From Terence Netto
At the Deepavali open house in Brickfields on Oct 18, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim urged Malaysians not to take their seeming unity for granted.
He said the government would help the poor and deserving from every community, but the grumbling and resentment some quarters have over the aid given to others, including minorities, would erode national unity.
He said this was a “very fundamental spirit for me”, that Malaysians do “everything possible to preserve the unity and affection we have for each other”.
When the prime minister speaks in such intimate terms about national unity, Malaysians should refrain from begrudging the Madani government’s aid for sectors of the population that deserve help.
Anwar said such disgruntlement highlights the difficulty in managing the expectations of different communities, and urged Malaysians to be more discerning about what they hear online so they “avoid being manipulated by racial sentiments”, lamenting that this “kind of narrative is being played up everywhere”.
Actually, there is no way to ease or resolve this situation so long as fundamental inequalities of race and religion exist in Malaysia.
If these inequalities are eased or wiped out over time, Malaysians should be able to preserve their affection for people of other ethnicities. But if they endure, laments or anxieties expressed over the preservation of residual affections for each other will be exercises in futility.
Who is better equipped than the Madani government to ease these inequalities? The government was elected in November 2022 by a multiracial cast of voters, and so should lead in doing the necessary work.
Imagination and flair should be their resources in this undertaking. A national supremo who avows a “fundamental spirit” with him as to the affection some Malaysians feel for each other should not hesitate to lead from the front to promote unity and harmony.
Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.