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©Malaysiakini (Used by permission)
by Andrew Ong

Young Malaysians at a high profile roundtable discussion on national unity and development have called for “ethnic-based politics and racist ideologies in any form” to be rejected.

The roundtable discussion was organised by the Centre of Public Policy Studies (CPPS) and the National Young Lawyers Committee (NYLC) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Perak Regent Raja Nazrin Shah delivered the keynote address at the event, which drew about 150 participants including students, civil society groups, lawyers and six representative from the National Unity Department.

The discussions also concluded that constructive dialogue is a crucial tool for building bridges between Malaysia’s various communities, towards achieving national unity.

“The time has come for Malaysians to move beyond its ‘accommodation-ist’ approach to interacting with one another in terms of mere tolerance; towards a full appreciation, understanding, acceptance and equal treatment of every person regardless of race or religion and in embracing all diversities and complexities,” adds the consensus document from the dialogue.

When youth speak

NYLC chairperson Edmund Bon said the document sets the framework for future research on nation building and roundtable discussions among other activities.

“These are very important issues that are unsurprisingly shared by the Raja Muda of Perak, and also shared in the consensus statement by all of us here today,” he said.

“This is a clear statement and is a 100 percent consensus between the participants. Thus, it’s a powerful voice to all our key policy makers on what young Malaysians - who make up half of Malaysia’s population - want.”

In his address yesterday, Raja Nazrin said the Federal Constitution is the key document to promote and defend in the nation-building process.

Co-organiser CPPS senior research analyst Tricia Yeoh said the document would be forwarded to relevant government agencies and ministries.

She said a quantitative study on young urban Malaysians on national unity and nation building would be conducted based on the perimeters set by the consensus document.

The NYLC is a component of the Bar Council while the CPPS is a department under influential think-tank Asian Strategic Leadership Institute.

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