ALOR STAR: Malaysia is successful because of its policy of racial integration and freedom for its people to practise their own cultures, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak said Friday (10 Oct).

The deputy prime minister said that this policy ensured that every race could practise it own culture, religion and way of thinking, had freedom in education and was not pressured to practise one culture.

The country's founders were far-sighted because they understood the ethnic uniqueness in Malaysia and that any problems could be overcome through understanding.

That was why the government had never thought of implementing racial assimilation, he said.

"Malaysia is the only country in Southeast Asia to have Chinese schools teaching in Mandarin. There is no country in the world like Malaysia," he added.

He said the government believed that the best way for the people to live in peace was by understanding the way of life and cultures of each race and giving them freedom to practise them.

"Culture can be likened to an iceberg where only the top can clearly be seen, meaning the way of life, behaviour and traditions of each race, but hidden beneath the surface, which is hard to see, are the cultrual aspects like philosophy, experience and thinking that drive the culture," he said.

Najib said the cultural diversity of the multiracial people in Malaysia had become a tourist attraction.

He wanted the people to jointly preserve the existing peace and security by not causing any ethnic misunderstanding or raising provocative and sensitive issues.

He also said that the government gave attention to the management of the various ethnic groups by giving them special allocations to help them, as was evident in Budget 2009, to ensure harmony.

The three-day national-level festival was also attended by Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat and Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan. (AP)