KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's government plans to train special mediators to resolve disputes between neighbours of different races in a bid to prevent communal tensions in the ethnically diverse country, officials said yesterday.

About 300 volunteer community representatives will undergo mediation courses next month as part of the government's efforts to curb racial and religious friction, said Datuk Azman Amin Hassan, director-general of the National Unity and Integration Department.

'They will be residents who can talk to both sides in a dispute to defuse racial problems,' he said.

The authorities have acknowledged that racial polarisation has increased in recent years, even though the Malay Muslim majority still has generally amicable relations with the large ethnic Chinese and Indian communities, who are mainly Buddhists, Christians and Hindus.

Malaysia has not suffered major ethnic violence since 1969, when riots fuelled partly by Malay rancour over Chinese wealth left more than 200 people dead.

Nevertheless, grievances between ethnic communities have occasionally sparked bloodshed. A dispute between Malays celebrating a wedding and their Indian neighbours who held a funeral at the same time prompted violence that killed six people near Kuala Lumpur in 2001.

But in a country where politicians often take charge when racial or religious tensions arise, or are sometimes accused of being the cause of the tensions, it is unclear where the mediators will fit in.

The plan is believed to be the first time that Malaysians are to be formally trained to handle disputes involving different communities and religious groups.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said recently his mission before retirement was to cool racial and religious tensions.

'I am thinking of how to handle the issue of race relations and the issue of religious tensions,' he said two weeks ago. 'Muslims think from their own perspective. Non-Muslims think from their own perspective.'

He had suggested setting up an institution 'where all communities' could take their grievances. The answer could also lie in legislation, clarifying grey areas in laws on religious disputes, he said.

Sociologist Wan Abdul Halim Othman, who will train the mediators, said the programme will initially be implemented in urban areas where the risk of racial disputes is relatively high because multi-ethnic residents live alongside one another.

'We need neutral mediators who can prevent the usual conflicts between neighbours from accumulating and transforming into ethnic problems,' he said. 'In disputes involving different ethnic groups, people...tend to take sides based on race, but nobody mediates.'

The programme will initially be rolled out in Kuala Lumpur, and in Selangor, Penang and Johor states. If successful, it will be implemented nationwide.

Ethnic divisions have deepened amid increasing complaints by minorities about special privileges enjoyed by Malays in jobs, education and other areas.

Some also say their religious rights have become secondary to Islam. The government has denied any unfair treatment.

ASSOCIATED PRESS