SOCIAL UNITY Societies are largely based upon the degree to which people identify with one another

- that is, the degree to which they feel a sameness as, a connectedness to, and a commonality with one another. This strength of identity is determined by The physical similarity of people in a group, The emotional similarity of people in a group, and The similarity of identity and culture in a group - that is, similarity in views, likes, dislikes, heroes, stories, traditions, clothing, history, principles, music, ways of doing things, beliefs, etc.

The more similar individuals are in these regards, the more strongly will they identify with one another. The more strongly they identify with one another, the more fond they will be of one another. And the more fond they are one another, the more pronounced will be the social unity among them. Conversely, the less similar are individuals in these regards, the less strongly will they identify with one another. The less strongly they identify with one another, the less fond will they be of one another. And the less fond they are of one another, the less pronounced will be the social unity among them. In a society in which there were a high degree of unity, there would be ittle conflict! "eople would work well together! There would be a relatively high degree of concern for the welfare of the others in that society! There would be a relatively high degreee of concern for the society as a whole! and In general, happiness would be relatively high.

In a society in which there were a low degree of unity, there would be Considerable conflict! "eople would not work well together! There would be a relatively low degree of concern for the welfare of others in that society! There would be a relatively low degree of concern for the society as a whole! and In general, happiness would be at a relatively low ebb.

The degree of a sense of similarity among those of a society is very important in determining the degree of fondness that those of the society have for one another and, so, the unity of the society.

Measuring unityandsocialharmony

#y Santha $or%itham &'$ are your three best friends( &ho lives ne)t door to you( If you were given the chance to learn a language in addition to *nglish and #ahasa +alaysia, which language would you choose( These are the kind of ,uestions academics have been asking a cross-section of +alaysians since the -./0s. And, they say, the scientific and systematic measurement of national unity and social harmony, which the 1overnment Transformation "rogramme 21T"3 4oadmap calls for, is not only possible but also already being done. 5The popular approach is to do a survey through ,uestionnaires,5 said 6atuk A7man Amin 'assan, director-general of the 6epartment of 8ational 9nity and Integration 2689I3. 5That is useful, but is unable to help us manage polarity issues within the community that re,uire speedy intervention.5 689I set up a tracking system, e-Sepakat, in :00; with the help of the police, communities and its own 689I officers. It has developed the Societal Stress Inde) 2SSI3, which covers terror, riots, demonstrations, protests, attacks, ,uarrels and issues. In :00/, with general elections and numerous issues raised, it recorded :/ cases per million population. The number dropped to :: cases per million last year. SSI helps the department to identify high-risk areas and issues that re,uire immediate attention, A7man e)plained. 59nity officers on the ground can ,uickly intervene to manage the situation and prevent it from turning ugly,5 he said adding that 689I also needs long-term studies to manage social cohesion and environment better. +ost of the department<s interaction is with 9niversiti =ebangsaan +alaysia<s Institute of *thnic Studies 2=ita3, but it also mulls over input from 9niversiti Sains +alaysia 2whose School of Social Sciences is setting up the Tun >. Sambanthan 9nity Chair3 and 9niversiti "utra +alaysia<s 5"ositive and 8egative 6rivers on 8ational 9nity5, among others. 6ata is needed to gauge progress on the roadmap<s targets of boosting national unity and ensuring there are mechanisms to resolve disputes. #ut what are the indicators( Instead of focusing on the minority who are involved in ethnic conflict, says 6atuk Shamsul Amri #aharuddin, founder and director of =ita, e)perts should also focus on cohesion among the ma%ority. *)perts have been looking at police reports about ethnic tension, added 9S+<s 6r Sivamurugan "andian, 5but we should also look at the level of trust between ethnic groups5. Sivamurugan, who has studied perceptions of unity and integration among students from *ast and &est +alaysia, says the research can help to 5manage ethnic problems, looking at shared values rather than differences5.

'e said it would help frontliners, including community mediators and the police, to understand the issues. The 1lobal "eace Inde), for e)ample, records the number of deaths from internal conflict, level of distrust in other citi7ens and level of violent demonstrations. #ut it also measures the degree of 5societal consensus and cohesion to underpin a stable functioning democracy5.

That<s what =ita aims to chart with its Social Cohesion Inde) for the +onitoring of *thnic 4elations in +alaysia which began in ?ebruary last year and uses parliamentary constituencies as units of measurement and have collected data on @0 seats since last August. Their indicators are similar to the Auality of ife Inde) that the *conomic "lanning 9nit compiled between -... and :00B. And =ita<s "erception Inde) gauges how people feel about their ,uality of life. 5?or e)ample, if different ethnic groups in the same constituency don<t have the same ,uality of life, such as the standard of schools, that could cause problems.5 6ata on national unity is crucial, the academics stressed. 5&e should have an early warning system and prevention rather than cure,5 says Shamsul. 6atuk 6r &an Abdul 'alim $thman, who set up a monitoring system at the community level in -./B with 4ukun Tetangga 24T3, also e)plores relationshipsC 5who is interacting with whom, by age group, level of education, between neighbours, etc.5 The clinical sociologist, who has trained the country<s first batch of community mediators from four states and is now working with the second batch of B00, looks out for what +alaysians 5know about other ethnic groups and cultures, how they feel about them and what is the fre,uency and intensity of their interaction(5 5It is very important for the indicators to be gathered at that inter-personal and group level. &e should not spend too much time at the national level without going to the ground,5 he said adding the mechanism to collect such data is already in place. 5*very community has a leader -- of the >illage 6evelopment Committees or 4T. *ach is responsible for about :0 houses. It is easy to get the information as they already have it on the ground. "ersonal decisions, about conversion, for e)ample, should not become national issues. They have to be solved at the local level.5 &an Abdul 'alim also said that no study can ever give the total picture. 5#ut we must develop a monitoring system involving the grassroots, and updating it. &e have the people and the resources. &e %ust need people to take it seriously.5 28ew Straits Times, :; +ar :0-0, pg -B, "rime 8ews3

9nity and e)cellence in systems of the 8ation. 2-3 "osted byC ra%akumark

9nity and social cohesions in systems of the nation is vital for +alaysia. +ore actions needs to be taken to overcome these problems. *verywhere in all facets of malaysia<s systems, we are finding more disunity in the systems. ?ailure in unity systems need not continue and can be nipped in the bud with right actions by all parties. ?rom members of parliament,political parties ,citi7ens and families we are finding more and more disunity. If all members of malaysian society, act together in unity,these disunity woes can be nipped in bud. +alaysians have to dig deep into their mental and physical wealth to come up with more better dynamic ideas, to nip the disunity woes in the bud. Things may not be perfect in +alaysia,but the reality is that this is our land of birth and death, with all its flaws. &e should be united to live as one in +alaysia as this is also the land of birth of future +alaysians. $ur families and ne)t generations are in +alaysia,why should we not be united as one great united +alaysian nation. &e should not let the imperfections created by our systems, mar our unity as one nation. Thou we are imperfect, I do not think we are more imperfect than many other nations of the world, who may be even more imperfect in their ways. There should more activities among +alaysians to promote unity and social cohesions as one nation. &e may have our differences in race,religion and politics, but we must find a common cause by which we become more socially united as one. 9nity in our systems need to enhanced. It does not re,uire much change to present systems. It %ust needs a consciousness elevation among +alaysians about the importance of unity and social cohesions in our systems. In which nation do we find malaysian indians and malaysian chinese speaking as good malay, as malaysian malay. In which nation do you find malay malaysian people, cooking and selling,chinese culture and indian culture food. In which nation do people of all races get together to en%oy each other<s company during christmas,deepavali and hari raya. In which nation do all people speak more than : languages. I myself can speak D languages and am trying to learn another language,to make it E languages. +any one language nations seem to struggling %ust speaking good and staying united in one language. These are only a few unity e)cellence observations that makes us +alaysians want to unite and improve our unity systems in +alaysia.

&e +alaysian are lucky and blessed people,who live in a rich and fertile khatulistiwa2e,uator3 land called +alaysia. &e are blessed with much fertile greenery,diversity of races and many other wealths in both visibleFinvisible forms. &e must stay true to our bersatu ideal systems, in our social cohesion systems to make the nation better than what it was in past. The unity systems and social cohesions systems must get better for the future of all malaysians. A lot people outside the nations can say many ugly things about our nation, but it should make us more determined to make more efforts,for e)cellence of unity and social cohesions in our systems. &e should take the motto of, 5 the more the re%ections we get, the closer we get to , +alaysia<s great contibution outcome5. In the past during -.D0s when the country was in chaos and disorder, many foreign nation said that we will become a failed nation. In -.D0s many +alaysians were so poor, we could not even afford to buy shirts to wear with sarongs. Gust compare those times from today, in terms of wealth. 8owadays we so much clothings, we rather be giving them away to other poorer nations. 8ow in :000s we have proved many foreign critics wrong, and continue to forge ahead despite hiccups in our systems. +alaysia has emerged as a dynamic nation, which is sort to be role modeled by many other developing nations. +alaysia with China and India, are the highest productive nations of the world, in terms of wealth creations. The cooperation between China,India, +alaysia and others has created @D0 million richer people in India and another D00 million over rich in China. This system e)pansions,can we help abolish, even more poverty in many other nations. 9nity and social cohesions in +alaysian systems should further be further perfected so that we can be a shining role model nation in Asia, for other less sucessful nations to aspire for. A lot mistakes have been made in our nation history,but in due time we have been able overcome these mistakes made with flying colours. ets take the mistake of imprisoning malaysian politicians. +any of these imprisoned politicians now in higher positions, than they were ever before. This one e)ample about how our nation has overcomed its mistakes. &e are yet to overcome many other mistakes,but hard work and in good time we can again overcome these mistake. There needs to be a more positive outlook in us, to overcome our mistakes and enhance our malaysian unity and social cohesion systems. There is also a need to in%ect more honesty in our systems. 'onesty is best policy, which will propel us to greater e)cellence.

+alaysians need to work harder to promote more honesty in all field of disciplines and activities. &e have to create easy citi7en feedback honesty systems and get more pro-active in responses to feedbacks. +alaysians also need embark more in creating more care in our systems. &e need to lessen doing things that burden the citi7ens more. &e need to pro%ect more care in all our activites in our daily work activites.