Developing a united Malaysian nation

Fifty years of independence, thirteen kings, five prime ministers, three economic recessions and still Malaysia is one strong nation. The success of Malaysia in establishing a nation is commendable due to the multiracial composition of its society. Different races have different languages cultures, traditions and values. The word “different” itself is by far the biggest challenge facing the country which promotes unity in diversity in maintaining stability and harmony. Many have argued, notably *Shamsul Amri Baharuddin that Malaysia is a state in stable tension. There is superficial stability and harmony with warmness demonstrated only on the surface, but deep down turbulence is waiting to be unleashed in a repeat of May 13^TH racial backlash of 1969. Therefore, there are three major ways in developing a united Malaysian nation in the long run which are the implementation of Malaysianisation policy, revamping of the national education system and fine tuning of the national economy.

Malaysianisation is the fundamental concept which provides a strong foundation in developing a united Malaysian nation. The target group for the policy must be divided into three. The first is the current workforce,secondly school students-the future workforce and the main target group which will be dealt by education and lastly the elders above sixty years old. One nation, one identity was initiated by *Otto Van Bismarck when he united Germany single-handedly in 1871 under the leadership of Prussia. Malaysianisation adopting from Bismarck’s Prussinisation simply means creating purely Malaysian hearts and minds with a great sense of belonging to the country. The primary step is accepting that there are racial problems in Malaysia which are aimed at the current workforce and the elders. The government must allow three months of public display of grievances in newspapers and forums regarding the issue. Ideas must be gathered and solution sought at the end of the period and no one is allowed to speak ill of racial interactions anymore from that point onwards. The next step is to start addressing the first challenge of Vision 2020 which is establishing a united Malaysian nation with a sense of common and shared destiny, not just as a state of mind. The sense needs to be cultivated in every heart and mind of Malaysians. The concept of Malaysian first, race second should be enlivened in every facet of the society. As long as the concept is rejected, the dream of developing a truly united Malaysia will never materialize. Furthermore, *politicians especially from the ruling coalition should stop playing the racial cards to gain support from the public. Political maturity needs to exist and political parties should move into a multiracial build and not a coalition like the Barisan Nasional (BN) - the perfect example of peaceful co-existence of races far from unity! Malaysianisation must be a continuous and collective policy, implemented on everyone without exception. The main mistake of yesteryears was that the BN government targeted only those within the public service; instead they must include the private sector. For instance, all the companies including multinationals must sing the national anthem and raise the flag daily. *The Rukunegara must also be appreciated and recited regularly as a reminder to everyone that the five principles ensure stability and harmony within the country. It must act as the guidance to all Malaysians due to its neutral nature; unlike the Constitution which some claimed to be discriminatory. The Malaysianisation policy must also be bold in the use of languages. The national language must be maintained as Bahasa Melayu followed by English. Bilingualism must be promoted widely, and the use of other languages must not be encouraged. Fifty years have been allowed for the other languages to be used and the opportunity cost is huge- the widening of racial segregation. Moreover, the government must allow reading materials to be printed only in the two languages including newspapers. This is in support of *Ye Lin-Sheng’s idea in The Chinese Dilemma, “as long as we have Chinese reading Chinese newspapers and the Indians reading their Tamil dailies, we will get nowhere in uniting Malaysia because every race will be confined to their way of thinking only”. Malaysianisation must be an active and incessant policy aimed at creating truly Malaysian hearts and minds whereby the people love the country beyond words.

The second approach is revamping the national education system. Education is the easiest way to reach the masses especially the young minds, the largest target group which has the biggest potential of success. The primary step is to abolish all other form of streams and support only the national schools and national secondary schools similar to the vision school idea. National Laureate Dr. Syed Othman Syed Omar even suggested that all the streams should be integrated nationwide from primary schools to universities. The medium of communication will only be Bahasa Melayu and English, while students need to choose a compulsory third language which is either Mandarin or Tamil. If implemented successfully in a decade, young Malaysians will be multilingual with at least sound knowledge in three languages. This will not just enhance interracial understanding but boost the value of every human capital produced by Malaysia and indirectly increases the competitiveness of our workforce globally. However, the main problem according to *Dr. Wee Ka Siong is the inability of the school administrators to encourage healthy racial interaction among students. Thus, government intervention at its maximum must take place. Firstly, the appointment of head teachers must be solely based on merits. The head teachers then should study their schools racial interaction patterns and come out with an immediate solution. Action must be taken for instance in making sure that Malay and Chinese students sit together. Furthermore, other languages apart from the two must be totally disallowed besides the particular lesson hours. *Tan Sri Murad Mohammed Noor of the Murad Report said in an interview recently, “As a teacher who imparts knowledge, teach them how to contribute towards the nation and how to respect the multi racial aspect of our country.” Teachers must promote the idea that a united Malaysian nation benefits everyone if it is materialized. Moreover, the cabinet must only concentrate on making policies while the implementation must exclusively be executed by the Education Ministry and state-level departments. In addition, the education syllabus needs to be revised with phrases such as “racial toleration” deleted and replaced by accurate phrases such as racial integration with constant use of Malaysian nation instead of naming the races. If the Malaysianisation policy in education is executed brilliantly, given the time which is in abundance, a united Malaysian nation will be developed in less than two decades.

Finally, the money matters. The Malaysian economy needs a major shift if it is to allow the development of a united Malaysian nation. Hence, the number eight challenge of Vision 2020 which involves securing an economically just society must be tackled reasonably. This means a fair and equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth as well as full partnership in economic progress. An economically just society cannot emerge as long as there is a perceptible identification of economic backwardness in race. *Ungku Aziz, a renowned Malaysian academia, argues that positive discrimination must be allowed to set up a level playing field in the initial stages as outlined by the New Economic Policy (NEP) of 1970. The main problem is, with positive discrimination there is no initiative for individual improvement. Thus, the government should set a bold target, for instance having an agreed period of fifty years only for positive discrimination. All the races should be equally discriminated, for example quota of non-Bumiputera civil servants need to be increased in return for a bigger share to the bumiputera in the trade of quarry. Everyone has to sacrifice and move out of their comfort zones in creating a truly dynamic and just economy. *Once the period ends, competition needs to be encouraged as it is the key to economic prosperity. Furthermore, decentralization of the economy must take place as soon as possible and the Malaysian Incorporated policy must be championed yet again. Recently the government has reversed the policy in favour of economic power accumulation by the Government Link Companies (GLC). This is an unhealthy trend because in the wake of globalization, economic freedom, a concept advocated by *Amartya Sen must be granted to the nation. Private sectors need to spearhead the economic advancement of the nation, not the government through the GLC. This will minimize corruption and red-tape. Furthermore, the government must aid the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) to the maximum because we need to create a larger middle class, an effort which has been keenly blocked by Abdullah and his son-in law, KJ. Just take a look at Malay settlements around KL. They are worse off than when they started some 30 years ago. All thanks to Norza, the I can do it all UMNO Youth exco member. Everyone knows, the larger middle income group grows the better. It is because the higher and lower income earners will be suppressed, hence minimizing the chances of racial dissatisfaction created by large income gaps. Moreover, the level of income for Malaysians needs to be increased. This is to put an end to the brain drain problem where our competent workforce leaves the country in pursuit of greater returns in other economies. If the workforce is maintained and fully utilized, a dynamic open economy will be established which will then guarantee a larger flow of foreign direct investment. As a result a larger and richer economic pie will be created, hence sufficient to satisfy every single Malaysian and in the long run fasten the healthy development of a united Malaysian nation.

In a nutshell, the development of a united Malaysian nation is promising only if all parties are willing to lose and win some. The late *John Kenneth Galbraith, an economist was very much against the idea of a win-win situation as he believes it could never exist due to the existence of opportunity cost. Therefore, Malaysians need to be ready to make sacrifices to realize the dreams of being a united nation. If fifty years back the British were the enemies, today, we, ourselves are the enemies of the state. Our inaction will be the cause of a slow but sure destruction. *Stiglitz summarizes globalization perfectly as the epitome of Darwin’s survival of the fittest. If Malaysia is superficially united but in reality divided, it will not be fit enough to stand up against the currents of globalization. Therefore the government should consider the launch of the Malaysianisation policy seriously and immediately. We are at the mark where we can either make or break easily. After all, the subject you love most is indubitably the hardest to love.