Watch what you say to kids

MALAYSIA seems to be the most discussed topic and many great minds have spoken and written about its fundamentals and principles in line with our Prime Minister’s vision.
The PM has taken much effort to persuade the citizens of Malaysia to embrace the concept and most conventions and conferences organised by the Government have focused in creating awareness of 1Malaysia to all.

Malaysia has eight tenets which our PM has encouraged us to explore. He wants 1Malaysia to grow with Malaysians. In one of his speeches, he said he wanted to come up with something that Malaysians should embrace and grow with. This is to create a sense of ownership. The eight tenets of 1Malaysia are culture of excellence, perseverance, humility, acceptance, loyalty, merito­cracy, education and integrity.

Malaysia to me simply means people born in Malaysia are all one at the macro level. The PM added that we need to maintain the uniqueness of our identity and that there is power in plurality which provides Malaysia the competitive advantage among other nations in the world.

My favourite tenets among the eight are humility and acceptance. There is nothing wrong with the school system, the teachers, the curriculum and the activities which foster unity organised by the Government.

The community goes on harping that unity and integration should be promoted in the school and that the system has failed to deliver. However, they fail to realise that all the work done in school is undone by the parents or family members in a split second as the children return to their environment at home.

Parents are very influential in moulding the minds of the young. We cannot deny that we are a contributing factor to the lack of acceptance and unity in our country.
The point I would like to make with reference to humility and acceptance is that some people are arrogant as opposed to humility and they have not embraced or accepted “others”; it is mere tolerance as our PM clearly put it in his blog.

Allow me to use a car as an example. For the car to move, the parts of the engine must be assembled correctly, the fluids must be at the right levels and the wheels must be there. If one of those elements is not available, the car will not move.

Our PM constantly reiterates that all Malay­sians must complement each other yet remain as ourselves. We do not need to give anything up. This is the mindset we need to inculcate in all Malaysians, not just the younger generation. Parents must play an important role in supporting the school system in trying to produce people who do not belittle others due to differences.

There needs to be a major shift in thought and the environment.

The PM, in clarifying 1Malaysia at Parlia­ment, said the ultimate objective of 1Malaysia is unity, that every citizen is cared for and that no citizen is marginalised in any way.

The PM, government and schools can do all they want to promote unity but first, parents must change and they should not poison the minds of young Malaysians. The success of unity in Malaysia relies partly on the role of parents, not just the school and government awareness programmes on unity.

As parents, we must educate our children positively for the benefit of our beloved country. If we do not do this, the repercussions in time will be serious and the damage will be done. There will be no turning back.

V MANO,

Kajang.