IN a world where differentiation between groups of people should be kept to a minimum, I am sorry to note that this has not been the case, even in Malaysian schools.

Student name lists now have the names of boys listed before the names of girls. Race is now divided into Malay, Bumiputera, Chinese, Indian and others. Note the discriminative extra category added.

Worse still, religion is divided into Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism and others in that order.

The more we try to differentiate one from another, implicitly highlighting that one group has the superiority, status or privileges that others do not, the further we are from bringing about a united Malaysia.

Why can’t we just see what we share in common instead of focusing on our differences? Why can’t we have unity in diversity? We can all be one (instead of two or five or 10), if everyone who believes in this ideal works towards it.

K.J. , Subang Jaya

Source: NST – March 31, 2009