KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 — Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today reminded Malaysians to protect the nation’s stability, peace and harmony.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in a video posted on his Facebook page, extended his Chinese New Year (CNY) greetings to Malaysians and urged everyone to use the festive season to strengthen ties between races, particularly through the unique practice of open houses.

He said that Malaysians should not take for granted the peace that might seem normal in a multicultural nation like Malaysia, because there are people looking to stir up trouble for their own agenda.

"I hope that we can all continue this tradition of going to open houses of our friends and companions — take this opportunity to strengthen the relationship between us Malaysians,” he said.

"Chinese New Year is one of the main celebrations of us lucky Malaysians. Yes, we are very lucky, in a multicultural country we can celebrate this diversity with full peace and harmony. This may seem normal for us, but it isn’t always like that.

"Looking after relations between all this racial, religious and cultural differences is not easy and we cannot take it lightly. There will be people who will try to disrupt for their own reason. I hope we don’t let ourselves be instigated with these kinds of actions,” he said.

He ended the two minute video with Chinese new year greetings and included bloopers of him attempting to speak the Mandarin phrase xin nien kuai le (happy new year), repeating it three times with the help of someone off-camera, before being satisfied.