KOTA KINABALU: 1 Malaysia Foundation trustee Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said that the Education Ministry has a vital role to play in uniting a nation.
Lee recalled that Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had stated that the nation’s progress and development lies in the ability of teachers to unite the young by encouraging them to inculcate the Rukun Negara principles.
He said the task of meeting these challenges has to be shouldered by teachers who are the agents or role models for inter-racial integration and unity.
“With every passing day the need to foster unity among students and to enhance their patriotism based on the principles of the Rukun Tetangga is all the more greater if we are to succeed in making Malaysia a truly united nation,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Besides the teachers, he stressed that parents also have to play a vital role in planting the seed for a 1 Malaysia by encouraging their children to mix around and have multiracial friends.
While the government has a major role to play towards achieving unity through its policies and actions, he said it is also necessary for our children to be educated on unity with the participation and involvement of the parents.
“Children are children and they are colour blind. They are innocent and their minds are not polluted by racial issues. They can mix and play with one another irrespective of race.
“I have on several occasions emphasized that children and young people must be completely unconscious of the fact that the person next to him or her is of another race or religion. They must be aware of only one thing that he or she is their friend,” said Lee.
With each passing day, he said Malaysian youths must relentlessly break down the racial divide, reach out and make friends with those from other ethnic groups.
Parents who themselves were brought up in a multiracial environment and who made friends from different races should encourage their children to mix with others of different races so that they are aware of the importance of inter-racial and inter-religious harmony.
Children and young people of diverse races should be taught to respect one another in the spirit of 1 Malaysia, he added.
According to Lee, unity should be the guiding principle for all schools in their activities ranging from sports to co-curricular activities in order to foster greater inter-racial understanding.
Programmes need to be introduced and initiated to bring together students from different schools such as the national, Chinese and Tamil primary schools allowing them to interact and make friends in the larger interests of nation building.
“Today’s students are our future leaders. Upon their shoulders lie the responsibility of building a united Malaysian nation with common and shared destiny for all.
“Unity and harmony must be embedded in our culture and there must be more opportunities for children and young people of diverse races to meet and forge closer friendship and understanding for the sake of our nation＊s future in the interest of 1 Malaysia,” he said.