Najib, who makes it a point to throw in a word or two in Tamil while talking to ethnic Indians here, disclosed that he has a favourite Tamil song too - 'why this Kolaveri' - by Tamil actor Dhanush.
"I heard Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also likes the song," Najib said while making a cameo appearance on Tamil language radio station THE Raaga today.
Najib said he had developed a liking for the catchy Tamil number that went viral in India as soon as it was released.
Najib has been wooing ethnic Indians, a majority of whom are Tamils, following a dismal showing in the 2008 general elections.
A majority of the ethnic Indians, who were traditionally supporters of Najib's ruling coalition of Barisan Nasional, moved away towards opposition parties, contributing to its bad showing.
A sense of marginalisation has been behind the electoral drift among the ethnic Indians in this multi-ethnic Malay- dominated country.
Najib is likely to call for general elections in the next few months, and he has been trying hard to win back the support of the Indians.
"Believe in the government. We have proven ourselves in the past three years. We are sincere. Trust in us," he said at the end of an hour-long casual interview on the station's breakfast show 'Kalakkal Kaalai'.
Najib told the programme jokingly that he wanted to woo listeners with his grasp of Tamil words such as "nambikei" (trust), "Ore Malaysia" (1Malaysia) and "acchamillai" (no fear).
Najib spoke about the initiatives by the government under his leadership to improve facilities offered to the minority community including allocation for Tamil schools, increased spots in matriculation programmes for Indian students and scholarships for Indian students to pursue their studies at the Master's and PhD levels.
At the end of the interview, when asked on his vision for the minority Indian community, he said: "Like all Malaysians, I want the community to progress and be fully integrated into the country's economic transformation".
Multi-ethnic Malaysia has a population of 28 million, that includes 60 per cent Malays, 25 per cent ethnic Chinese and 8 per cent ethnic Indians. PTI JB
