It is indeed heartening to read the coverage on the National Unity Panel in the media last week, giving prominence to the PM urging for the panel to think up fresh ideas and have an honest evaluation of the problems besetting the national unity effort.

I am, however, concerned that the panel it is not sufficiently represented by the current important personalities from both the government and private sectors.

For example, I would think important that the president of Petronas is in there, that the deputy prime minister should be in, the CEOs of Cimb and Maybank as well as the other captains of industries. And us not the religious heads as well.

Perhaps the panel should be headed by a member of a royal household; the crown prince of Perak comes to the mind given his urging recently on the issue of unity.

Filling the panel with retired civil servants and not-so-senior members of the government will only hinder the work of the panel and it will merely become a 'talk shop'.

We should not waste the opportunity which is presenting itself in the form of the panel to lead this nation down the middle and united front.