The concept of inclusive development needs to be established in Malaysia instead of using frameworks that rely on ethnicity and religion, according to a group of academicians.
In a roundtable discussion led by Ethnic Research Institute (Kita) principal research fellow Denison Jayasooria (photo above), the group of academicians agreed that development within the country is too polarised.
"We don't have the concept of inclusive development, that is our biggest problem in Malaysia.
"It (development) is very ethnicised and the polarisation takes place at the institutional and societal level," another Kita principal fellow, KS Nathan, said during the discussion held at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Bangi today.
He said that development in the country should be using a human rights approach, instead of coming from an ethnic or religious perspective.
Once someone starts to view development from an ethnic or religious perspective, he said they would stop viewing issues as human rights issues.
Denison added to Nathan's point, explaining that there needs to be "holistic empowerment" for the people, instead of empowerment for only selected aspects such as the economic or social aspects.
"Development that is isolated from a (human) rights framework is disempowering and is not sustainable.
"We need to adopt a human rights approach and don't just go by particular sub-categories only because there will be those who will be left out," he said.
Meanwhile, former Pemandu officer Jasmine Adaickalam said that the framework being used currently for empowering the people seemed to be weak.
However, she said that it was not just the government's fault, but also the fault of civil societies who appeared to be more concerned about political alignments.
In dealing with empowering the people of Malaysia, Denison said that the government seemed to have all the plans in place in the 10th and 11th Malaysia Plans.
Unfortunately, he said, the delivery and implementation of those plans lacked transparency.
Nathan also said that there was a gap between rhetoric and reality when it came to delivery of the plans.
Meanwhile, Jasmine pointed out that the government's definition of who's in the Bottom 40 (B40) is too narrow.
The government should include migrant workers and such, regardless of whether they are legal or not.
"Whether the government likes it or not, they (migrant workers) are here so government has to manage them well.
"We can deal with whether they are legal or illegal later on," she said. - Mkini
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