I am really amazed to sight a photograph showing three doctors from different ethnic backgrounds attending to former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, has captured majority attention of Malaysians online, with many seeing the image as a poignant reflection of the country's multiracial society. The photograph, highlighted by Public Health Malaysia (PHM) on Facebook, shows three medical personnel from three major races in Malaysia, a Malay, Chinese and Indian, standing close to Dr. Mahathir as they carried out their duties to monitor his condition. The touching image emerged at an especially emotional time for the 101-year-old Tun Dr. Mahathir, who was mourning the death of his wife of seven decades, Allahyarhamah Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah binti Mohamad Ali.
That photograph provided me a significant lesson that national unity and social cohesion and integration are important objectives of our social and economic development efforts, and impediments to their attainment must be rooted out. A student of human resource (HR) management and development, will know that countries with social conflicts are often those with significant horizontal inequity. Let this be deeply ingrained in all of us, our leaders, in particular. National unity cannot be taken for granted with so much legacy social and economic differences creating more centrifugal forces than centripetal ones. We need to work hard for national unity, as it is the foundation of our long-term survival. If we do not, there are forces waiting to create social, and political instability.
I totally agree with the Minister of National Unity, Datuk Aron Ago Dagang, that “National cohesion is a dynamic matter, calling for continuous assessment & social integration to enhance the forces which can strengthen unity. It cannot be overemphasized that economic growth contributes to eradicating extreme social & economic injustice, and that all have a share in our country's prosperity.”
Zulkifly Baharom (hajizul50@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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