TODAY is a day of unity and a day of moderation for our beautiful nation which is rejoicing herself for her beauty, charm, poise and her people.
This wonderful brand called Malaysia will not be of much value if Malaysians do not show our commitment and conviction in bringing her together to greater heights.
We all must work on the following areas seriously and vehemently to project the best of our nation:
We must adopt a culture of moderation and abide by it.
Let’s work closely with one another to bring about greater solidarity. It is not about songs or movies or fanfares.
It is about working closely with one another, without seeing or checking what race or religion we are. We must accept each other as part of the national makeup.
The government must ensure that we move away from addressing race-based issues, and move towards issues that affect every Malaysian.
We should ensure to imbibe the National Economic Policy and eradicate poverty irrespective of race.
We must begin to address the issues of every race, focusing on building a greater nation. The issues faced by the Malays, Chinese, Indians, Iban, Bajau and every Malaysian in Sabah and Sarawak.
There are still many Malaysians living below the poverty line. The policies must address the bigger issues of housing, rising cost of living, transportation, equal educational opportunities and equal job opportunities.
Strengthen the civil service and eliminate issues of corruption and negligence.
We cannot allow any leaks of any exam papers. We cannot have our children attacked at their university hostels. We cannot face a lack of driving schools or the right syllabus.
We cannot accept the lack of Malaysians willing to work in our restaurants or as security guards. Let’s review these issues very objectively so that there will be greater and better attraction towards such vocations.
The local authorities should become more agile, robust and gregarious in shouldering federal and state government roles and responsibilities to ensure that there is better roads, no potholes, better waste management, no shortage of water supply, and no illegal hawker menace throughout the nation.
Hawking is a vocation, not a criminal activity; so, the local authorities should provide adequate space and land for organised hawker’s stalls throughout the nation.
Every local authority should revisit their current enforcement on issues of waste management, illegal hawkers, and the increasing problem of air and water-borne diseases.
Dengue and Dipteria must be wiped out totally from Malaysia.
Our education policy must be reviewed to allow greater creativity rather than merely passing with A's. We are all driven to score A’s, forgetting that the students who are graduating tomorrow are likely to be unemployable.
We should pay attention to the needs and requirements of the corporate world. We need employable graduates who can stand up and speak, communicate and deliver the tasks handed to them.
They cannot be trained with all the government support and resources and yet remain unemployed.
We need greater understanding between all religions. We should not be just speaking about tolerance. Our children must be taught to appreciate that diversity is unity.
We should ensure that all religious values are introduced to everyone, thus appreciating the beauty and greatness of every religion.
No religion teaches us to rob, rape or be rude. Greater interaction must be held between our children especially during school holidays where there should be camps and seminars on all religions. Our syllabus for the National Service Training Programme must be reviewed to allow make room for such interactions.
Extremism must be eradicated at all costs. Let us create a society which is filled with moderation. The registrar of societies must ensure that no such organisation is allowed to register to begin with, and please nullify them if their leaders ever say anything that belittles any Malaysian, irrespective of religious or political beliefs.
Every Malaysian should unite to promote our national economy.
We must engage more aggressively in promoting our nation in the oil and gas sector, tourism, electrical and electronics, food, agriculture and the service sector.
There must be more incentives to encourage every Malaysian to partake in businesses which will bring greater yield and returns. We must export our talent overseas.
The sports sector is another wonderful component which can launch our nation to greater heights.
Let us create more football fields, rather than building other structures on them. Let’s ensure all athletics, football, badminton, gymnasium, cycling, hockey, tennis, swimming enthusiasts who left school is adopted into a national scheme where they continue to excel rather than forget their sports skills once they have got a career or education.
We need a program which captures all these young talents and develop them. We should stop building mini stadiums at remote areas, but channel these funds into creating the "hardware" called sportsmen and sportswomen who bring greater benefit to the nation.
Malaysia must strive to be an exemplary nation through all the above initiatives, not just by through the government, but through every Malaysian who loves, adores and believes in this country.
We can make a greater Malaysia by being moderate and rational in all our activities and programmes, focusing on building a greater nation.
Ravindran Raman Kutty
Kuala Lumpur