I am happy to be able to reach out through 1 Malaysia again today. At the moment, I am enjoying spending some quality time with my wife and children. This short break will also give me the opportunity to catch up on my latest reading, “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency” as I take a bird’s eye view… take a deep breath and reflect upon a perspective or two about the situational assessments on current issues in the country.

Our unique diversity is again strongly echoed this week. During this long school break, there is a hive of activity going on as Malaysians celebrate Christmas today and with Awal Muharram around the corner too. This is a great time to be with our families. I am sure many of us will make use of this respite to reconnect with our loved ones, after being apart due to work commitments, study or travel. I am doing exactly that at this very moment and I hope you surely are with your family too. At the end of the day, after a hard day’s work, there is nothing like sharing our laughter with the family. Whether it is sitting together and watching television, having a long and memorable dinner or even enjoying a holiday together, the family bond is a key part of our lives. Naturally, it is a time to be thankful and jolly – let us share that with our loved ones. In this regard, we should also not forget to think of our police force, our soldiers and firefighters, relief officers, nurses and other emergency personnel who are on call, away from their family.

With Awal Muharram and the year 2009 getting even closer, it makes perfect sense for us to carry this positive energy to ponder, realign and reenergise our different objectives in life. The strength of our nation comes from the diversity of our population. It is this very diversity that demands our interactions among individual and within communities. We need to continue reexamining our roles to accomplish our goal of creating a stronger…more unified Malaysia. I hope to be communicating again to everybody via 1Malaysia on 1st January insya-Allah, via a video message. In the meantime, do enjoy these moments with your family while we continue to explore the end game of our unique diversity.