COMMON GROUND FOR ONE NATION: JACKSON

KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 (Bernama) -- Those who live in 'one nation' must find
the common ground to be together.

This, in turn, leads to cooperation, coalition and reconciliation, prominent
American civil rights leader and political activist Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson
Sr said today.

"When people go to work together, live in a neighbourhood together and
children go to school together, then they would be able to learn to be
productive together.

"(However) as long as you have the walls of separation, it will limit and
inhibit growth," the president and founder of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition told
reporters.

He was answering a query on the challenges faced by multi-ethnic countries
like Malaysia in the globalisation era.

Earlier, he delivered a talk, 'Building A Culture of Peace and Development
in a Globalised World', at the event series 'Bridges-Dialogues Towards a Culture
of Peace' here.

The event was organised by Malaysia's Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign
Relations (IDFR).

Also present were Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Chee Leong, former
deputy prime minister and Malaysian Chairman of 'Bridges-Dialogues Towards a
Culture of Peace' Musa Hitam and International Peace Foundation (IPF)
advisory board chairman Prince Alfred of Liechtenstein.

Jackson also said that it was time to choose "inclusion over exclusion" to
strengthen a multi-racial community and be 'one nation' on the common one
umbrella.

He said Malaysia was a global force as it managed to develop its
manufacturing and electronic industries, thus becoming an export nation of
products such as plasma television and microchips globally.

However, he said that had Malaysia invested half of its resources to buy
weapons and training more soldiers, such growth and success would have not been
possible.

He said Malaysia's future was in the area of research and development.
-- BERNAMA