Academic essay(rewrite)

Is it possible for people from different races and cultures to coexist and blend well in a society? Many people have this question in heart, and the answer is yes, definitely! Take a look at Malaysia; it’s a good example to illustrate this situation. The society in Malaysia is mainly made up of three major races: Malay, Chinese and Indian. Although these three races have great differences in terms of religion and culture, they still blend well and coexist within the same society. The key for a peaceful and harmonious society is emotional intelligence. On May 13th 1969, Malaysia witnessed the first ugly race riot. “Officially, 196 people were killed between May 13 and July 31 as a result of the riots, although journalists and other observers have stated much higher figures” (Wikipedia (n.d.), as cited in May 13 incident, 2007, para. 1). This is the ultimate defect of lacking of emotional intelligence whereby people of different races (mainly Chinese and Malays) felt offended by each other and started to fight and kill one another. According to Rowland (2004),”Official figures left 196 dead, 439 injured, 39 missing and 9143 arrested, although speculation puts the mortality rate much higher. While sporadic violence continued until July 1969, the damage inflicted upon the psyche of the nation has had a much longer life” (para. 6). This indicates that lacking of emotional intelligence in citizens will greatly disrupt the peacefulness of the society, causing unnecessary friction and disordering the harmonious scene.

In order to achieve social harmony, one of the characteristics that Malaysians must have is empathy. This attribute of emotional intelligence enables them to take the effort to understand other races’ culture. An empathetic person will try to understand and at the same time, be considerate towards other races’ culture and practises. For example, being empathetic, one does not eat in front of the Muslims during the fasting month. Lacking empathy will cause misunderstandings between the local ethnics of Malaysians and ultimately racial disharmony. Consider Chinese or Indian consuming pork when eating together at a same table with the Muslims, the Muslims might mistaken it as an insult to them. This most probably will result in a fight between them where it might as well light up the rage of racial discrimination.

Besides that, tolerance is another important attribute for Malaysians to master. With tolerance, one will always try to be as understanding as possible and bear with each other’s mistakes. Generally, a person with tolerance will have the forgiving characteristic as well, and this minimizes the friction between different races and therefore enhances the peacefulness of the society. Let us take the Chinese as an example. One of their traditional practices is that they will hold a prayer on the night of a funeral for a couple of days. This might disturb other neighbours, especially Muslims where they need to pray at certain time frames in a day. In this kind of situation, tolerance comes into picture and enables them to be understanding and try to bear with the disturbance caused. In the situation stated above, absence of tolerance will result in a fight between the neighbours and again, it offends the sensitivity of racial issues.

Another very important characteristic that Malaysians must have is respect. Generally, we can conclude that different races in Malaysia have different religious beliefs and therefore different religion leads to different culture and practices. Now, respect has its importance in the sense that it avoids offending actions towards other races and religion. Through respect, one would understand about others’ practices and beliefs avoiding others feeling offended or insulted. Without respect, the impact to the social harmony of the society is unbelievably serious. Imagine an Indian making fun of Allah, which is the God for Muslims, or imagine someone drawing nonsense on the Holy Bible, the outcome of these lack-of-respect actions may even tear the society apart.

In conclusion, lacking of emotional intelligence in citizens has a great negative impact on the multicultural country as what we have seen in Malaysia. However, the existence of a peaceful multicultural community is still possible if characteristics like empathy, tolerance and respect are greatly instilled into each and every citizen. Everyone can blend well and coexist in the society if and only if people practice high emotional intelligence. This is the only pathway to build a solid and united community in a multicultural country like Malaysia.

References

Rowland, K. (2004, March 29). May 13 in our minds
Retrieved October 15, 2007, from
http://www.kakiseni.com.my/articles/reviews/MDQ4Ng.html#top

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). May 13 incident
Retrieved October 15, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_13_Incident