Prof Dr Chandra Muzaffar
KUALA LUMPUR: If Prof Dr Chandra Muzaffar had his way, he would be pasting posters all over the nation saying ‘Wanted: More bridge builders’.
High on the list, his recruitment criteria would state ‘preferably Malaysian youngsters’ and his postscript would specify: ‘Genuine people only! Bridge wreckers need not apply!’
The statements above were actually Prof Chandra’s Merdeka wish when queried on the issue of national unity recently.
The chairman of the Yayasan 1Malaysia Board of Trustees also said that ‘bridge builders’ was a favourite term of his when speaking on unity.
“If people were more aware and deeply conscious about unity – in other words, real bridge builders – I think things would be different than what we see today,” he said.
Besides the lack of bridge builders, he said that other challenges to national unity included ‘bridge wreckers’ and people “erecting walls”.
Fostering national unity was not solely the government’s responsibility, Prof Chandra pointed out. The real solution, the professor of Global Studies at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) said, rested with the rakyat.
“If we had a critical mass of genuine bridge builders, then I think we would have the environment and the atmosphere that would be more conducive to national unity.”
True to his word, Yayasan 1Malaysia is fulfilling this requirement by having a programme for school children to learn and understand, among other things, what it really means to be a citizen of Malaysia.
“Citizenship means willingness to exercise not only your rights but also, equally important, exercise your responsibilities,” he explained.
Prof Chandra added that maintaining unity was a long and continuous journey rather than a destination, especially for any multi-ethnic or multi-religious society anywhere in the world.
In other words, one cannot say “we have achieved unity.”
Prof Chandra explained that perhaps no country in the world could claim that it had achieved multi-ethnic unity.
“That will never happen, not only in Malaysia but also in any multi-ethnic and multi-religious society in the world because we are talking about people with different religious and cultural backgrounds, different histories, different memories and with different experiences.”
He cited Northern Ireland as an example where conflict between Catholics and Protestants still persisted.
Despite the ‘Good Friday Agreement’ both sides signed in 1998 to resolve their centuries-old conflict, recent clashes in Northern Ireland showed that there was no easy solution for problems connected with ethnicity and religion.
Using marriage as an analogy for unity, Prof Chandra reiterated that there was no ‘perfect’ marriage and that it was something that had to be worked at continuously.
Married couples, he said, faced problems, challenges and difficulties from time to time. The important thing was to resolve them.
As far as Malaysia was concerned, he observed that it was significant that the nation builders perceived the major challenge of achieving unity right from the beginning in 1957.
“From the outset we realised it was a challenge that required total attention, a challenge that required all our energy and all our efforts, which is why all our leaders, our opinion-makers and the influential elements in our society always emphasised unity,” he elaborated.
Nonetheless, Prof Chandra was quick to add that we had to be realistic in our pursuit of national unity.
In reiterating that unity was an ongoing process, he also asserted that “we cannot place a time frame, neither can we talk of the ideals that we desire.
“If all communities, all major segments can say that tomorrow is better than today and we are beginning to feel more and more like one family, that would be an achievement,” he said.
Both Malays and non-Malays were duty-bound to build this nation.
“We cannot understand and empathise with one another so long as we view the nation through a communal lens. We must overcome communal selfishness,” he added.
According to Prof Chandra, there was also a need for Malaysians to understand the Constitution and Rukunegara in greater depth.
“We should have done this from the very beginning, made our people, Malays and non-Malays, understand these documents of destiny. We should have socialised the people with the Constitution and the Rukunegara.
“We could have used the education system, we could have used the media. We could have used cultural and religious channels. We failed to do this,” he said.
Every now and then, he said, communal politics overrode national unity.
“If this continues we will not be moving towards greater unity as envisaged in Vision 2020, which is a mere nine years away,” added Prof Chandra. — Bernama