malaysia. It is as if they are comments put there by opposing tribes in  win-lose situation. There is much hatred, very lottle goodwill and much of the conversation consists of Malay resentment and arroance toward the Chinese, as well as Chinese resentment and arrogance toward the Malays.

Will it work? Can the tribes in Malaysia come together to build something bigger than themselves? Perhaps the Malaysians need to send their bloggers to Indonesia to see how a community functions for the greater good of the nation, without much interference, force feeding and help of politicians.