Recent events have amply shown that many Malaysians are unable to understand the feelings and needs of the other ethnic groups in the country, and given the freedom, wish to monopolise everything for their own ethnic groups without much thought for the welfare of others.
That this is the result of the divide-and-rule tactics used by the government since May 1969 incident especially goes without saying, but the extent of the damage done is indeed worrying.
The older generation of Malaysians who had the benefit of the colonial education system at least had the feeling of comradeship regardless of racial origins.
Evidently, the national education system has failed the nation in that it has not inculcated the right values in the minds of the young citizens of the independent nation. Keeping bumiputera students in separate schools/colleges/universities and instilling in them a feeling of ethnocentrism has not helped in nation-building in any way.
Likewise an overemphasis on religious curricula in the national schools has succeeded in keeping the non-Muslims away from the national primary schools - giving rise to the increasing demand for vernacular primary schools in the country.
Each type of these primary schools is propagating a different type of culture and by the time the students reach the secondary level, they already have attitudes that are not complementary to each other.
The recent liberal attitude of the government in allowing people to express themselves has indeed shown us how divided Malaysians are in their views. Very few are able to empathise with the plight of other races in this country.
This trend is not surprising at all as it is the result of our own making. It allows champions from each of the groups to grow without much thought for the others.
If we read the newspapers, we see the same reflection of views in the various vernacular media in the country. Those who read the newspapers in a single language only are bound to be influenced by the slanted views that appear in them.
With the advent of the 24-hour Astro TV channels, each ethnic group in Malaysia is able to confine itself to the various channels that are available in each of the languages.
The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition thrives on this divide-and-rule strategy, as each of the ethnic-based parties can then claim to have successfully championed the 'needs' of their particular communities.
The strategy of just the top leaders sitting together to look into the state's affairs worked very well in the initial stages; but with the advent of various communications media, the dissatisfactions of each of the communities are coming out in the open, each with its own alternative champions.
For me, both the ruling Barisan Nasional and the loose opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, do not seem to have any idea on giving a national direction for the citizens of this country.
The BN is keen to continue the same formulae, while the Pakatan seems to be riding on the dissatisfaction factor among the various communities and using Anwar Ibrahim's charisma to forge some loose understanding among parties with fundamentally opposing views, just to wrest control of power.
Mere control of power with a loose coalition is not going to bring about changes that will benefit the country as a whole. It may just be a convenient arrangement on a temporary basis. Likewise, the BN's philosophy that each community is taken care of by the respective component parties will not be able to satisfy the differing aspirations of the communities, and is bound to fail.
Only statesmen who speak for all the Malaysians - if they are accepted by all Malaysians irrespective of race or religion - will be able to chart out policies, strategies and goals that will enhance the image of the country.
And such statesmen have to come from among the Malays, Chinese, Indians and others. Do we have them around?
