MAY 26 — Dawn of a new era; there is new hope, new aspiration, and celebration. We are in for a new and better Malaysia for all Malaysians .This is the mood created after Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) victory in the recent GE14. A Malaysia not built on racial or money politics, but on the sincerity to serve from the heart. GE 14 proved colour blind politics built on racial unity won versus politics based on racial divides.

GE14 proved it was a huge error to underestimate the liberal,moderate democratic spirit ,intelligence, maturity, honor and respectability of the electorate. Money can never buy a vote but the honesty to serve can.

It’s never a better time now to build a new Malaysia with one mind, spirit, and soul. Instill the patriotic spirit and pride of being a Malaysian first, and always with the thought of race in the far reaches of our minds. This new spirit can start with our very young in schools especially in kindergartens and primary schools where mindsets can be positively nurtured, and developed.

Many post- mortems after GE 14 have been analysed; what PH did right and where BN missed feeling the pulse of the rakyat. Even MCA are now mulling with the idea of opening membership to other races which was unheard of before. The .rakyat have spoken, and demanded for racial politics to be buried to be replaced with a new united political framework created by Malaysians for Malaysians.

Debate continues on the current education system of National schools, Chinese, and Tamil schools against a one school system encompassing the need for our children to learn and appreciate all 3 major languages. The time is here and now to relook at a one school system to truly build a united Malaysian race reflecting the spirit and political reality of the day. Some continue to believe on the goodness of unity in diversity by having different language schools before, but the truth of the matter is we are sadly drifting further apart. A reality check is critical at this point.

Children of different races do not mix any more as often as we did in the 50s and 60s.Unity in diversity cannot be better expressed via a one school system with our children of all races, religions and cultures studying and playing together. It is often said that a family that plays together stays together; it’s the same with a nation which boast a rich sports culture. This culture should be nurtured at a very young age and made an integral, and important part of the school system to build a healthy and united nation.

There is no better way to unite our beloved nation than through sports as it has universal appeal and cuts across all political, racial, socio-economic, religious, and cultural divides. Many of us will never forget the euphoria of the 1992 Thomas Cup victory, the1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia ,the 2001 and 2017 Sea Games we hosted, when we were champions. We celebrated the amazing achievements of our sports icons and world champions in Nicol David, Lee Chong Wei, Azizul and Cheong Jun Hoon with pride. Victories are fleeting moments to celebrate, and but it is equally important to develop a sustainable sports culture amongst our children in schools

Sports has immense capacity to develop strength of character and personality in our children. Sports promotes so many good values to include leadership, teamwork, passion, determination, discipline, respect for opponents, fairplay, humility, and dedication to name a few. More importantly, sports unite.

Sports is life itself as it promotes all these good wholesome universal values. Let’s make sports a big part of our children’s lives. It is often said that when we give half a chance to a child to play he or she will jump for joy. Universally sports is in every child’s DNA. It is almost a universal right of a child to play and we adults must not deprive them of this right. The more we create opportunities for our children to play and interact, the more we are building a truly lasting united race. I can’t think of a better way to promote this united sport culture and spirit than through a one school one vision system.

We have immense respect and faith in the wisdom, wealth of knowledge and experience in our present government under the visionary leadership of YAB Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad. Please let our children learn and play together. Together let’s make Malaysia great again.

* Dina Rizal reads Malay Mail

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.