Malaysia's nation building project could take a leaf from the direction taken by the Asean region by building "one community, one vision and one identity". In fact, a clear national identity which is embraced by all communities in the country is the prerequisite for national unity to become a reality.
Forging a national identity within the context of a multicultural society is not an enviable task. It takes a careful balancing act of integrating unique sub-national cultures with a set of shared national culture. The former is not an antithesis of the latter.
National culture can be referred to the nation's economic, social, legal, governance and political systems. Meanwhile, sub-national culture is the 'way-of-life' or social norms of a particular community. Even then, it is useful to note that the sub-national culture is diverse and not homogenous even within the respective community. Hence, conformity is often not by choice but due to peer pressure.
In this regard, I would like to argue that the process of nation building and the effort to build a consensus on national unity cannot be decreed or regulated through policy intervention alone. It must be carefully nurtured and the condition of equal political, economic and social rights must exist to ensure that national unity is founded on a broad acceptance of a national identity and sense of belonging. Although, the state cannot foster national unity through its sponsored programmes alone, it can help to create the right policy environment to make the nurturing process more conducive.
On the socio-economic environment, the government can adopt less divisive policies by focusing on class differences instead of clear ethnic divisions. Hence, it is timely that the government recognises that the identification of an ethnic group to an economic activity is no longer visible. Efforts to eradicate poverty, empower the poor, redistribute wealth et cetera should focus instead on class differences, between the haves and have-nots and not between the bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras dichotomy alone.
We need to transit from a system that celebrates a few winners amidst large numbers of losers into a system which guarantees success for all through pragmatism, sheer hard work, innovation, persistency and high moral standards. A true sense of belonging and loyalty to the nation can only be fostered through fair and responsible governance. We need to create a socio-economic environment where all individuals are encouraged to thrive and perform at their optimal best.
Moving forward, we need to reassess our education system to find out if it is playing a positive role in our nation building process. We should envision and implement a system where students are given access to the best educators, most updated curriculum and most recent and relevant knowledge capital where they can utilise them to become useful and productive citizens of the country. The education system should not breed divisions or create dichotomies either ethnicity, gender, religion or any other discriminatory aspects. Instead, it should teach students about the richness of our diversity and the benefits of living and cooperating as one community.
Politicians must aware that employing a political solution to address an education problem may not the best solution. On the contrary, in a school is where students are exposed to various elements of the nation and the society the live in. These are the information they use to form their own perspective or world-view. If education issues are often resolved through politicians' racial lenses, the students' perspective of their society and nation will inevitably take the same narrow communal perspective embraced by the politicians.
Can national unity work in a multicultural and multiethnic setting? Yes, if politicians have enough political will to change their own communal biasness and adopt a non-racial approach in order to set a good example for other members of the society to move in that direction.
