By Ravindran Raman Kutty

The "Socio-cultural Diversity Shapes Creativity Among Teachers" forum organized by Dr. Suguna Sankaran Nair from the Educational Studies Department on Feb 6, 2020, found me as the guest speaker to an audience of about 120 teachers who were about to be based in various parts of our country.

Our Rukunegara is the core from which diversity in culture can enhance creativity among teachers. It is not just the five salient principles, but also the preamble to the Rukunegara that is the foundation of every Malaysian, more so for the teachers and educators of the country.

The five principles include Belief in God; Loyalty to King and Country; Supremacy of the Constitution; The Rule of Law; and Mutual Respect & Good Social Behavior.

However, very few are aware of the preamble to the Rukunegara, which reads as Malaysia nurtures the ambitions of:

1. Achieving a more perfect unity among the whole of her society

2. Preserving a democratic way of life

3. Creating a just society where the prosperity of the country can be enjoyed together in a fair and equitable manner

4. Guaranteeing a liberal approach towards her rich and varied cultural traditions and

5. Building a progressive society that will make use of science and modern technology

We were never made aware of these ambitions during our schooling. Malaysia is so beautiful and harmonious, not because these was endowed, but instead carefully sowed by the former national leaders who were such visionaries in their thoughts, words and deeds.

The Rukunegara, a charter derived after the May 1969 riot under the leadership of late Tun Abdul Razak, was a benevolent idea to unite Malaysians, factoring every society and tradition.

The first ambition is to achieve perfect unity among the whole society. Unity is where we are always struggling, because we are not addressing the core issue. Our unity on the ground is excellent. Every Malaysian irrespective of race and religion live harmoniously and peacefully. The Chinese, Malay, Indian or Kadazan will live together in a row of terrace house, by smelling the emanating fragrance of each other's traditional dishes and co-exist happily. They will even exchange their dishes through their back doors, savoring and enjoying this wonderful tapestry of our food.

On the front, the children of each family are playing sports or games together whilst the men would meet at the warong or mamak stall to discuss and debate on any topic under the sun, regardless of race and belief. Sadly, the culling point of unity is politics and the shrewd politicians. The politicians use our unity as their strategy to divide and rule rather than unite and co-exist harmoniously.

The second ambition is to practice democracy in all that we do, especially in selecting the government and by following the Supremacy of the Constitution. Citizenship gives one a sense of belonging to the country. The Constitution grants certain rights and privileges to every citizen. The Constitution also places certain responsibilities and obligations towards the nation and country. Rule of Law and Justice is based on the sovereignty of the law. All citizens are equal in the eyes of the law. Fairness in treatment and accountability towards set standards of the law will help to create social order and a sense of common right and wrong.

The third ambition is to create a just society where prosperity of the country can be enjoyed together in a fair and equitable manner. The New Economic Policy (NEP), introduced by the former great leaders of Malaysia, was to ensure the eradication of poverty irrespective of race. This must be respected, and all the 2.5 million B40 Malaysians who should receive the aid of NEP are the ones who will fulfill such an ambition.

By distributing the nation's wealth of prosperity in an equitable manner we are truly building a nation of fair and just society. Today, we are inundated with Malaysians suffering to live in urban areas, where the cost of living is very high. The recent move of the government to provide breakfast to all the needy school children is a good intervention. There must be more job opportunities to the 500,000 fresh graduates who are desperately looking for a means to survive. The economic stimulus package for the Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SME) is extremely welcoming and encouraging, especially with the current pandemic of COVID-19.

People usually will stop focusing on common goals and start looking towards individual agendas, which may jeopardize efforts to change and transform our nation. Today, we see politicians, civil servants and corporate tycoons become greedy, violating the rules prescribed in our constitution. A former Prime Minister, several former ministers and civil servants are being charged with cases of corruption. Our nation stands no chance of development when our own leaders have different ambitions with only personal growth and gain in mind.

The fourth ambition is to guarantee liberal approach to each community of Malaysia, its identity, tradition and rich culture to permeate through the nation and its people. We are the one and only country in the world that hosts open-house celebrations during the festivities, boasting of various dishes, attires, traditions, music and songs, and public holidays for every festival; having vernacular schools to maintain our language and culture; varied radio and television channels allowing us personal glee and entertainment; allowing religious houses like temples, churches, mosques to stand side by side enabling us to maintain our beliefs and faiths, promoting the richness of our beautiful nation.

This liberal approach is no more as liberal as before. Now we hear of our footballers of different races being admonished in the field by the spectators, with a quota for Indian and Chinese players in every field game; fewer non-Malay civil servants, teachers or headmasters in schools, military and police officers and other uniformed services. The Malays are extremely cautious when dining in non-Malay houses during festivities. We also hear of cases where school canteens are closed during the fasting month, leaving the non-Muslim children asunder. We need more awareness to overcome these challenges, which is a damper for a multiracial, multi-religious, multicultural country like ours.

All teachers must be trained using a comprehensive module on every culture that each race observes and practices so as to bring together these rich diversities into one beautiful nation called Malaysia.

The final ambition is to build a progressive society based on science and modern technology. This is a wonderful approach to place Malaysia in the right footing. Today, our emphasis to teach religion is far higher than teaching science and modern technology. Malaysia has wavered from visionary ambition, thus we are still struggling with an education system that is very much centric on arts rather than science or Automated Intelligence (AI). Our ranking in Mathematics, science and related subjects is very low compared to even Vietnam.

Teachers can only teach what they themselves have been taught. The Ministry of Education must revisit the principles and tenets of Rukunegara and ensure that we create a syllabus that builds a society, which is obedient, loving, matured, educated, respectful and understanding of the various cultures, religions and races. Malaysia can only become a developed nation if both our software, human development, and the hardware, the brick mortar and structures, are paid equal attention.

Teachers are as important as parents. They actually spend more hours imparting knowledge to our students. They are the most important persons who make or break a society or generation. This forum has helped me to discover the hidden philosophy of Rukunegara. It is hoped that all our policy makers and educators will join hands to ensure that we build a true Malaysia that is vibrant, dynamic and beautiful.

(Ravindran Raman Kutty is an active social worker.)