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 and 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 the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR).

Also present were Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Lee Chee Leong, former deputy prime minister and Malaysian Chairman of 'Bridges-Dialogues Towards a Culture of Peace' Tun 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