Mediators to help resolve racial woes

New Straits Times

Taking the maxim "prevention is better than cure" to heart, the government is setting up a mechanism to nip racial problems in the bud.

Communal mediation committees will be set up at the grassroots level throughout the country from early next year to help resolve problems.

These committees will work with the police and go down to the ground to defuse any racial tension that may arise.

"The committees have been given the task of achieving a win-win situation for all the parties concerned," said National Unity and Integration Department director-general Datuk Azman Amin Hassan.

Pilot projects will take off in Penang, the Federal Territory, Selangor and Johor.

The four states were chosen based on information supplied by the Bukit Aman federal police.

"We are told that these are the states which have the most racial problems," said Azman.

He said the formation of the committees was to ensure that racial problems were resolved before they escalated out of control.

The committees will be established at district levels in each of the four states and will initially comprise of Rukun Tetangga members and officers from the unity department.

Azman said that mediation training had been given to Rukun Tetangga members by the department over the last five years.

"To date, we have trained more than 3,000 RT members to be mediators," he added. Each committee will comprise 10 to 15 members.

Experiential learning and case conferencing will be among the techniques used in the training to ensure that mediators are confident and competent.

The police are expected to work closely with the committees by informing them of communal-related problems.

Once informed by the police of a clash or argument that might turn racial, the committee members would go down to the ground and mediate the situation, said Azman.

In areas where there are no RT groups, the committee will initially comprise only of unity department officers.

He said, eventually, the plan was to include grassroots' leaders, the local authorities and members of the police force in these committees.