Racial divisions threaten Malaysian unity

Racial divisions threaten Malaysian unity

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Racial divisions in schools and universities will threaten Malaysia's national unity unless they are addressed, an adviser said on Sunday.

Lee Lam Thye, a member of the National Unity Advisory Panel, said school and university students of different races were not interacting.

"With the exception of one or two universities, the others are not doing much in terms of encouraging students of different races to share accommodation in the campuses," he said in a statement carried by the official Bernama news agency.

"Unless and until bold and decisive steps are taken to address the issue of racial polarization in schools, colleges and universities, it would threaten unity as well as the multiracial fabric of our society and nation," he said.

Lee urged the education ministry to set guidelines for promoting racial mixing.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad last week announced plans to build more primary schools shared by children of the three major races to build better relations.

The "vision schools" will share a sports field, assembly hall and canteen but will have separate buildings for teaching in different languages.

Mahathir also said university authorities had been told students of different races should share the same accommodation. Malays make up just over half the population, followed by Chinese and Indians.

A long-running affirmative action program to help Malays catch up with wealthier Chinese gives them priority for college and university places as well as a larger stake in business.

The program has helped raise the economic status of Malays but has created some resentment among other races.

In another development, a report said Sunday that children caught playing truant in one Malaysian town will be taken to a police station and forced to read a book till their parents collect them.

Students found loitering in shopping complexes during school hours will be taken to a reading room opened Saturday at the police station in Seremban, the Star newspaper reported.

"If parents take two hours to pick up their children they will then have to read for that duration," Goh Siow Huat, the head of a local crime prevention organization, was quoted as saying.

Students who do not have time to finish the book will be allowed to take it home but must write a synopsis to prove they have read it, he said.