LETTER: A peaceful political landscape in Malaysia lasted with the coexistence of race-based political parties to run the government for decades.
Nonetheless, while Malaysia is resisting any form of race or region-based violence, a number of nations failed.
Czechoslovakia which became independent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 was divided as the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
The brutal ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s that caused more than 100,000 civilian deaths and thousands of Muslim women being raped is still to go in oblivion.
Recognition of the Christian majority South Sudan as a new nation in the world map in 2011 is the end result of decades of racial violence in the region.
Our next generations, however, will continue to wonder on the justification of today's global pandemic of racial or religious dominance.
Among them include extermination of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar; the massacre of Hindus and Muslims in Sri Lanka; the violent uprise of RSS to pave the path for India as a Hindu country; ethnic cleansing of minority races in different parts of Africa; the so-called "holy-war" against Muslim men, women, and children by their "brothers" in Islam; oppression of the Tibetans, the Christians, and the Uighur Muslims in China; violent ousting of the Palestinians from their homes; and right-wing or white supremacist movements to reshape political landscapes in many Western countries - all will be remembered!
Given the facts on what has happened in the past and what is happening now, can we go beyond race or religion-based politics, be it on a local or international scale?
The point is, existence of races and religions is real, as are the differences between different races or religions.
Should there be a need for the co-existence of different races and religions, it must preserve the harmony. It is imperative for a multi-racial country and is challenging but not impossible. What is urgent is to address the root of that challenge.
Success in fragmenting any major race of a nation into smaller pieces may be viewed as a sign for the denial of race and religion-based politics. But, it is not the sign towards harmony.
The history of race and religion-based political wrestling would confirm this. The moment the strongest race in a community being fragmented, sporadic instability starts crippling the harmony between different races and religions.
Hence, both the race or religion-based injustice and the anti-racial or religious sentiment are an equal threat in preserving harmony. Surely, just politicians who are indeed rare in breed can do justice in politics while keeping the spirit of race and religion alive that would bring harmony at everyone's door-step.
PROF. DR. MOHAMMAD TARIQUR RAHMAN
Faculty of Dentistry, University Malaya