A Catholic bishop says a good way to fight racism is to inoculate children against it by allowing the creative use of their sense of wonder, a quality adults have lost.

bishop paul tan Catholic Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing using the recent commemoration of World Interfaith Harmony Week as basis, called for the use of this imagination in inoculating the young against racism.

"We have heard of the most wonderful gift of an innocent child-like sense of wonder, meaning a sense that evokes wonder when the world seems fresh, without the jaded and complicated visions of adulthood," said the titular head of the Melaka-Johor Diocese, who is also president of the Catholic Bishops Conference.

"This is the wonder we should use to advantage to get the children of our country to avoid the racist stereotypes that mar and warp the adult world," he said, in comments made to Malaysiakini about how best to leverage on commemorations such as World Interfaith Harmony Week.

Bishop Paul Tan held that the beginning of morality is that the one God created every human being to live in community.

"It's the sense that other people are as important as ourselves, that we are all equally human," he said.

"If we teach our children that the idea of sympathy, the feeling or sentiment, that it is morally good, then it's a short step towards bringing them to imagine what it's like to be somebody else," he explained.

"The power of nonjudgmental understanding of others is a great assist towards harmony among human beings. Children can be taught this early by evoking their sense of wonder," said Bishop Paul Tan.  

Withdraw ‘Interlok’

The Catholic prelate is increasingly forthcoming on issues of national concern.

He feels that the public square – the term used to describe the arena where civil society meets in debate over issues of national import – should not be left to politicians, NGOs and public intellectuals only.

A couple of weeks ago, Bishop Paul Tan called on the government to resort to the "wisdom of sensitivity" on the matter of the controversial literary text, ‘Interlok.'

He said that wisdom would impel the government to withdraw the text as unsuitable for the edification of our youth, indeed for the building of 1Malaysia.