COMMENT Perhaps another aspect of the issue that was almost left out completely from the comment pieces by Dr Lim Teck Ghee and S Thayaparan is the state interference in deciding the syllabus for institutions of higher learning.

I personally feel that the state must be given the instrument to compel certain values to be taught in institutions of higher learning. If the government is responsible for the well-being of society, it must be allowed to use education (including setting the syllabus) to shape the society, especially if education has proven to be an effective tool in re-engineering society.

If we are honest about a Malaysia that is free from race bias, we have to be concerned with the level of polarisation in our society.

We are divided by economic classes and different clusters of people have less interaction with people of other clusters (the clusters maybe economic or racial in nature, or both). Even if the polarisation is not considered chronic, we should do our best to remove any form of polarisation because it leads to stereotyping in society...