M. Krishnamoorthy
Media relations trainer, associate professor, and author
(Part 2)
Malaysia has become a land of strangers as dark clouds surround us over the horizon. Sadly, Malaysia has suffered a regression because of polarisation, said Emeritus Prof Datuk Dr Shad Salem Faruqi.
He is currently the holder of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Foundation Chair, at the University of Malaya.
“Since the nineties, racial and religious polarisation has reached alarming levels. Ethnic and religious ideology and racial politics are causing a hardening of cultural boundaries.
“We have become a ‘nation of strangers’. In many corners of the world, walls of separation are being dismantled. Sadly, in our society, these walls are being fortified.”
Professor Shad Faruqi added that Malaysia was being broken up for these reasons:
- The education system has become racially and religiously polarised. If kids do not learn together, how will they live together?
- Social inequalities between ethnic groups are narrowing but within each ethnic group inequalities are widening.
- The special rights of Sabah and Sarawak have in some areas been ignored.
- Now and then, deeply divisive issues add poison to an otherwise large reservoir of inter-communal harmony.
This list of grievances from both sides is rather long, and I won’t enumerate it.
“Instead, I wish to count our blessings and to concentrate on what can be done to restore our original vision of a shared destiny, strengthen our social fabric, build ethnic bridges, dismantle ethnic walls, heal, and reconcile and develop a vision of unity.
What can we as citizens do?
“Professor Shad Faruqi said we must recognise our diversity as an asset. All members of the political executive and the public services and all members of society need to come to terms with our diversity, heterogeneity, pluralism and multi-culturalism.
“This diversity is here to stay. Don’t frown on it.
Harness it to good use. If the Mokhtar Daharis, the Sideks, the Soh Chin Auns, the Lee Chong
Weis, the Arumugams, the Nicole Davids, and the Pandelas of our society can join hands together, the things we can do will be incredible! We must recognise that our cultures are intermingled and interdependent.
“For centuries Malay, Chinese Indian, Indonesian, Thai, Kadazan-Dusun, Iban, and European cultures have mixed in our soil to constitute our rich cultural mosaic.
“There is far more cross-cultural mingling, sharing, and co-dependence among us than we care to recognise, admit, or celebrate.
“This intermingling can be used to improve our frayed ethnic relations. If we all can recognize that the rivers of our life have been refreshed with streams from many civilizational valleys, we can begin to see ‘’the other” as our distant cousin. We can be proud of our mixed heritage.”
Freelance Writer M. Krishnamoorthy (www.imkrishna.net) is a media coach, associate professor and undercover journalist. He has freelanced with Bernama, NST, The Star, and Malaysiakini. He also freelances as a fixer/coordinator for CNN, BBC, German and Australian Television networks and the New York Times. As an undercover journalist, he has highlighted society's concerns going undercover as a beggar, security guard, blind man, disabled salesman and Member of Parliament.
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