Malaysian should continue practicing the concept of moderation to ensure the nation remains peaceful and harmonious to enable the government to plan numerous programmes to boost their standard of living, said Prime Minister Najib Razak.

He said that only with moderation could the multi-racial populace in the country continue to be united and be free to practice their respective religions and cultures without any obstacles and disputes.

"We don't practice extremism in this country but moderation. Islam itself practices the concept of wasatiyyah, namely, balance and moderation in every action and practice.

"Buddhism also has the same concept although the faith is different...the problem taking place now (violence), is not due to religions but the presence of extremists in religions," he said.

He said this when opening the 2017 Chinese New Year Malaysia Open House at Bentong Square here today, which was also attended by his wife Rosmah Mansor.

Also present were Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob and wife Junaini Kassim, MCA president and Bentong Member of Parliament Liow Tiong Lai and wife Lee Soon Loo.

Others present were Tourism an Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz and Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong.

More than 20,000 guests from numerous races and communities attended the open house which was enlivened with numerous cultural events of the communities in the country.

According to Najib, extremism resulted in the existence of the Islamic State terrorists and Buddhist religious extremists which had resulted in the loss of many innocent lives.

At the same time, Najib said the peace and harmony enjoyed in country now was due to past leaders like the late Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaysia's first prime minister), who had laid a firm foundation on unity.

"The federal constitution stresses that we must respect our difference in diversity in terms of culture, language and religion.

"We respect each other's religion, for example when I arrived here just now, Adnan asked me to wait first because they were performing isyah prayers at the mosque, but the Chinese did not complain, they waited and respected this..this is the beauty of Malaysia," he added.

- Bernama