The 2nd SEACSN Malaysian National Workshop:
Executive Summary

The 2nd Southeast Asian Conflict Studies Network (SEACSN) Malaysian National Workshop entitled “Peace Education: Towards Promoting Peaceful Values and Positive Peace in Malaysia” was successfully conducted from January 17th -18th 2003 with the following objectives:
- To evaluate the existing state of peace education in Malaysia
- To identify and analyze the current conflict issues in the country
- To formulate and process a curriculum for peace education for Malaysian institutions of higher learning as well as for schools
- To discuss the strategies needed to implement peace education programs

The workshop unanimously endorsed the proposal that peace education is a necessity in Malaysia as the country needs a mechanism to integrate its multi-religious and multi-ethnic population. Since race and religion are the major divisive issues in the country, the workshop came to the conclusion that peace education in Malaysia should incorporate elements that enhance the understanding of the pluralist nature of Malaysian society. This could be done by appreciating and celebrating multiculturalism as a virtue. Thus, the workshop has proposed that peaceful values should be introduced early in the curriculum in order to educate members of society from a young age. The workshop came up with the following recommendations to implement peace education at the primary and secondary level.
- It should be integrated with other subjects and not as a new subject
- It should be inculcated into the co-curricular programme through activities such as summer camps where students from various races can get to know each other and promote greater understanding.
- The syllabus for peace education at the primary and secondary level should promote universal values and be targeted at trainee teachers, teachers, headmasters, community leaders and NGOs.
- Designing evaluation mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of programs introduced
- The concept of ‘Vision Schools’ should be actively propagated as it enables students from different races to mix freely by sharing common facilities, thus promoting greater understanding.
- The composition of teachers in schools (regardless whether national or parochial) should reflect the multi-ethnic character of the country
- The need for a taskforce to co-ordinate and oversee these recommendations

A different emphasis has been recommended for the introduction of peace education at the tertiary level. The rationales behind the introduction of peace education at this level are the challenges of globalization, increasing volatility in global politics, and inevitability of conflict. Thus, peace education can act as a catalyst for enhancing greater understanding between the various civilizations in the world. In order to promote multiculturalism, the curriculum for peace education at the tertiary level should stress the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Knowledge should be concentrated on the following:
- Theory of peace
- Ethics
- Environment
- Politics
- Development
- Sociology
- Religion
- Philosophy

The necessary skills that were identified as being required were:
- Conflict resolution skills
- Communication
- Management - negotiation
- Social skills

This is to ensure that students at this level are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills that will be beneficial to them in dealing with the real-world situation. It is hoped that after going through such training students will in turn adopt the following values (attitudes)
- Positive
- Peace
- Tolerance
- Empathy

The implementation can be done at two levels – undergraduate and postgraduate. However, short courses can also be offered. At the undergraduate level, peace education can be offered as a minor or an elective course. Whereas, the emphasis at the post-graduate level, must be multi-disciplinary in approach, cater for the regional demands as well as within the country. It is thus necessary to establish a center for peace education in Malaysia with Universiti Sains Malaysia taking a leading role since no university within Southeast Asia has offered peace education programmes.

The design of the programme should be:
- Student centered curriculum or process based curriculum
- Community based curriculum so students would be functional in community
- The content should concentrate on community involvement

Implementation strategies should give more consideration on preparing students to be functional in the community. This can be done through role-play, skill enhancing, and simulation activities. The proposed methods of assessment are as follows:
- Multiple assessment measures for assessment of attitude
- Evaluation of perception
- Paper tests
- Project basis – report, research-based.

In conclusion, the introduction of peace education at both school and tertiary levels is vital to promote racial and religious harmony in the country. It is therefore necessary to establish a task-force to look deeply into the matter and a comprehensive study be done to ascertain the viability and feasibility of implementing peace education in Malaysia.


Content
  January - June 2005
  January - June 2004
  October - December 2003
  July - September 2003
  April - June 2003
  January - March 2003
  July - September 2002
  October - December 2002