Assalamualaikum and Salam Sejahtera. Happy New Year and welcome again to 1Malaysia.com.my.

I am delighted to be able to speak to you again as we say goodbye to 2008 and bid welcome to 2009. It is now nearly four months since 1Malaysia.com.my was launched and how interesting those months have been. Many of you sent in your messages and comments to me on various issues and whenever I go through them, I feel encouraged that so many Malaysians want to be engaged and are interested to participate in building this nation by sharing their thoughts and views.

Early in our dialogue, we established that the purpose of this site was the exploration of our unique diversity - the celebration of Malaysia's varied races, religions and pursuits - and to discuss the adjustments that we must continually make to accomplish our goal of creating a stronger, more unified Malaysia.

It is this diversity that enables Malaysia to both respond to change and cr...