They agreed that the government good policy on minority ethnic community is instrumental in fusing mainstream ethnic group and minority group into a harmonious society.
They noted that the government has been so far fair in giving equal treatments to them ranging from education, health, social and welfare serices and in other aspects pertaining to their well-being.
However they also raised their concerns on various other issues pertaining to the well-being of minority ethnic groups such as their identity as Brunei Malay ethnic groups and certain system that could polarise the mainstream Malay ethnic groups that comprised of Brunei, Tutong, Belait and Kedayan and the minority Malay ethnic groups into two social entities.
They viewed that there are some downsides in the current term of references on minority ethnic groups as well as on certain systems that could affect their well-being and their sense of belonging.
Sdra Morshidi in responding to their concerns agreed that these issues must not be ignored. He stressed that addressing such issues is not a ‘one way traffic’ and suggested that all parties concerned must take initiative to address them.
“Importantly we must all take initiative to narrow the gap of misunderstanding between the mainstream community and the minority groups. We must pursue efforts to continuously foster understanding and harmonious living, especially among the young generation. We need to genuinely instill the sense of belonging among the minority ethnic groups”.
He proposed that NDP Non Muslim Bureau would host a seminar on understanding ethnic groups in Brunei.
“It would be an ideal platform to start with in the efforts to foster greater mutual respect and understanding between mainstream Malay community and the minority ethnic groups”, suggested sdra Morshidi.
He welcomed ethnic groups to send their representatives to present papers about their language, social cultures, traditions and other subjects pertaining to other aspects of their life.
He said NDP would provide all the assistance needed to compile these papers into a book for dissemination to the public, for example a dictionary of their language or a book about their culture and tradition.
“The seminar is just one of the initiatives we could look into in efforts to ensure we continue to live together and harmoniously as one Brunei community. It is not going to be a one off event. There are many other initiatives that we could take to foster this inter-cultural and inter-faiths existence”, he added.
What is important is that we must not take our harmonious living for granted, he said adding that NDP has in fact set up a special bureau called, ‘Bureau for Multi Ethnics Relations’ to take up the task of fostering good relations among all the ethnic groups in the country.
