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Promoting National Unity and Integration: A Collective Responsibility for Resilient Societies

This document explores the vital role of various stakeholders—governments, NGOs, media, educators, and community leaders—in fostering national unity and social cohesion. It emphasizes that resilient and competitive economies thrive on inclusion, equality, and rule of law. Effective approaches to avoiding conflict include learning from past mistakes while recognizing the need for action that matches rhetoric. The responsibility for promoting tolerance and fairness must extend beyond elites to grassroots levels to create more vibrant and integrated societies.

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Promoting National Unity and Integration: A Collective Responsibility for Resilient Societies

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  1. Lim Teck Ghee Forging National Unity and Integration: Whose Responsibility

  2. World Bank/IDA Findings • Resilient and Competitive Economies are marked by • high social cohesion and low conflict • inclusion of social groups • access and equality of opportunity • rule of law and vibrant democratic institutions • neutral, efficient and non-corrupt bureaucracy • open societies

  3. Less Competitive and Resilient Societies are marked by • exclusion of groups and communities • oppressive and authoritarian systems • inequity/inequality • partisan, corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy • closed society

  4. Conflict Avoidance • Learn from lessons of past but do not be imprisoned by paradigms of past • Social rights should not be delayed/reduced because of economic • disparities • Need to match rhetoric with action in practicing tolerance and fairness • Engage in positive tolerance • Practice/ internalize fairness as a prerequisite to participation in a modern pluralistic society

  5. National Integration: Whose Responsibility? • Government of the day • Mass media • Teachers and religious leaders • Elites • Tolerance and fairness must be extended beyond elite groups to the ground level through inter-faith and inter-ethnic dialogues at the community level

  6. Role of NGOs • Provide early warning through identification of social risks and tensions • Monitoring and evaluation of issues, policies and outcomes • Act as conduit for greater stakeholder participation • Act as catalyst for transparency and accountability, leading to better outcomes

  7. How ASLI/Center for Public Policy Studies Can Assist • Assist in identification and dissemination of best practices in national integration and social cohesion • Through the use of the electronic website, establish a continuing multi-ethnic forum on national integration and unity issues • Tap the potential of the younger generation in advancing national unity and integration • Assist in collection of better data with better methods and employing better analytical tools

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