Critique on "Do we want peace or unity?"

The article "Do we want peace or unity?" by Wan Saiful Wan Jan argues the possibility that the effort to create unity and integration among the Malaysian people may cause discord and disharmony. Author Wan Saiful Wan Jan is the chief executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs.

The article speaks of how, in an effort to bring forth further unity among it's citizen, the government may be sacrificing peace in order to achieve it. The author argues that, if Malaysia is to be a liberal country, then we must consider respecting the choices made by those who want to live their lives parallel of others, so long as they are not harming others, rather than forcing them to mingle with others for the sake of unity.

The author's stance on the matter is that, if some choose to live in separate grouping and parallel to others, the government should not intervene or otherwise force an interaction as these individuals who chose this way of living is, in fact not harming anyone, and thus, living peacefully with others.

Although the author brings worth several valid points, I feel it falls short of convincing me that unity and peace are separate. Although the way the title of the article states, "Do we want peace or unity?" as if we must choose one or the other, yet, his arguments does not show that it truly is one or the other. True, he has stated the points and facts of living lives parallel to others as well as how living with separate groups does not threaten peace, but not much in way of how the price for unity would be peace or vice versa.The author gave several examples of the government's efforts to promote unity among citizens as the effect of their "intervention" but did not clearly state the effects, and more importantly, whether or not it was detrimental. At the end, the author states that the government's role is not to promote integration but to maintain peace, and states that "peace" should be our end goal, rather than unity.

To conclude, although the author has given several valid points as to how people living lives parallel to others does not threaten the peace of the country, he failed to touch on how unity, or, more accurately, government intervention to promote unity, would jeopardise the peace in Malaysia, which i felt would be a more compelling point in this article.

Critique by: Loo Zhen Yuan A155864