The article calls for greater efforts to reduce racial and religious polarization among university students in Malaysia. It suggests that sharing hostel rooms among students of different ethnicities and organizing community service projects together could help overcome barriers. The writer believes understanding different cultures and religions will help students become better Malaysian citizens. Efforts should start in primary and secondary schools to inculcate unity and respect at a young age before ideological divides emerge.

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“Be Prepared to Reduce Sense of Ethnicity”
By: Lee Lam Thye
(Review by: Muhammad Abbas Bin Abdul Razak)
This article calls for greater efforts to tackle racial and religious polarization
among students at university level. The writer explains that polarization in the
university campuses has existed for some time already and the issue has not been
adequately addressed to bring a positive change. He feels that students at the
tertiary level should be given the awareness that there is a need to overcome the
religious and racial barriers. This is very important as they will be the future
leaders of this country. As leaders in the making they should be properly nurtured
and molded to be responsible in building Malaysia as a strong and united nation.
The writer also calls for the inculcation of religious tolerance, mutual respect and
understanding among university students. According to him, one positive way
through which the racial polarization can be avoided is through sharing hostel
rooms among students of different ethnicity. Besides that, other ways of
overcoming the problem is by organizing projects involving undergraduate
students in social and community services. Engaging students of different race and
religion in such projects will induce them to answer to the call and importance of
volunteerism which is an essential element in bringing up a caring and loving
society. He believes that, by understanding and knowing one another’s religion,
culture and way of life will lead the youth of this country to be better citizens who
are truly Malaysians in their outlook.
The writer emphasized that efforts to overcome racial polarization should start
from primary and secondary schools and later followed by colleges. In order to live
up to the expectation that has been outlined in the first challenge of the Vision
2020 which calls for greater cooperation among its people, to live united, to live in
peace and harmony and the willingness to share and care for one another as one
“Bangsa Malaysia” (Malaysian) can only materialize when the issues of
polarization has been tackled adequately. Finally, the writer called all Malaysians
to address themselves as Malaysians no matter to what religion or race they
belonged to and not to be too fanatical about their ethnicity.
The article by Lee Lam Thye is a well-articulated one inviting Malaysians of all
walks of life to ponder and contemplate on the issue of racial polarization in the
country. I agree to the many things highlighted by the writer. In my opinion, he
was certainly right that unity and respect among the various ethnic groups living in

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Malaysia should first be inculcated through education at the primary and secondary
levels before proceeding on to the college and tertiary levels. Unity and better
understanding as a nation with a common destiny geared towards self-
improvement and national development can be easily inculcated and transferred
into the minds and hearts of the students at lower level of schooling. The hearts
and minds of students at this level are still pure and unadulterated without any
racial prejudices. In my view, Lee’s idea on national integration among students of
different ethnic background is still not quite attainable if the students at the primary
level attend different types of schools such as national, international, Chinese,
Tamil, and religious schools. These schools can somehow create a reef that can
hinder national integration by giving greater affiliation to their own racial or
religious groups. As a way out of this problem, many scholars believe that national
integration can be effectively achieved if students of different race and religious
groups attend the same type of schools (national schools). The mixing of students
in the national schools by giving preference to Bahasa Malaysia as the language of
unity can foster greater understanding among the different race groups. Besides
this, the free mingling of students can nurture a common identity as “Bangsa
Malaysia ” in the hearts of the students. The national schools assure parents of the
different ethnic groups that their children do not lose their mother tongue and
culture by introducing the learning of languages such as Chinese, Tamil, Arabic,
etc. in the afternoon by introducing one session schools. The government on its
part should maintain its philosophy of “unity within diversity” among its citizens at
all levels.
Judging from the Islamic viewpoint, every ethnic group has the right to love its
language and ethnicity but the people should not go overboard of being fanatical or
be over zealous on the issue. In spite of the existence of little differences, Malaysia
is still the classic example for many other nations to follow as a multi-religious,
multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. People of different ethnic
background in Malaysia, work, eat, and interact freely without feeling hatred
towards one another. The “open house” held during the various racial and religious
festivals to foster national unity among the people of Malaysia is truly unique that
such concept is not available even in the most developed nations in the
world. However what has been brought to our attention by Lee should be taken as
a reminder to maintain and enhance the national unity and to minimize religious
and racial polarization.