Racial integration in Malaysia

My 2-cent thoughts on the above topic.

Diversity, as it sounds, means "richness" just like the bio-D in our flora and fauna. But, our plural mix of ethnics, has not earned its richness, in fact appears as an incurable boil every now and then, depending on the health of our economy, and most important of all, the twists of the political game played by our political masters.

Has any one asked oneself, how come after half century of independence, none of us Malaysians are able to speak the languages of our ethnic counterparts (with the exception of Malay language), when we could have easily mastered them at a very little cost.

It's hard to believe that after staying together in one house for 50 years, the Chinese and Hindi/Tamil languages sound strange to the Malay ears.The tonation of these languages may sound familiar, but most Malays don't have a clue what they meant.This is a sad lost, even using the disguise of nasionalism.

Language is a window into the heart of the culture and civilisation of an ethnic.These languages (Chinese and Hindi/Tamil) are as old as their history much before the rennaisance or modern industrialisation. They are the institutional memories of each culture embedded in the vocabularies and semantics.Yet, we deny our kids of these rich languages when they are there at our door every day.

The role of languages in breaking down prejudice cannot be underrated.Why certain behavioual pattern is prevalent in an ethnic group can be explained if we understood their culture.Biases, misunderstanding and most of all ignorance can be minimised while acceptance and appreciation promotes integration naturally.This can be done by introducing these languages at school with ease and minimal cost as children are fast learners. Inculcating inter-racial understanding at the young age is the best investment towards racial integration in Malaysia.

Diversity in ethnicities/culture and languages is our unique asset to spread our wings to the east and west of the globe. Each of the languages has its own market. In total, they command a sizeable market - worth more than the English-speaking market at least in terms of the number of the population. But most of all, it opens our hearts and minds to our neigbours with minimal prejudice. Open up those windows.