PUTRAJAYA (March 28): Malaysians are becoming fearless in discussing sensitive issues and comfortable in declaring themselves “Malaysians first”, says Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.
“They are becoming bolder and braver in speaking on issues once considered to be taboo. They are moving away from a culture of fear to discuss new points and ideas on even sensitive matters in the public sphere,” he said.
Saifuddin made the observation when launching the book “Malaysian Issues and Concerns: Some Policy Responses” produced by the Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS).
The book, he said, captured these changes in the Malaysian psyche and “captures the will of the people”.
Besides becoming less fearless, Saifuddin said Malaysians are doing away with the once instinctive identification as Malaysians first, followed by their respective races.
“They are willing to openly declare that they are Malaysians first instead of identifying with their race. Kita-UKM (Institute of Ethnic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) conducted a research over 20 parliamentary constituency,
“And in my parliamentary constitution (Temerloh, Pahang) which is a 50% (mixture of) rural and urban areas, more than 60% of the respondents were comfortable in considering themselves Malaysians first. Can you imagine what the response would have been in an all urban area,” he asked.
The other major changes that are taking place, according to the Umno supreme council member, is a shift from concerns over politics of development such as electricity and infrastructure to a politics of freedom and democracy.
“It is not that they don’t care about these developments but there is a shift where people are (more keen) on the politics of democracy and citizen participation,” he said. The deputy minister said that in order to fulfil these changing demands of the public, there were changes that needed to be made in terms of greater participation by the people in parliament, “beyond the monopoly of politicians and elected representatives”.
Saifuddin added that people also needed to be encouraged to speak up on ideas toward a move of progressive thought so that more people friendly policies can be made. “We must ensure that we subscribe to the authority of ideas and not the ideas of authority,” said the politician who is known for his more liberal ideas compared to his colleagues in the ruling government.
The book launched today is a collection of a series of round table discussions by the CPPS on contemporary concerns. Discussions in the book are divided into three main categories: sustainable development, education concerns and community concerns.
Among the concerns which were highlighted in the book are ensuring equality of citizenship, strengthen national unity and integration agenda with a deeper sense of celebrating diversity (culture and language) and enlarging employment opportunities including civil servants among others.
Speaking on the ideas collected in the book, CPPS chairman Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam said: “We don’t believe in just coffee shop talk. We are professional in putting forward our ideas. We believe in inspiring discussion and debate which are lacking in the country.”
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