The ethnic relations course that stirred controversy over its 'racist' textbook has been given a new angle aimed at promoting a deeper understanding of Malaysian history, the constitution and national policies.

This was revealed by Higher Education Minister Mustapa Mohamed in an interview with the New Straits Times yesterday.

According to him, public universities is set to implement the new "forward-looking and would highlight the positive aspects of multiracial Malaysia" course guideline in December.

The contentious book on ethnic relations penned by Universiti Putra Malaysia academics had drawn flak for, among others, blaming opposition party DAP for the May 13, 1969 racial riots and the anti-social attitude of Indian youths as a contributing factor for the 2001 Kg Medan incident.

It had also labelled Chinese lobby group Suqiu's call for a non-discriminative affirmative action policy as being 'extremist'.

Mustapa noted that the module will touch on the rationale for Article 152 on national language, Article 153 on the position of bumiputeras, Article 3 on religion, the constitution and the background for the implementation of national economic policies.

It is aimed at reminding the younger generation of the major provisions of the constitution where founding fathers such as Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun VT Sambanthan had given their inputs in the spirit of goodwill and compromise.

Although the course had come under fire recently for stirring racial sentiments, resulting in the course module being withdrawn, Mustapa said he felt that something must be done to address the racial divide in public universities.

However, he believes instant results to get students of different ethnic groups to mix freely in universities cannot be achieved through the course introduction alone.

"This is a problem that has been around for many years and we would need a few years before we can see any results from the course," he said.

More forward looking

Mustapa said the new course guideline which would place more emphasis on unity and tolerance would be introduced at all public universities.

"It would be more forward looking than the earlier draft as we want to highlight the positive aspects and on cultural diversity."

"We have removed the sensitive aspects and paragraphs which were considered objectionable by some parties." he added.

Mustapa also said that the new module aims to reduce the segregation of the races in universities and noted that racial divide is evident in the university cafeterias, lecture halls and sports fields

"So the challenge is not the module as such, but how far we can change the mindset and attitudes of our undergraduates," he said.

However, he expressed disappointment that community outreach programmes in universities were often monopolised by Malays and hoped the effect could be reversed with participation from other races.