KUALA LUMPUR: The harmony of the multiethnic Sarawak society should be used as a model to promote Peninsular unity.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said this could be done through mutual understanding and respect regardless of the difference in culture and beliefs of each ethnic group in the region.
Consequently, he stated, students who were selected to be sponsored to study on the Peninsula were ambassadors for cultural exchange and national integration in order to unite Malaysians.
"In Sarawak, we can live as a family regardless of each other's background, culture, beliefs.
"We live as a big Sarawakian family and this continues to be practised until now. Understanding and mutual respect and helpfulness are very strong among the people of Sarawak.
"Hopefully (the people) in the Peninsular can also live in harmony and reduce conflicts at this time. Hopefully as Sarawakians we can revive the spirit of our country's big family," he said in his speech when witnessing the memorandum of understanding (MoU) exchange between Petronas and Yayasan Sarawak here, today.
Yayasan Sarawak and Petronas have signed an MoU to work together to sponsor Sarawak students to continue their studies at secondary schools in the Peninsular as part of the Yayasan Sarawak Student Exchange Programme.
This cohort would involve 80 students. Yayasan Sarawak will be sponsoring half of the students while Petronas will be sponsoring the other half.
Fadillah, who is also an alumni of the programme, said since its inception in 1972, Yayasan Sarawak had sponsored more than 5,000 students.
He added that this programme would be able to help train human resources who were knowledgeable and high-skilled in specific fields.
"I hope that with Petronas' support, this could be extended to higher-learning institutions.
"We need to nurture and train our human resources for us to become a developed nation by 2030 and for that we need workers who are experts in high technology," he said.