RM330K to create ‘we’ feeling for Endless Possibilities campaign, minister says

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 3 — Putrajaya forked out RM330,000 from its branding budget to cultivate a sense of belonging among Malaysians or a “we” feeling in the Endless Possibilities campaign, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim told the Dewan Rakyat today.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department labelled the amount spent as an “investment” by the Najib administration, when moving again to defend the newly-introduced global theme amid the continuing uproar over claims that the slogan had been plagiarised.

“I want to stress that it is an investment on a detailed research which became the basis for the whole initiative in branding the country, and not just to produce the Endless possibilities slogan.

“A total of RM330,000 was spent for the whole process, and not just for the endless possibilities slogan."

“This brand will help to attract investors and we hope that this brand will cultivate a sense of belonging, or ‘we feeling’ among Malaysians, which is slightly lacking at the moment,” he said in Parliament.

Last month, the Prime Minister's Office, in deflecting claims that Endless Possibilities was copied from Israel, said that Malaysia had introduced the campaign in January this year, a few months before Israel started using a similar tagline.

Today, the Arau MP once again addressed the controversy over the striking similarities between Malaysia’s slogan and the promotional campaigns of Mongolia and Israel.

While acknowledging that Mongolia had used its “Endless Possibilities” campaign in 2011, at least a year earlier than Malaysia, he noted that it had been carried by international news broadcaster CNN for only one week.

When referring to Israel’s “One Place. Endless Possibilities” tagline, Shahidan dismissed the similarities in the campaign slogans, saying that the slogans had different context.

He clarified however the slogan “Endless Possibilities” will be used in the context of Malaysia’s future, while the government will continue using “Malaysia, Truly Asia” to describe and promote Malaysia at the moment.

“We hope that with this branding, Malaysia can attract investors, tourists, talent and expatriates and at Malaysia’s level, we hope that it can unite the people, nurture compassion, encourage positivity and when we are in a foreign country, we would have the ‘we’ feeling,” Shahidan said today.