However, any nation, just like any edifice, has to be properly maintained at all times, otherwise there is a great risk that sooner or later it might crumble down. Therefore, to ensure that our country remains in a state that can appropriately be termed a united nation, we need, first of all, to love our country and be proud of it and to continue making genuine and sincere efforts towards understanding and accepting others. We need to know our neighbours or our friends better and to respect, appreciate and learn from other cultures and religions that make up our nation. A nation is also built on values, and the basic values of tolerance, respect, meritocracy, honesty, love of work and solidarity have to be inculcated at a very early age. Likewise, the history of the country has to be taught in primary and secondary schools as a nation is also built on a common history, common sufferings, common aspirations and common achievements.
Nation building is an ideal and, as such, a never-ending process.
A multi-racial society, like ours, does not necessarily constitute a handicap in the building of a nation. On the contrary, it may be, and indeed it is, a source of mutual enrichment and positive reinforcement which, if properly harnessed, can add strength to the whole edifice. In spite of the sense of oneness which manifests itself in so many spheres of activities and which constitutes our strength as a nation, our social fabric is still fragile and requires on the part of all of us the continued exercise of self-restraint and responsible citizenship so that the public expression of our differences do not pose any threat to the enviable web of conviviality we have painstakingly been able to weave in our social relations. We have also to constantly guard ourselves against any fanaticism or extremism, religious or otherwise, taking hold in our country. We need only look around to see to what extent their open practice can work havoc and damage nation-building.