Diversity In Malaysia Essay

I once read somewhere that the present living population on earth is more than the combined population of all the people who had ever lived in history. I do not know if this is a fact or a mere speculation, but, no matter what the truth turns out to be, the current world population is enormous. It’s so huge that it exceeds 7 billion, thus, providing reason to believe that there are countless amounts of races, religions and ethnicity present in this world although there are only four major races amongst them. This undeniable fact gives us a picture of how diverse this world is, where all 196 countries in the world would have to have more than two race, religion and ethnic. All this knowledge brings to mind one simple and impactful statement.

Malaysia consists of three major races and many more religions and beliefs. This diversity was the root cause of our Independence and it does not really drive us apart from each other, rather, it attracts each of us in a strange way and has created this unique bond between races, and ethnicity. It has become our identity, so much so, that when people think of Malaysia, they do not just think of one race, instead, a diverse bunch of people that are symbiotic in a sense. For example, this diversity has caused a vast variety of food to be present in Malaysia, and Malaysians have come to a stage where we cannot just live on one kind of food that is derived from our own culture alone and we naturally enjoy eating food originating from other races too. Harmony is more than just enjoying a diverse variety of food; it is the spirit of understanding, and working together with our fellow Homo sapiens regardless of age, color, races, religions and social status. In a nutshell, harmony within diversity must be nurtured and cherished because it plays an important role in our lives. As Abraham Lincoln once said ‘a house divided against itself cannot stand’. Even happiness cannot be achieved without harmony because happiness is a product of peace which derives from harmony. Mahatma Gandhi himself said ‘happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony’. Thus, no matter what we do, where there is no harmony, there will not be any good out of