YOURSAY | No need for higher budget for unity

YOURSAY | ‘Malaysians themselves represent all the riches necessary for a harmonious nation.’

Unity Ministry requests higher allocation in Budget 2024

COMMENT | After 66 years, how united are we?

Vijay47: We do not need higher or even any allocation to foster better racial and religious unity in Malaysia, National Unity Minister Aaron Ago Dagang. The people themselves in their tapestry of diversity represent all the riches necessary for a more harmonious nation.

In fact, the root of the evil we suffer is embedded in funds and yes, allocations, the cause of much of our distress and the prevalent animosity.

We do not need more tea parties and similar functions usually reeking of insincerity and fake smiles where politicians gather to bolster their concepts of self-importance.

This hostility we have can be healed by basic human attributes where differences are viewed as boons rather than burdens. We should return to that era when the variety in our cultures and faiths contributed to unity when our many facets were seen as a strength.

Instead, today we witness abuse and bullying where extremists demand that their ways and their religion somehow stand above others and should not be apparently sullied by the rest.

A simple example was the recent MIC’s headquarters groundbreaking ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, where multi-religious prayers were recited. Any proud, confident nation would have welcomed it as a natural manifestation of that unity you seek to create.

Instead, that event saw fanatics going berserk over imagined insult to their faith with a certain religious body even conducting a probe. And you search for unity?

Unity is a Holy Grail we will never again touch if we must suffer those with absolutely no confidence in their own beliefs and continuously strive to constrain others.

Ironically, those with such monumental insecurity should be sent for, yes, more religious classes where brotherhood and not hatred is the order of the day.

PurpleGropher1703: Indeed. How to unite when constantly, one group is trying to lord over others? To unite, all must be treated as equals.

How to unite when constantly, it is all about one religion in all programmes? To unite, let everyone connect to God in their own personal space and capacity without interference or coercion by the state.

How to unite when we are constantly segregated by treating others as dirty, where we cannot even sit down and eat together? Eating is the greatest activity to bring people together, in conflict resolution and in celebration.

How to unite when some are constantly boycotting others? Cultural exchanges and understanding break down misunderstandings.

To really unite, leave the kids alone. Let them grow up together, learn together, and play together without any segregation by race and religion. This generation is lost, maybe we can still save the next.

However, we have seen for 60-plus years how the true narrative of the politicians is to divide and conquer rather than unite and win.

I so wish the day will come when we are back to the days when we were growing up when everyone was friends with everyone.

How I miss the peaceful, gentle, polite, generous, loving Malay people, customs, and culture. The Arab trend introduced in the eighties had created so much disunity and confusion. The shift in Malay identity has disunited old friends and families.

Koel: There is no need to spend millions on ill-advised programmes designed to just make you look good. Liaise with established experts who have done such work and keep the public informed of your plans.

Implement programmes to educate politicians and civil servants to understand issues of diversity and socially appropriate behaviour. Much of the problem also lies in schools and the ongoing segregation in education.

How to address this? Start with diversity training in schools - train everyone from the principals onwards. Initiate the same in district and state education offices. Stop wasting money on meaningless fun fares.

Initiate programmes that can be sustained. Above all, avoid and prevent any kind of use of religion in all this. Completely. All that praying has done virtually nothing for unity in the country.

Clever Voter: It's bad enough not to realise the vision of our first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman but to go down the route of a failed nation is something else. No one disagrees that the good development model of a nation depends on the quality of education and governance.

Both can be faulted; the nation has been a loser big time. Not only billions were stolen, in the name of race and religion. Messing around education is a crime. From black shoes to religious values where are we when it comes to language, arithmetic, and creative thinking?

If the nation is threatened by rainbow colours, we do not deserve to be called a developed nation. Meanwhile, getting everyone together over food is not a bad thing. This is the only least interfered with by self-serving politicians.

Maya: Columnist Mariam Mokhtar’s last line "...once we liberate our minds”, is pretty clear.

This is not easy or may not be even possible anymore. The indoctrination once started at a very young age, becomes very much hardcore.

What more with the rise of social media, hate speech and political extremism? Not a day passes without it. I do not think there is any leader who can help turn things around.

Trust can only be built after a long period of acceptance, that period and that trust has taken a severe construct of mistrust now.

Liberation of one's mind in the said environment is very unlikely, as it is very much individual, as the system has failed us all.

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