Preserving respect for diversity: An experiment from Malaysia

Mohamad Khir Toyo Chief Minister, Selangor, The Star, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

Malaysians regardless of race and creed cherish their children's future. We try to provide them with a better quality of life than we had when we were growing up.

We want them to have the best in life, be it in education, health care or recreation. At the same time it is our primordial instinct to ensure that they are familiar with and strongly rooted in their ancestral heritage.

It is the sacred duty of every Malaysian to ensure the basic character of the nation, that is its diversity, remains unchanged. Every ethnic group must be assured of a place under the Malaysian sun.

There are those now who despise diversity.

They are those who are willing to use terror against innocent civilians, women and children to achieve their evil objective.

We saw this dastardly and cowardly affront to God and men in the Sept. 11 tragedy in the United States. Closer to home we saw this in the Memali tragedy, the Al-Ma'unah revolt and the existence of the KMM cells that are devoted to the violent overthrow of our democratic system of governance.

Religious extremism and racial chauvinism are two clear dangers to our national security and thus our national survival.

Citizens must also make a statement with their action that they will not stand idly by and let all their achievements thus far be squandered by these thugs.

In order for us to preserve what we have now and to allow our posterity to have a chance to build on it, we must sow in the hearts and minds of our children that ours is a diverse nation, that diversity is a blessing and not a bane for us.

Through the quirks of history we are bequeathed an education system that utilizes three languages as the medium of instruction at the primary level. The three are the national language, Mandarin and Tamil.

The unintended side effect of this system is the separation of our children between the ages of seven and 12 -- a crucial age for the development of the child -- from their fellow brethren.

Malays will naturally go to Sekolah Kebangsaan while non- Malays will go to either Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (Chinese school) or Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil. There they are denied the chance to experience the multi-racial reality of Malaysia.

At the secondary level, students of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan at the primary level will go on to Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK), joining fellow students from Sekolah Kebangsaan, but there are those who choose to enroll in vernacular secondary or religious schools, denying them again the reality of a multi- racial Malaysia.

This condition is exaggerated at the tertiary level as bumiputra (indigenous Malays) will flock to public institutions of higher learning while non-bumiputra will go to private colleges abroad.

Graduates of this system will fill the ranks of the public and private sectors. They are the future policy makers, interpreters and those who implement policy.

We cannot blame them wholly for their insensitivity to the diverse nature of Malaysia in discharging their duties, when we were guilty in the first place of denying them the multi-ethnic and multi-religious experience while they were growing up.

Achieving integration between the various races in Malaysia is an evolution.

We should now look seriously at the Vision School concept. This concept initiated by the Barisan Nasional Government is to ensure that our children will not be denied the reality of living in a multi-racial society.

The Vision School project envisions children of all races learning, eating and playing together in the hope that it will forge bonds of friendship between them, if not at the very least making them understand the diversity that is the cornerstone of the Malaysian nation.

It will not make them less Malay, Chinese or Indian; it will make them, hopefully, more Malaysian.

This is our best defense against religious extremism and racial chauvinism, in both of which lie the source of our possible destruction.

I appeal to all Malaysians to give this concept a chance to develop and to blossom.

I understand the fear of non-bumiputra towards this concept, particularly in regard to monetary allocation and the language used in common functions, but these can be overcome. Do not let these trivialities be the reason to derail such a noble concept.

The first Vision School project will be implemented in the state of Selangor.

The Kompleks Sekolah Wawasan USJ Subang Jaya will house three primary schools in its compound bearing the sacred names of our founding fathers -- SK Dato' Onn Jaafar, SJKC Tun Tan Cheng Lock and SJKT Tun Sambanthan.

Give our children a future where we can all proudly say we are Malaysians first, where the dangers of religious extremism and racial chauvinism will no longer be present.

We, the present generation, must have the moral courage to do what is right, we must rise above our petty worries and create a better Malaysia for our posterity.