MUAFAKAT Corner

Monday, February 1, 2010

Cabaran kepada Kepimpinan MUAFAKAT

Di dalam artikel yang ditulis oleh Alan B. Slifka yang bertajuk Leadership for Enhancing Coexistence: Promoting Social Cohesion Among Groups in Pluralistic Societies di dalam buku Crossing the Divide: Intergroup Leadership in a World of Difference menggariskan beberapa halangan kepada model kepimpinan 'MUAFAKAT':

i) Painful Memories: Religious, Ethnic, Cultural and Regional Conflict
ii) Trauma, Resistance to Change and Addiction to the Status Quo
iii) Differing Backgrounds, Experiences and Conditioning
iv) Minorities' Desire for Inclusion Without Loss of Cultural and Religious Identities
v) Discrimination and Inequality of Opportunity
vi) Lack of an Entity Charged with Responsibility for Promoting Social Cohesion

Leadership: What Goverment Can Do:
- must take active steps to promote equality, diversity, inclusion coexistence among people etc.
- the need for leadership not only on the part of the goverment but also on the part of coexistence scholars, nongovernmental organizations, and private citizens to provide the moral support, research, and personnel required to make the notion of a shared future a national goal.
- e.g. Community Relation Council (NGO), Triennal Action Plan etc.

Leadership: What Individual Leaders Can Do:
- effort to create a new vision
- e.g. Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi

Improving Leadership for Coexistence:
a. Recognize and identify community diversity within state borders

b. Acknowledge diversity as areality that positively contributes to the country's economic and moral development

c. ratify and implement relevant international declaration and covenants concerning respect for differences, tolerance and peace

d. work with local and national government agencies, civil and social organizations, community leaders to identify key barriers to coexistence and develop policies to address them.

e. create institutions to implement and monitor these policies in tandem with civil and social groups

f. codify policies into laws, where appropriate

g. keep the public informed of the benefits of the policies and include the public in the process of creating and implementing them

h. engage with all identity groups on aregular basis to ensure that they feel included in government policies and programs.