Sarjit S Gill, a professor with Universiti Putra Malaysia’s faculty of human ecology, said in his research spanning 20 years, he found that the communities in Sabah had a high level of tolerance in celebrating their cultures and religions in their daily lives.
Describing Sabah as his second home, Sarjit said he made it a point to tell students during his lectures that both Sabah and Sarawak are the models for ethnic relations in Malaysia.
“The reality is the communities in both states place much importance on tolerance and celebrating their diversity so that they can live collectively and in a harmonious environment,” he said during a webinar today.
“They have managed this diversity well and the question now is how the communities in the peninsula – the Malays, Chinese and Indians – can learn from Sabah and Sarawak.”
Sarjit was one of the panellists in the webinar hosted by Universiti Malaysia Sabah, entitled “Harmonious Ethnic Relations in Sabah: Rhetoric or Reality?” The event was organised in conjunction with Malaysia Day tomorrow.
Another panellist, Kadazan Dusun Murut Muslim SeMalaysia Organisation chairman Nicholas Sylvester said earlier that the harmony among the various ethnic groups in Sabah was a reality rather than rhetorical, although he did not have scientific research to back up his claim.
Offering anecdotes from his personal experiences, Nicholas, a Muslim convert, said he continued to have good relations with his Christian family and friends despite embracing another religion.
He said he was also close to his grandmother who kept to Chinese traditions and held on to animism practices.
“We are living (in harmony) and there is no issue in our daily lives because we tolerate each other,” he said.
He added that the uniqueness was not limited to his personal experience but all of society in Sabah.
“My good friend, Masidi Manjun (a Sabah minister) told me he was appreciative of a church offering parking facilities during a previous gathering.
“This is also evident in the state assembly and state administration where we can see leaders from various ethnic backgrounds working together with no issues. NGOs also don’t care about who they are helping.
“There are also many places in Sabah where mosques are located next to churches. And there are also many cross-marriages,” said Nicholas.
“To be fair, there are unhealthy things happening on social media that counter the euphoria over the ethnic relations in Sabah where people insult each other over religion and make racist remarks.
“But these are isolated incidents and, in general, harmony is a reality in Sabah.”
Meanwhile, Sarjit said the government had previously acknowledged Sabah and Sarawak as models of integration. It has, however, not carried out equal social and economic development in both states compared to states in the peninsula.
“When it comes to social and economic development, we can see a gap. This must be given attention because we want the people in Sabah and Sarawak to be as developed as those in Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur or Selangor.
“During my research on information and communications technology (ICT) services adoption in Sabah, I found schools without computers or science labs or labs with broken computers.
“In Putrajaya, people are discussing using state-of-the-art computers while schools in interior areas are ignored,” he said.
Sabah DAP’s Jannie Lasimbang, who also spoke at the webinar, said the government must step in to aid in efforts aimed at maintaining good ethnic relations by enacting laws to fight racial and religious discrimination.
She said efforts to ratify the ICERD (International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination) and other relevant laws have yet to bear fruit.
“If we don’t do this, then we are in denial about issues pertaining to ethnic relations.”