KUALA SELANGOR, Sept 12 ― Education Minister Maszlee Malik today gave his advice to students on how to foster love and unity among fellow citizens.

In a townhall session with Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) students, Maszlee lamented that there is too much hatred and negativity being spread on social media.

“Say no to hate. Say no to hatred. Say no to ‘membawang’,” he said in his speech, using the Malay slang for gossiping.

“Say no also to feeling of suspicious of one other. We say yes to love, we say yes to mutual respect.

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“The root is love. No matter which school we go to. No matter what school stream we attend, if we think of love inside of us, we discard hatred, we discard feeling of envy towards  of one another and we nurture mutual respect, we can be united,” he added.

Maszlee was responding to a question from a student, as to whether the government would study the possibility of creating only one school stream, to counter ethnic division and polemic among communities.

This comes amid a Twitter campaign launched by Malaysians in a bid to persuade the Raja Permaisuri Agong to reactivate her account.

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Tunku Azizah’s account is believed to have been deactivated on Tuesday prompting Malaysians to quickly begin sharing the #AmpunTuanku hashtag in an apparent bid to convince the Raja Permaisuri Agong to change her mind.

At a time of increasing racial polarisation and negativity, Tunku Azizah and Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah have been beacons of national hope and unity.

During recent celebrations, the Agong also spoke out along with fellow Malay Rulers about the dangers of polarisation and extreme politics in the country.