Economist Alan Greenspan who has worked with Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr, Bill Clinton and George Bush Jr in his long span in public service, singles out Clinton and Nixon as two of the most intelligent presidents.

When Clinton took over the presidency in 1992, the US economy was in a fairly bad shape. He managed to turn it around and presided over the longest period of continuous growth in US history.

I was fortunate to get a seat to listen to his lecture recently.

The central theme of his lecture was that the world is now more inter-dependent than any other period in history. People have to live with one another, and ‘divorce’ is not an option. Success can no longer be measured by winners and losers.

He mentioned that scientists involved in genome mapping are debating whether the genetic makeup in human is 99.5 percent or 99.9 percent similar. To him, the distinctive features that differentiate individuals are less than one tenth of a percentage point of our genetic makeup. So in essence, humans are all alike.

He quoted various religious texts that stress that we should discard our differences and instead care for the poor and downtrodden.

With half the world’s population living under US$2 a day, the world will not be sustainable if help is not extended to this group of people. The world will not be sustainable if nothing is done to help the millions of HIV sufferers.

Clinton was very touched by two Muslim ladies who came up to greet him while he was visiting our country. He said, and I quote, "If only everyone could look another person in their eye and welcome them to their common space, what a different world we would have".

I hope every one of us can learn something from his message, which is so full of wisdom.

Are we able to do that, Malaysians? Can we look into the eyes of one another and welcome them into our common space, and stress more on what we have in common rather than our differences?

If we can welcome each other into our common space, then it would not matter anymore that we have differences in skin color, cultural upbringing, educational background and least of all, the kind of exercise we favour.

As human beings, we must always try to be liberal minded and ‘colour-blind’. Human beings are basically the same except for small differences because of the prolonged exposure of our ancestors in their respective habitats.

California, a state formerly dominated by white people, is now so cosmopolitan that there is no more majority race there.

United States, in decades to come, will be a country without a majority race. If the whites can accept this diversity, why are we Malaysians still arguing about race and ‘supremacy’?

Why are our politicians still stressing on our differences instead of asking people to welcome each other into their common space?

I ask all Malaysians to ponder over what Clinton said. The world is not going to be sustainable if we still treat each with such suspicion.

I ask those in the realm of power, or those aspiring to be, to also heed Clinton’s call. If only these political heavyweights can put into practise these words.