Living a lifetime with the ‘other’

Together despite the differences: The columnist (standing, second from left) with his two sons, three daughters, three grandchildren and wife (seated, in brown tudung).

IN my public talks on nation-building and unity, I always use a “joke” that sums up the topic succinctly: I would explain that when I got married 37 years ago, our first few years were filled with arguments 98% of the time, but now that we have lived together for almost four decades, I am proud to say that we now agree on 8% of the issues! A mere difference of 6% after all that time.

I use my experiences with my family as a simple lesson on unity and nation-building. Unity, it seems, is less about agreeing on the majority of issues and more about living with differences of views and perspectives most of the time.