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Ethnic relation remains one major issue that still baffles the leaders of many countries around the world. Tension between people of different ethnic backgrounds in a country has erupted into conflicts, some leading to mass massacres.

The world has witnessed the ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Bosnia, a term synonymous to massacre of the worst kind, during the aftermath of the dissolution of the former Soviet Union.

What is the root cause of ethnic conflicts and what is the solution? The word, ‘ethnic’ comes from the Greek word, ‘ethnos’ which means a distinctive nation or a people, with their own language, cultural and religious backgrounds, living in a particular environment.

As the adage goes, ‘birds of the same feather flock together,’ it is not unusual for people of the same ethnic background to stay together. This is not unusual, and should not be frowned upon, as even within the same community, there is bound to be polarisation.

In countries like Australia, the ethnic population of immigrants has increased over the past half -century. Today, the Australian citizenship comprises of people from some over 180 countries around the world.

The Vietnamese and Cambodian populations have their own favourite townships there. As one walks the streets of Springvale in Victoria, for example, it is hard to believe that in Australia, nearly every shop in Springvale is now owned by a Vietnamese family.

Like their Greeks and the Italians who have also built their own communities, the Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrations work hard to build themselves, and created not only material wealth for themselves, but also jealousy amongst a minority of the White Australians.

In the 1990s, a Queensland politician, Pauline Hanson rose to fame with her anti-Asian sentiments, by exploiting racial issues and winning herself a parliamentary seat. She was seen as championing the cause of the White Australians.

The other Asian communities, including the Malaysian and Singaporean populations in Melbourne and Sydney, also felt the heat resulting from anti-Asian sentiments that often surface in Australian politics.

According to Professor Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, director of Institute of Malay World and Civilisation at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, the Caucasians in countries like Australia can be magnanimous, but, closer to home, he said ‘we believe in multi-ethnicity in that we recognise the diversity of races and cultures, and each race is treated with respect as an entity of its own’.

This means politicians have to be more careful in not playing up racial politics. Often, the people of two races are still friendly to each other, even though political and racial tensions may erupt. During the May 13, 1969 incident, for example, there were Chinese families who were being given protection by their Malay or Indian friends.

My late father, who worked in Pahang during the May 13 incident, said ethnic relations was normal in Kuantan during the racial riots in the federal capital. The Chinese and the Malay folk in Kuantan were still enjoying their cup of coffee at the ‘mamak’ stall.

Racial politics, which cannot be avoided in a multi-ethnic society, must be reduced. There is a need to respect each other’s ethnicity and a learning to appreciate the diversity of cultures in Malaysia which explains why the Higher Education Ministry has formulated a module recently on ethnic relations which will be taught in tertiary institutions.

Such efforts are noble, especially when it is not usually done in other universities around the world but one cannot help but to ask, can ethnic relations be taught in the classroom or does it take more than just a textbook to improve ethnic relations between the three major communities in Malaysia?

Take ‘Moral Education’, for example, a subject that is taught in schools. How many students pick up their moral values from the classroom?

With ethnic relations, is there too much emphasis given on spelling out the differences in ethnic and social backgrounds, only to teach ‘tolerance’ for each other’s cultural and religious values in the process of building national unity?

At the core of ethnic relations is the fact that we all belong to the human race. An Australian biologist at Monash University Malaysia, Dr Catherine Yule, took offence whenever she had to fill forms, which asked for her race.

‘I often put it as ‘Human race’ because I belong to the human race,’ she said. ‘Is my blood green or white or am I supposed to behave more superiorly than the other races just because I am a Caucasian?’

Being colour-blind is also an advantage when it comes to improving ethnic relations, especially as the world is becoming a global village. In Malaysia, since the 1990s, we have seen many Africans visiting and studying in our local institutions of higher learning. Are we able to relate to them or do we see them as ‘different’?

When studying in Australia, I was among the few Asians who could relate well to the White Australians without any difficulties. I believe it is mainly because at the core of it, I realised that all of us, whether Caucasian or Asian, are all but human beings.

Apart from our cultural values, which dictate the clothes we wear, the food we eat and the way we conduct ourselves, every human being has two eyes, one nose and one mouth. Beneath the coloured skin are the same blood types ie, A, B, AB and O.

This perception has helped me break through ethnic barriers and created bonds with people of different nationalities.

Shouldn’t an attitude like this also be adopted by every Malaysian? Not only at the tertiary level but from as young as four or five years old especially in the new millennium where we are talking about the increasing trend of globalisation now entering into every phase of our lives?

While it is good to teach ethnic relations, it is far better to create opportunities for people of different ethnic backgrounds to mingle with each other in the spirit of friendship where we can learn to appreciate diversity of cultures in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society to defuse any social tensions between races that can be easily exploited by any dirty politician.

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