JOHOR BARU: The Rukun Negara Secretariat (SRN) will play a crucial role in boosting the national unity agenda, which is in line with the Malaysian Family initiative, says Datuk Halimah Mohamed Sadique.
The National Unity Minister said plans were in the pipeline to set up more SRN in all public and private universities besides providing a larger allocation for students to conduct unity and integration programmes next year.
“Currently, there are 187 SRN in public and private universities nationwide. These secretariats were introduced with cooperation from the Education Ministry and the Higher Education Ministry.
“We are also working on introducing a module of activities that the students can conduct at their campus or when they carry out their community engagement programmes,” she told reporters after the closing ceremony of the Debat Perpaduan Keluarga Malaysia at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Skudai yesterday.
Halimah said her ministry was currently having a discussion with the Finance Ministry on finalising the amount of allocation that would be announced in the coming Budget.
“The ideas from the module are from the students themselves. We wanted them to take the lead in programmes and activities they think can nurture and strengthen the national unity agenda.
“We also wanted them to decide on what can attract the most participation and give the most impact,” she said, adding that the programmes must reflect the country’s unity and multi-racial identity.
“These university students would also become unity ambassadors for the ministry and turn their campus into a place of integration for all races,” she added.
On another matter, Halimah said the ministry introduced five language classes in all 1,781 Perpaduan kindergartens to foster better understanding through communication among children aged between four and six.
“The language classes are Mandarin, Tamil, Iban, Kadazan and sign language in the hope that this will help improve their social skills when entering primary school,” she said.
