Speaking at a forum here, Projek57 co-founder Syed Sadiq Albar quoted the Malay saying “Kalau tak kenal, maka tak cinta” (If you don’t know, you can’t love).
“When you don’t know, how can you love? When you don’t understand, how can you appreciate? And when you are not exposed (to other races), how can you accept this is something that is so important?
“Why would you care about your neighbour if you don’t know who they are? You don’t know they have three children that are perhaps on the spectrum (autistic). You don’t know, so you don’t care.
“The whole point is to be cognizant and understand that these are real fundamental issues that (stand in the way of knowing) each other. That’s the most important thing in Malaysia,” he said.
Syed Sadiq was following up on fellow panellist Faye Lim’s argument that Malaysians do not know each other enough, especially when it comes to those categorised as “dan lain-lain” or “others”.
Lim, who is the founder of Rojak Projek, was speaking about her NGO’s work to document and film the lives of people in the 250-odd ethnicities and sub-ethnicities classified as “dan lain-lain”.
“Does anyone know anything about the Melanau, Kelabit and Kenyah? They are unfamiliar to us,” she said.
In response to a comment later by a member of the audience that not everyone has the opportunity to get to know other ethnicities, Lim said education, technology and the media were the answer.
She said Malaysians need to know each other better as a nation.
“Can we say that the Hainanese and Hokkien are the same? Can we say that the Malays from Terengganu are the same as those from Melaka? Having the opportunity to break this down is important.
“At the national level, I would like to emphasise education, as well as getting to know people better via the media and content creation (on social media),” she said.
Lim highlighted collaborations between university programmes to conduct online interviews with individuals such as Syed Sadiq, encouraging students to explore topics like ethnic backgrounds and many others.
“All of them were timid, scared and shy. But because they had to do it as part of their programme, we saw them expanding their minds and breaking down barriers,” she said.