KUCHING, July 12: Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri will be among prominent speakers at a webinar organised by Yayasan Perpaduan Sarawak (YPS) this Thursday (July 15) via Zoom titled “Shared History As The Foundation of Unity and Racial Cohesion”.
Other speakers include National Unity Ministry Unity advisor Prof Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities senior lecturer Dr Juna Liau, Universiti Malaya, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Department of Anthropology and Sociology senior lecturer Dr Welyne Jeffrey Jehom and Architects of Diversity (AoD) co-founder Jason Wee.
The webinar will be moderated by former Sarawak Islamic Information Centre chief executive officer Zabariah Matali.
YPS in a press statement said the purpose of the webinar is to examine the fundamentals of the nation’s common history, as well as the role of shared history in achieving national integration and unity.
“Participants will be able to understand, explore, identify and discover unity through the lens of shared history.
“The two-hour webinar is free and open to the public. There will be a question-and-answer session after the presentations, and participants will have the opportunity to ask the speakers their questions.
“It will be the first out of five webinars that will be held throughout the year. Those interested may register at bit.ly/3yq9oBu or scan the QR code on the YPS Facebook page,” it said.
Meanwhile, the webinar is part of a greater YPS project called Advancing Racial Cohesion and Harmony (Arch) which aims to evaluate national unity in Sarawak as well as to assess inter-racial harmony among various ethnic groups present here.
YPS said focus groups and roundtable discussions will be held throughout the State to better understand how Sarawakians perceive race relations and national integration in the context of Sarawak.
YPS was founded in May 1994 as a non-profit organisation with the mission to promote and advance programmes and activities that will preserve, enhance, and strengthen the unity, harmony and peaceful coexistence of the various multi-ethnic communities in Sarawak. — DayakDaily
