Fatimah (seated, third right) with other officials.
KUCHING (Feb 19): The ‘Kembara Perpaduan’ programme will be held in Sarawak this year, said Minister of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.
She said the programme aims to foster the spirit of acceptance and a culture of respect, which are decreasing among the community, as those values are crucial to community life and can bring harmony and wellbeing in the country.
Thus, she said it was vital the Ministry of National Unity through the National Unity and Integration Department continue holding this programme.
“The spirit of acceptance and a culture of respect among the community must exist and must be nurtured where it must be applied by all levels of society regardless of race, age and religion. Recently, these values have been decreasing especially among the younger generation.
“This can be seen with the issues that arise where there is no respect in the community. Even the spirit of acceptance among the community is decreasing,” she said after chairing a Sarawak National Unity Action Committee meeting, which she also chairs.
Fatimah revealed that for this year, various activities have been planned either by the aforementioned ministry and department to increase the spirit of unity and identity among the multi-racial, religious and ethnic communities in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, she said the rising prices of goods has been talked about a lot lately.
“If this issue is not dealt with properly, it can cause anxiety and worry among the people and if the price hike continues, it will cause the cost of living to increase. Even other issues will arise along with the increase of cost of living such as poverty in cities too,” she said.