The Malaysia government since the independence of the country has put

endless efforts towards achieving the national integration. The national

integration process is not possible in a day. The word government is meant that a
group of people who are responsible for controlling a country or a state.
Government still facing some challenges to unite the nation and through
overcoming these obstacles a country can acquire its true integration. The major
challenges that the country has to face and resolve is prejudice, racism and
ethnocentrism.

Do you know what prejudice is? It refers to the attitude towards others
based on evidences which is not concrete and might be wrong. As an example,
poverty aspect was caused by dependence of middlemen who are exploitive and
economic gap between rural area and urban area. This is because in old generation,
Chinese people live in urban area and doing their own business easily so they are
much richer than Malay people and Indian people whom live in rural area.

Besides that, racism refers to the attitude of favouring one’s own ethnic
group. Nowadays, this kind of feeling is also prevalent in Malaysia. For example,
the political parties that exist in Malaysia are still on ethnic base. UMNO
represents the Malays, MCA and Gerakan represent the Chinese, MIC represents
the Indians and many others. For example, segregation in education system, race-
based political landscape and cultural differences are the problems including in
racism. The fact that occurs segregation in education system is geographical
separation of vernacular school. During the British colonial, they did not have a
clear education policy. They allowed education to develop into four virtually
segregated streams which were based on ethnicity – English, Malay, Chinese and
Tamil. The Chinese student who went to vernacular school used Chinese
language as the medium of instruction and children were exposed to the history
of China. As the same time, Malay student and Indian student also using their
own language which are Malay and Tamil. By this way, different races of people
cannot communicate with each other because does not have common language to
understand each other’s and communicate and caused the Malays, Chinese and
Indians to be separated according to the school system and the relationship
between them became increasingly widespread.

Race-based political landscape state that each party representing the

interests of its ethnic enclave. There are three main political parties representing
the Malays, likewise the Chinese and Indians in our multiracial country. For
instance, United Malays National Organization (UMNO) represents the Malays,
Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Gerakan represent the Chinese,
Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) represents the Indians and many others. It
happens in the country where there are some companies refuse to hire those who
cannot speak certain language that belongs to one ethnic group.

Cultural differences can be define as people from different regions of the

country began to fight for their superiority over other regions and wanted to gain
autonomy or even independence. Cultural differences will easily spark off
feelings of prejudice, racism, and ethnocentrism, all of which pose threat to
national integration. In Malaysia, every races have their habits and cultural. They
will celebrate their festival in current days or month such as Hari Deepavali,
Happy Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

The government of Malaysia is very serious in achieving the national unity

and integration. Many approaches have been put forward to overcome the
obstacles and challenges. First, government introduces national ideology that is
Rukun Negara which is one of the political approach taken by the government is
introducing national ideology. The ideology was created by National
Consultative Council after the racial riot of 13 May 1969 at the time the country
was under the rule of MAGERAN. On 31 August 1970, it was declared as a
national ideology. Its aim is to instill a common spirit and identity among the
people and to strengthen the unity among the people. The national ideology has
five principles which are Belief in God, Loyalty to King and Country, Nobleness
of the Constitution, Sovereignty of the Law and Courtesy and Decency. In general,
the objectives of the national ideology are to achieve a greater unity among the
people, to maintain democratic way of life, to create a just society, to ensure a
liberal attitude towards the rich and variety of cultural traditions, to build a society
that is progressive in science and technology.

Second, by improving economic integration in Malaysia, government

undergoes New Economic Policy (NEP). NEP is an economic approach by the
government. It was introduced in 1970 after the racial riot of 13 May 1969. Main
reason that caused the riot is due to economic reason in which there was wide
economic gap between the races especially between the Malays and Chinese. The
NEP is considered as an economic development and national unity programme in
a multiracial society. NEP was introduced to demolish the economic gap between
Bumiputras and non-Bumiputras, people in the rural and town areas, people in
the west coast and east coast states, people in Peninsular and Borneo (Sabah and
Sarawak). Two -pronged aim are to reduce and eradicate poverty by increasing
income and job opportunities to all citizens without looking at their races and to
restructure communities in order to reduce and erase the identification of races
through economic function.

Third, in the way overcome the problem of culture integration, government

uses National Culture Policy (NCP) on it. National Culture Policy (NCP) is a
social approach towards the national integration and was introduced in August
1971. It based on the culture the indigenous people of the country. Malay
language is made as the official language and medium of communication in the
NCP. Aim of NCP is create a national identity for the multiracial society of
Malaysia.

Next, by improving education integration in Malaysia, government

undergoes National Education Policy. The development of national education
started with the Razak Report in 1956 continue with the Rahman Talib Report ,
The Hussien Onn Report and finally The Mahathir Report. The important features
in education system are form a national system of education to all races, Malay
language as the medium of instruction in education while status of English is a
second language, establish a curriculum that was oriented on the environment of
the homeland by creating a standard syllabus.