Our Prime Minister Dato’Seri Najib launches the slogan of Satu Malaysia with the aim of unifying Malaysian. After about 54 years of independence, Malaysia come out with the slogan of Satu Malaysia with the hope, the slogan will help to unite the various races in Malaysia. Satu Malaysia is only a concept that must be accepted and understood by all Malaysians. Do all Malaysian want to become one Malaysia? Or understand what it means by one Malaysia. In my opinion, the concept of one Malaysia means; there will be a time in Malaysia, when everyone in Malaysia is treated equally regardless of their race and religions and when everyone in Malaysia will be having equal opportunity to excel and progress regardless of their race and religions. During that time everyone will have equal opportunities to become successful but the ones who are successful are those who are taking advantage of the opportunities by working hard. With the concept of one Malaysia no particular race is favoured above other races and only the hardworking persons will excel above others. Only songs and slogan will not made the concept of one Malaysia a reality. Only having slogan of one Malaysia is a disaster. It creates havoc and confusion particularly among the Malays. In order to make the concept of one Malaysia a reality, correct actions and planning must be developed by the government. One Malaysia is only a concept and it cannot be implemented immediately by the government. When the government want to implement the concept of one Malaysia immediately, it will cause chaos and anarchy between the various races in Malaysia. Only with correct planning and actions, a time will come when the concept of one Malaysia becomes a reality in Malaysia
In my opinion currently the Malays are not ready to even accept the concept of one Malaysia. In the heart of many Malays, Malaysia is their land and the Chinese and the Indians is the migrant to this land. Similarly in my opinion, in the heart of some Chinese and Indians, China and India is still their motherland. As migrants to this land, the Chinese and the Indians are both hardworking, when compared to the Malays. Malays are leading a life of more complacent, compared with the Chinese and the Indians. Do the Malays ready to compete with the hardworking Chinese and Indians? In my opinion the complacent Malays are not ready to compete with the Chinese and the Indians.Beacuse the Malays are in majority and in a democratic system, the majority rules, so since independence Malays have taken over the task of administering Malaysia. With the political power in the hand of the Malays, the government being Malays is trying to use the power to upgrade the economic standard of the Malays. Malays are favoured by the government and are given by the government many opportunities to excel in various fields particularly in business. Malays are pampered by the government and they love to be pampered by the government and it takes a long time for the Malays to change their mentality. Malays believe that they have come to this lovely nation much earlier than other races and they believe that they deserve a greater portion of the richness of this country than other races. Malays have acquired a complacent lifestyle because they have lived in this country of comfort and plenty many hundreds of years ago .Malays are not used to competitive lifestyle. In order to survive the Chinese who came to Malaysia during the last one hundred years are forced to have a hardworking lifestyle. Chinese who came to Malaysia in the last hundred years have not acquired the complacent lifestyles which have been acquired by the Malays.
As far as I know, since Malaysia gains her independence in the year 1957, Malaysia does not have any plan to integrate her various races that live in Malaysia. It seems the Malaysian government is not interested in racial integration. Malaysian government seems to allow the various races in Malaysia to live in any areas of their choice, built their own vernacular schools and establish their own political parties. Except for the mosques which are built by the government, temples and churches are built privately by each community. Logically in my opinion, Malaysia after gaining her independence should have a plan to integrate the various races in Malaysia. Only after the process of integration of the various races is achieved, the next Malaysian plan will be to unite the various races in Malaysia to become one Malaysia. Only then the concept of one Malaysia will become a reality. Without any plans to integrate the various races in Malaysia we cannot have racial unity in the country and we cannot have the concept of one Malaysia. The government lead by Barisan National had failed to integrate and to unite Malaysians and when racial tension start to surface again as it was in 1969; Barisan government led by Dato Seri Najib quickly comes out with the concept of one Malaysia. One Malaysia is only a concept and singing only the concept will not make Malaysians to become united. Behind the concept of one Malaysia, there must be started with years of hard work to integrate and to unite Malaysians.
With integration Malaysians will start to mingle and mix with each other. When Malaysians start to mingle with each other, they start to become friendly towards each other. When Malaysians start to become friendly towards each other they will start to become more understanding towards each other. With more understanding between the races, they become friendlier with each other and only when they become friendlier with each other they become united towards each other. With only having the concept of satu Malaysia, singing the song of one Malaysia, saluting with each other with the slogan of one Malaysia will not help to integrate or to unite Malaysians. With the concept of one Malaysian, Malaysians are not coming even near to unity but coming closer to racial disunity. When we have the racial riot in 1969, our leaders at that time came to the conclusion that the disunity was the result of economic disparity between the Malays and the Chinese. With the incorrect understanding, the government at that time which was led by Barisan National embarked on the new economic policy aimed in narrowing down the economic disparity between the Chinese, Indians and the Malays. Now, although economic disparity between the Malays, Indians and the Chinese is narrowed down but racial tension remain high. Now we know that racial tension is not caused mainly by economic disparity between the Malays, Indians and the Chinese but the main reason for racial tension in Malaysia is due to the lack of understanding between the Malays, Indians and the Chinese. This misunderstanding is caused by the lack of intermingling and interaction between the Malays, Chinese and the Indians. Our government in the past had failed to adopt policies that enable the various races in Malaysia to interact and mingle among them. With the current political scenario and racial tension that exist in Malaysia, many are in the opinion that racial riots can occur anytime in Malaysia.
How to make the Malays to mingle and integrate with the Chinese and the Indians? Malays are Muslims and the Chinese and the Indians are mostly non-Muslims and Malays as a Muslim is not ready to visit the Chinese and the Indian houses and eat with them the food cook by the non-Muslims but Chinese and Indians can come and visit their Muslims houses and eat their food. Government should not encourage the Malays to celebrate Chinese New Year and Depavalli or Thaipusam with the Chinese and the Indians respectively as they will not be able to visit the Chinese and the Indians houses and eat their non-Halal foods. Instead the government should encourage the Chinese and the Indians to celebrate Muslims Festivals particularly Hari Raya Puasa with the Malays. On the day of Hari Raya Puasa all the Chinese and the Indians should be encouraged by the Government to visit their Muslim Malay houses and celebrate the festival together with the Malays. Malays must to be told to invite not only their Malays friends but also their Chinese and the Indians friends to their houses and to celebrate Hari Raya Puasa together. Government must make the celebration of Hari Raya Puasa to be the national celebration of all the three races in Malaysia. It should be made the national festival holiday for all the races in the country. On Hari Raya Puasa all the three main races will have the opportunity to mingle and interact with each other’s. However Chinese New year should be a holiday only for the Chinese and Thaipusam and Depavalli, should be a holiday only for the Indians. Malaysia should have a national festival day for all the three races in Malaysia. In my opinion Hari Raya Puasa is the best festival day for all the races in Malaysia.
Allah has made the Malays to become Muslims. As a Muslim, the Malays have the responsblity of inviting the Chinese and the Indians who are not Muslim to become Muslims. Allah has ordered the Muslims (Malays) to invites others to Good and prohibits others from evils. The greatest evil committed by men is many men do not want to accept Allah as the only God and Muhammad saw as the Prophet of Allah. Allah has ordered the Muslims (Malays) to prohibit these evils by inviting non-Muslims to Good. Inviting the non-Muslims to Good means to invite them to accept and to recite the Great Kalimah, I bear witness that there is no God except Allah and I bear witness Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. The greatest evil committed by those who have recited the Great Kalimah is many of them have forgotten the meaning of the Great Kalimah and many of them have forgotten to convey the Great Kalimah to the non-Muslims and many of them have forgotten to perform obligatory five times daily prayers.
And to invite the Muslims to Good means to remind Muslims about the meaning of the Great Kalimah and to invite those Muslims (Malays) who are not doing the work of inviting non-Muslims to become Muslims to start doing the work and to those Muslims who are not observing the obligatory five times daily prayers to start performing five times daily prayers. In order to enable the Malays who are Muslims to do the work of inviting to Good and prohibiting the evils, Allah has ordered the Muslims (Malays) to show good behaviours to their non-Muslims counterpart, the Chinese and the Indians. When the Malays meet their non-Muslims neighbours and friends such as the Indians and the Chinese they must be saluting towards each other’s. Malays being Muslims must be encouraged by the government to visit their non-Muslims neighbour’s houses and to give them presents such as food or fruits and to invite them to become Muslims by inviting them to recite the Great Kalimah. Malays must be told to regard the Chinese and the Indians who are not Muslims as also belonging to the members of a great family of Allah. Government must tell the Malays to regard the Chinese and the Indians as one Family and not to regard them as enemies but instead to regard them as members of one family and to love them.
Daily the Malays who are Muslims must be encouraged by the government to spend about 45 minutes to visit the houses of their Muslims and non-Muslims neighbours in their locality. When they meet Muslims they must remind them about the meaning of the Great Kalimah and to invite them to obey the orders of Allah. The first order of Allah that they should invite a Muslims is the order which all the Muslims in the whole world have forgotten, the order to go and visit the non-Muslims and to invite them to recite the Great Kalimah. The second order of Allah which a Muslims should do is to perform five times daily prayers. When the Malays meet the non-Muslims, they must invite them to become Muslims by asking them to recite the Great Kalimah. When such activities are encouraged by the government, we will find the process of intermingling and interaction between the various the Malays and the various races in Malaysia will definitely take place. Whether the Chinese or the Indians become Muslims or not is not the main intention of visiting the Chinese and the Indians. The main intention of visiting the Chinese and the Indians is to obey the orders of Allah of inviting them to recite the Great Kalimah and to please Allah. When the Malays, Indians and the Chinese start to know each other, then only they will start to respect, to love and to be united with each other.
In order to encourage intermingling and interaction between all the races in Malaysia, the government must not allow any kampong, villages, township, residential and business areas to be dominated entirely by one particular racial group. All new housing schemes and business shop-lots must be designed and the old ones to be redesigned in order to include all the three races together. The ratio of the Malays; Chinese and Indians should be preferably the ratio of 6; 3; 1 .There should not be any residential or business areas in Malaysia to be dominated by only one particular race. Government must have the policy that all shop lots and residential houses must be given to all the races with the ratio stated above. The Malays being the majority race in the country should occupy the greater proportion of the houses or shops in any locality in Malaysia. We have to make every residential and business area to be truly Malaysians. All building contractors must comply with the government regulation, before they are allowed to build any houses or shop lots in any areas of the country
Our children, Malays, Chinese and Indians should only go to one National School System and all other private school must also follow the same education system. Medium of instruction in the National and private schools must only be Bahasa Malaysia, with English, Chinese and Tamils are thought as secondary languages. All our students must have credits in Bahasa Malaysia and English and at least pass in Chinese and Tamil languages. Science and mathematics are thought in Bahasa Malaysia with the scientific terms maintain in the original language. Except for international schools, all the present Chinese, Tamil and other schools must be converted to using Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction. The current Chinese and Tamil schools are to increase the intake of other races particular the Malays into the schools. All schools in the country will have to follow the same education system. Madrasah which teaches Quran or Islamic study or any other schools of other religion must also follow the same education system. Quran or Islamic courses and the study of other religions must be made as an additional optional course offered by the schools. All schools in Malaysia must teach all the compulsory basic courses and compulsory optional courses. Compulsory basic courses include Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese, Tamil, Mathematics, Science, History and Geography. Optional subjects include Islamic study and it is compulsory only for Muslim students, Christianity is compulsory only to Christian’s students and so forth.
All schools must have the intake of the Malays; Chinese and the Indians with the ratio of approximately 6:3:1. All Malaysians children until the age of seventeen are compulsory to study. It became and offence for parents not to send their children to school. With the same education system, all Malaysians of various races would be able to mingle and to interact with each other’s. There are five days of schooling and students are compulsory to talk to each other’s Bahasa Malaysia for two days in a week, to speak one day for English, to speak one day for Chinese and another day for Tamil. With the same system of education, Malaysians will be able to know each other’s and to be able to communicate withs each other’s and with this Malaysians will have greater understanding between each other’s. With more understanding Malaysians will have less friction between each other’s and more chances of national integration and unity.
No one is allowed to open a school without having prior permission of the government and all entrance into a school is decided by the government. All the present Government Boarding Schools that cater only the Muslims Malays must be changed to cater all the races with the Malays as the majority race that occupy the greater proportion of the students. Government Boarding school must give preference to the unfortunate and the weak ones and it should be the mixture of the good and the weak students among the three races. Our current system of separating the weak and the good students in separate classes must be abolished. Instead we should have in each class the good mingle with the weak students with the proportion of the good more than the weaker students. Our school syllabus must be designed base on the outcomes that our country wants to achieve. Our school assessment system must be an outcome base system and it should not be based entirely on final examination results. Assessment must be continuous and it should also include on manual skills, communication skill, innovative inclination and behaviours which include religious and social.
Prof Dr Nasoha Saabin
January 2012
Integrative Holistic Wellness Centre