How to Promote Unity

A headline of national unity among races in Malaysia always appeared in a local newspapers and magazines nowadays. According to the definition ,national unity is a condition in which all citizens from the various ethnic groups live in a peace as one united nationality giving full of commitment to national identity based upon the federal constitutions and Rukun Negara. Malaysia has a diverse community consisting of three major ethnic groups –Malay, Chinese, Indian –plus several other indigenous tribes. This ethnic and cultural diversities results to a wide variety of language spoken and religion practiced in Malaysia. There are many ways to strengthen national unity among this different ethnic groups such as through campaign, education and social activity.

The Malaysian government can promote national unity through campaigns like Open house,1 Malaysia concept and advertisement. Open house usually held during major festivals in the country. This program has served to promote unity among Malaysians when they visit each other in their home. The government can also organise national-level open houses for the major festivals. In addition,1 Malaysia concept is the path that can lead to political stability, economic growth and social enhancement for all Malaysians and the country. The purpose of this concept is to complement the existing approach to strengthen national unity. The core elements of unity are the attitude of acceptance among races and peoples and have the sense of belonging together. Advertisement through radio, television and newspapers are one of the best way in promoting unity. Most of people can be affected virtually to be united among races because of slogans about unity that they heard and saw in radio and television. Newspapers that read by all the ethnics must publish unity material that helping citizens understand the important and advantages when they united. Thus,the government can promote national unity through campaign like open house, 1Malaysia Concept and advertisement.

National unity also can be fortified via education such as vision school concept, teacher’s role at the school and the education system. Vision School concept involves putting a national school and one or

two another vernacular schools together at the same site to share common facilities such as the school canteen and sports ground. The close proximity between the students of various races as well as organised activities between the schools will encourage greater interaction between them and foster national unity. Students who have been a part of a vision school can contribute more to the country when they grow up because of their strong bonding among each other. Moreover, students nowadays spent most of their time at the school rather than house. Teachers, especially, play a significant role in encouraging racial understanding outside the home. In this situation, teachers must play their important role to educate and nurture the spirit of unity among them. Teachers also must show the good attitude because they are role model for their students . In addition, with a unified education system, the government could use education as a tool to build the nation and foster unity through a common syllabus and curriculum. This could be further achieved with a single national language as the main medium of instruction in schools and university.Teachers also must be provided with a standardized form of training in teachers' training colleges.Hence, , national unity can be strengthen via education such as vision school concept, teacher’s role at the school and the education system.

Social activities like gotong-royong programme, sports and community service can contribute to the improvement of national unity in Malaysia. The gotong-royong programme such as to clean up particular areas like mosque, church and graveyard will make the neigbourhood cooperative and more unite. This programme also can make the resident become more closer and helping their neighbour when in difficulty such as house burning and home robberies. The resident also can develop a watch groups to protect the community from intruders and make the neighbourhood harmony. On the other hand, sports is another way to spread unity. Sports are all forms of physical activities that contribute to fitness, mental well-being and social interaction. In sports, there is no racial segregation as the people will become one when they participate as a team or when they support a

team. All the Malaysian citizens did not support the national teams based on skin colour, race or religion, there was no racial borders in sports where different races joined hands to form teams to compete. Its automatically make the athletes and fans unity. The community service means a work that people do to help other people without payment. In this case, all the Malaysians must have the spirit of unity because there is no wage when they did this work. Community service also can led the unity when all the citizens get together to help the needy people.Thus, the social activity for instance gotong-royong programme, sports and community service can improve the unity among Malaysians.

As a conclusion, national unity can be strengthened through campaign, education and social activity. The Malaysian government can promote national unity through campaign like open house, 1Malaysia Concept and advertisement. Furthermore, national unity can be fortified via education such as vision school concept, teacher’s role at the school and the education system. Moreover, the social activity for instance gotong-royong programme, sports and community service also can improve the unity among Malaysians. Thus, all people must play their important roles actively to ensure the unity among Malaysians can be strengthen.

All Malaysians must bear responsibility to help achieve stronger integration and a more robust national unity. Malaysians must do this by preserving and protecting its many divers religions festivals and customs. Preserving and protecting this is part and parcel of our shared broader goals of

achieving integration and national unity. In attaining these goals, all Malaysians must bear a collective responsibility. The effective way in enhancing racial integration is to hold open house on festive season, carry out gotong royong and to hold a cultural fair.

As we know,open house are the feast or celebration that usually occurred during festive season.In Malaysia,there has many festive season such as Chinese New Year,Deepavali,Hari Raya Aidilfitri,Wesak Day and others.When open house had been organized and arranged,all of the races attend the celebration without doubt,anger, and anti-racial.Residents dined together in a spirit of neighbourliness.They will be closer the relationship of each other and they will know and become familiar with their neighbour,so it will enhance racial integration.

Besides that,gotong royong is one of the effective ways in enhancing racial integration.Gotong royong are activity that hold together all races such as cleaning housing area,cooking during the feast.This will show the spirit of unity when tehey carry out gotong royong together.The food has been cooked by many races base on their own way.This will allow the guast to taste many kind of food.Gotong royong could gather all residents so they will join and communicate.This will make them closer to each other.

On the other hand,to enhance racial integration we have to hold a cultural fair.The cultural fair could be organized to show cultural and trust of all races.As an examples,the cultural fair could be done in the open place such as Stadium Bukit Jalil so all citizens can watch the performance like cultural dance or cross-cultural performance in which Malay,Indian and Chinese dances were performed by childrens.This are able to see various cultural sensitivity and it is praiseworthy because all other races and culture are respected.The organized celebration of festive,we can know and understand other cultural and trust.Therefore,we can promote peace and unity in a multiracial country by holding a cultural fair.

In conclusion,peace and unity can be promoted by holding open house,carry out gotong royong and to hold a cultural fair.This activities could gather and unite all races in Malaysia so they can recognized each other.

Way to Promote Patriotism Among Malaysian

Patriotism is kind of strong passion which inspires one to serve one·s country. As one part from the society in Malaysia, we should always show loyalty and gratitude to our country. However, in Malaysia, do the people really love or respect the country? Based on the facts in Malaysia, newspapers and television news broadcasts have been full of calls by government ministers and

officials for greater patriotism in the country. Malaysians, it seems, do not love Malaysia enough. Regarding this important issue, they are some certain parties playing main roles to overcome it. First and foremost, the government always plays the most important part to handle this problem. Government will choose randomly to decide who are going to undergo the three months National Service course. Through this program, the generation will have the opportunity to mix with different generation which came from vary races, religious and culture background. By going through the National Service course, the young citizens will have a better and deeper knowledge and eventually they will respect others people customs. Thus by respecting the uniqueness of every Culture this helps us promote racial solidarity and enhance national unity. Other than that, schools are always said to be the second home· for pupils. Therefore, school must do something in order to promote the spirit of patriotism among Malaysian generation. For example, schools can organize campaigns which help to improve the self-conscious among students relating to the importance of showing patriotism to their country. Besides that, school must ensure that there will be a singing session for Negaraku· during assembly. Although it was a simple action, however it would be a great way to show our devotion to Malaysia. During the week before the National Day, school can take the chance to held several activities, such as drawing Jalur Gemilang· competition, class decoration with the topic of patriotism, essay writing competition and so on. Last but not least, parents· responsibility on this issue are the most important. Parents were the one who have the biggest affect to their children as they have the most time to spend tham. Therefore, parents should teach their children about the concept of patriotism and accompany them to practice it since they were young. Take for example, they can send their children to 'Sekolah Wawasan' or 'Vision Schools' where they can mix with all races, join multiracial community activities and others. Hence, by educating the young on patriotism, we are ensuring that national unity will continue to exist in the future. In a nutshell, our country will be more prosperous if every one of us is willing to play an active role to be more patriotism

Much has been said about unity but at the end of the day, much remains to be done to encourage, enhance and sustain close bonding among Malaysians of diverse races. It is my conviction that the work of fostering unity should begin in schools, where efforts can be made to instill the values of peace, harmony and unity. In this regard, I welcome the recent statement by our Deputy Prime Minister that “teachers need to use the creativity and skills to get students of all races to participate in indoor or outdoor activities that enhance racial integration and unity.”

Students from various races should participate in all forms of school and outdoor activities that will enable them to interact with one another and build lasting friendships. Students should be colour blind and regard each other as a friend rather than by race. School principals and teachers must play their respective roles to encourage students of different races to understand one another better, and have mutual respect for each other. They must be the prime movers of our education transformation not only to teach and impart knowledge and skills but far more importantly, to unite students from different races through programme and activities to bring them together in line with the aspiration of 1Malaysia. Even parents must share the responsibility of encouraging their children to mix with others of different races, just as they did when they were in school. What needs to be emphasised is that unity cannot be achieved through mere rhetoric or just calling for it to happen. For unity to be achieved, what is needed is commitment and the political will to work for it by the Government and all Malaysians through deliberate and sustained efforts to ensure its success.