The Lonely Bridge BuilderThis is an abstract from the article in the NST today.
“My conclusion is that when you’re a true Malaysian, you’re a very lonely person”
- Khoo Kay Kim
Datuk Khoo Kay Kim, one of the architects of the Rukun Negara after the riots of May 13, 1969, is clearly unhappy with the fabric of racial unity today. The Professor Emeritus at Universiti Malaya's History Department has just cause to sound depressed after nearly a lifetime of championing racial unity. He points to lacklustre achievements in racial unity as proof that communal ties are at their most delicate in nearly four decades.
The root of the problem, as he sees it, lies in:
* a national school system that has become more communal despite its supposed non-ethnic and non-religious status;
* the participation of political parties in national unity committees; and,
* Malaysians ignoring the fifth tenet of Rukun Negara: good behaviour and morality.
He blames the education system which has become more communal despite its supposed non-ethnic and non-religious status for the growing division between the races.
Khoo, 69, says politicians planned their strategies according to the actual situation and hence fed on the problem.
"They feel that if they strengthen the position of the Malays, the Malays will think as one, and then they will always get votes from the Malays," he said.
This takes him to the second reason behind the problem: politicians who worsen the situation through their participation in national unity panels.
"Each political representative always feels he must fight for his own party. Since we have mostly ethnic parties, they are fighting for their own ethnic groups. It is very difficult to achieve any kind of consensus. For ethnic champions to survive, society must always be in a state of flux. "If you don't do anything positive, things will get worse and worse. You have to address the problem."
Khoo understands that for a politician to get mass support, he must be seen as a champion of his ethnic group. However, Khoo, who yearns for a day when Malaysians will share a single identity, warns that racial unity would continue to elude the nation if politicians persisted in harping on racial lines.
"I always see myself as a bridge builder rather than a champion of any ethnic group."
"What we need today are more bridge builders, not ethnic champions."
How does he feel that almost 37 years after he helped formulate the Rukun Negara and other basic principles of national unity, Malaysians are still polarised?
"What we have tried to do, unfortunately, never got through to the people. We were fighting against obstacles which were more potent. "We called for national unity, understanding and tolerance, but at the ground level, we did not promote this idea. We didn't teach the children in such a way that they can begin to know one another's culture."
Is he satisfied with what he has achieved? "I always feel that I have achieved very little. My conclusion is that when you're a true Malaysian, you're a very lonely person. "It is because we're all divided by cliques. And when you're not with one, you're left out."
“My conclusion is that when you’re a true Malaysian, you’re a very lonely person”
- Khoo Kay Kim
Datuk Khoo Kay Kim, one of the architects of the Rukun Negara after the riots of May 13, 1969, is clearly unhappy with the fabric of racial unity today. The Professor Emeritus at Universiti Malaya's History Department has just cause to sound depressed after nearly a lifetime of championing racial unity. He points to lacklustre achievements in racial unity as proof that communal ties are at their most delicate in nearly four decades.
The root of the problem, as he sees it, lies in:
* a national school system that has become more communal despite its supposed non-ethnic and non-religious status;
* the participation of political parties in national unity committees; and,
* Malaysians ignoring the fifth tenet of Rukun Negara: good behaviour and morality.
He blames the education system which has become more communal despite its supposed non-ethnic and non-religious status for the growing division between the races.
Khoo, 69, says politicians planned their strategies according to the actual situation and hence fed on the problem.
"They feel that if they strengthen the position of the Malays, the Malays will think as one, and then they will always get votes from the Malays," he said.
This takes him to the second reason behind the problem: politicians who worsen the situation through their participation in national unity panels.
"Each political representative always feels he must fight for his own party. Since we have mostly ethnic parties, they are fighting for their own ethnic groups. It is very difficult to achieve any kind of consensus. For ethnic champions to survive, society must always be in a state of flux. "If you don't do anything positive, things will get worse and worse. You have to address the problem."
Khoo understands that for a politician to get mass support, he must be seen as a champion of his ethnic group. However, Khoo, who yearns for a day when Malaysians will share a single identity, warns that racial unity would continue to elude the nation if politicians persisted in harping on racial lines.
"I always see myself as a bridge builder rather than a champion of any ethnic group."
"What we need today are more bridge builders, not ethnic champions."
How does he feel that almost 37 years after he helped formulate the Rukun Negara and other basic principles of national unity, Malaysians are still polarised?
"What we have tried to do, unfortunately, never got through to the people. We were fighting against obstacles which were more potent. "We called for national unity, understanding and tolerance, but at the ground level, we did not promote this idea. We didn't teach the children in such a way that they can begin to know one another's culture."
Is he satisfied with what he has achieved? "I always feel that I have achieved very little. My conclusion is that when you're a true Malaysian, you're a very lonely person. "It is because we're all divided by cliques. And when you're not with one, you're left out."
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