NEWPACES

http://www.y4c.org.my/?p=47

Rakan Muda Should Focus on Racial Integration

Y4C would like to express its grave reservations with regard to the recently announced second phase of the Rakan Muda programme. Our concerns relate especially to the huge allocation of RM50 million to re-brand this youth-oriented programme which in the past is generally acknowledged to have failed to meet the expectations and needs of young Malaysians. This attempt at rebranding seems to be nothing more than the bottling of old ketchup in expensive new bottles.

In particular, we are worried that there is an absence of attention of the new Rakan Muda programme to the issue of racial integration. As we celebrate 50 years of independence, the racial and religious divide has deepened especially among the young generation. However, there seems to be little consideration given by the new program to helping resolve this urgent and worsening national problem. .

On the contrary, the rebranded program may be contributing to greater racial and religious polarization if the activities conducted are not inclusive and do not focus on bringing young people from the different ethnic groups to interact.

The failure to genuinely and consistently engage the different ethnic groups in the programme design and re-branding shows the lack of political will to strengthen national unity and nation building. Adequate representation of all ethnic groups and inputs from the various communities in the re-branding of the Rakan Muda program is still not too late and we call on the authorities to correct this important flaw.

We also call on the Government to work closely with civil society groups and organizations by releasing the assessment report on the failure of the previous Rakan Muda to us. Such a measure will provide the opportunity for civil society partners and the public to share their expertise on the best ways to address the developmental and other social problems of the younger generation.

Developmental strategies aimed at the young should not solely or mainly focus on infrastructural inputs. Rather they should stress on software and human capacity development aimed at making our youner generation more competitive, dynamic and socially cohesive..

Y4C believes that the Rakan Muda programme should not hijacked by the political parties holding power. .Building patriotism among the youth should not be done through an emphasis on political indoctrination. In this regard , we wish to express our concerns that the chauvanistic contents and programmes found in the Biro Tatanegara (BTN) may be reproduced in the rebranded Rakan Muda.

Raja Nazrin Shah, Crown Prince of Perak Darul Ridzuan, in a recent speech outlined seven principles necessary in national building efforts, including fostering a society that is open, tolerant and forward-looking.

Y4C calls on the planners and implementors of the rebranded Rakan Muda program to fully observe and practice these enunciated principles of nation building which have drawn support from all Malaysians, and to ensure that the spirit and substance of these principles are fully contained in the rebranded Rakan Muda program. Anything less will divide and demoralize our youth even more.

http://www.mysinchew.com/node/17198

Malaysia Succeeds Because Of Its Racial Integration Policy

2008-10-10 15:41

ALOR STAR: Malaysia is successful because of its policy of racial integration and freedom for its people to practise their own cultures, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak said Friday (10 Oct).

The deputy prime minister said that this policy ensured that every race could practise it own culture, religion and way of thinking, had freedom in education and was not pressured to practise one culture.

The country's founders were far-sighted because they understood the ethnic uniqueness in Malaysia and that any problems could be overcome through understanding.

That was why the government had never thought of implementing racial assimilation, he said.

"Malaysia is the only country in Southeast Asia to have Chinese schools teaching in Mandarin. There is no country in the world like Malaysia," he added.

He said the government believed that the best way for the people to live in peace was by understanding the way of life and cultures of each race and giving them freedom to practise them.

"Culture can be likened to an iceberg where only the top can clearly be seen, meaning the way of life, behaviour and traditions of each race, but hidden beneath the surface, which is hard to see, are the cultrual aspects like philosophy, experience and thinking that drive the culture," he said.

Najib said the cultural diversity of the multiracial people in Malaysia had become a tourist attraction.

He wanted the people to jointly preserve the existing peace and security by not causing any ethnic misunderstanding or raising provocative and sensitive issues.

He also said that the government gave attention to the management of the various ethnic groups by giving them special allocations to help them, as was evident in Budget 2009, to ensure harmony.

The three-day national-level festival was also attended by Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat and Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan. (AP)

http://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/2007/07/racial-integration-in-public-schools/

Racial Integration in Public Schools

You may have heard that in July 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two landmark affirmative action cases. In both cases, the Court basically ruled that school desegregation plans that are based on race/ethnicity are unconstitutional. In other words, using the race/ethnicity of students to decide who goes to what school is illegal.

With that in mind, the question becomes, how about school desegregation plans that are based on social class instead — how effective are they at achieving racial/ethnic integration? Try shed light on this question, the New York Times examines the case of several public school districts around the country and finds that in many cases, using social class instead of race to achieve racial integration is not a magical cure-all:

San Francisco began considering factors like family income, instead of race, in school assignments when it modified a court-ordered desegregation plan in response to a lawsuit. But school officials have found that the 55,000-student city school district, with Chinese the dominant ethnic group followed by Hispanics, blacks and whites, is resegregrating.

The number of schools where students of a single racial or ethnic group make up 60 percent or more of the population in at least one grade is increasing sharply. In 2005-06, about 50 schools were segregated using that standard as measured by a court-appointed monitor. That was up from 30 schools in the 2001-02 school year, the year before the change, according to court filings. . . .

Many of these experiments are modest, involve small districts or have been in place only a few years. But the experiences of these districts show how difficult it can be to balance socioeconomic diversity, racial integration and academic success.

Only a few plans appear to have achieved all three goals. Others promote income diversity but not racial integration while still other plans are limited and their results inconclusive. Those who have studied them say a key to that outcome is how aggressively a plan shifts students around and whether there are many schools that can lure middle-class students from their neighborhoods into poor ones.

To be sure, racial integration in public schools is a complicated issue. In this context, the main point that I want to emphasize is that, while educational policy is not one of my specific areas of expertise, it seems to me that the fundamental problem here is that some schools have more money and other resources than others and that racial segregation is just a symptom of this basic inequality.

In other words, as a result of the larger issue of residential segregation, in many public school districts, Black students are frequently confined to neighborhoods where property values — and therefore property taxes that are used to fund schools in that district — are lower than in predominantly White suburbs. Therefore, while money doesn’t solve everything, these mainly Black schools have less money to hire high quality teachers and to buy equipment, materials, fix their infrastructure, fund extracurricular activities, etc.

Therefore, while I may be totally missing the picture, it seems to me that in order to fix the problem at its most basic level, what we need first is a reshuffling of funds before we try to reshuffle students. That is, some kind of redistribution of school funds seems to be the only solution that will begin the process of eventual racial integration.

Of course, affluent school districts won’t be keen to have some of their money taken away. But maybe they won’t have to — maybe the answer is for the state to redistribute funds from other projects or to generate new funds for these needy district some other way. The bottom line is, if educating our young people is the key to our future, we need to look at the root cause of the problem and then every option available to address that problem.