PETALING JAYA: With 68 civil society groups and non-governmental organisations in the newly-formed movement, Negara-Ku, its co-chair Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan hopes to empower Malaysians to reclaim the nation from racism and extremism.
"The idea of course is to bring hope to the people, that is the main aim.
"Negara-Ku hopes to reclaim our nation in the face of all the extremism and racism which are being allowed to grow.
"There is no leadership being shown, and what leadership there is seems to condone the divisiveness," Ambiga told The Star Online on Thursday after the launching.
She said Negara-Ku "is not about politics but about ordinary Malaysians saying enough is enough".
"We are going to create material via videos, social media and it is to do with the whole of Malaysia and we are trying to cover the length and breadth of Malaysia and we hope this will show to those who are setting the extremist and racist agenda that the ordinary Malaysian doesn't want this," she said.
She added that the movement, which is chaired by Ambiga and national laureate Datuk A. Samad Said, wishes to see the nation return to three core documents - the Federal Constitution, the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 and the Rukunegara.
Samad pointed out that religion was being used to define identity and to polarise Malaysians.
"The mobilisation and manipulation of race, ethnicity and religion have resulted in increasing intolerance, bigotry and extremism. There is also an emerging sub-culture of political violence, these are symptomatic of dangerous undercurrents in our society," Samad was quoted as saying at the launch.
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