The importance of cultural intelligence

  Emeritus Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
Opinion - New Straits Times
June 21, 2021

As the G7 Summit drew to a close, an international webinar on "Cultural Intelligence towards Institutional Intelligence" was held last week. It hosted experts, consultants and students, as well as practitioners from around the world to share their experiences.

It was such an eye- and heart-opener when a Canadian speaker spoke of an incident involving the death of native children. None can be more tragic than the unexpected discovery of 215 unmarked graves of the children located adjacent to the former school's grounds at Kamloops, as part of what is now called Canada.

The incident happened just recently despite the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation community raising the issue several times many years ago to the Canadian government. The sudden discovery reopened old memories and wounds that go back decades to the colonial periods.

Then, children from native communities were generally cohered into specially established residential schools with the aim to be "civilised and christianised". This reportedly involved wide-ranging methods, some were plain cruel and life-threatening. In the case of Kamloops, it took the lives of 215 children without their families' knowledge way back in the 1930s.

Evidently, records showed that indifference of the authorities responsible for the children had much to do with the tragedy, shedding light on the lives and suffering of the students who attended the school.

All these resonate closely with the notion of cultural intelligence that was exhaustively discussed during the webinar. It generally refers to the skill to relate and work effectively in culturally diverse situations, and capable of traversing boundaries while prospering in multiple cultures.

The absence of cultural intelligence often resulted in prolonged tension and suspicion. Those with low cultural intelligence are unable to attune to the values, beliefs, attitudes and body language of people from different cultures as exhibited by the Kamloops incident. In addition, failure to develop an understanding and awareness of different cultures or backgrounds and to interact more effectively across cultures. The Canadian government is often blamed for such tragedies, and, in turn, pushed it to the church associated with running the schools.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children attended state-funded Christian schools. The Canadian prime minister was quoted as saying: "I am appalled by the shameful policy that stole Indigenous children from their communities.

"Sadly, this is not an exception or an isolated incident. We're not going to hide from that. We have to acknowledge the truth. Residential schools were a reality — a tragedy that existed here, in our country, and we have to own up to it."

Unfortunately, this is not reflected at the G7 Summit, unlike that of Northern Ireland where Boris Johnson says he "continuously" makes the point that Northern Ireland is part of "one great indivisible United Kingdom" amid a row when reports alleged that the French president insisted that Northern Ireland was not part of the UK.

In contrast, cultural insensitivity to the First Nations in North America was rather stark, not unlike the vaccine discrimination where the lives of non-G7 citizens matter less! Indeed, overall the G7-speak is very much culturally decisive.

A case in point was on the eve of the summit when the Nato chief called for stronger policy on a country that "does not share our values". Clearly, as it stands, G7 lacks the cultural intelligence to play the role of a truly just and fair global leader.

Worse still, this is evident within the grouping itself which raised questions as to why the Japanese leader (the sole non-Western representative) — despite coming from the world's third largest economy — was made to stand in the last row during the G7 "family" photoshoot.

The writer, an NST columnist for more than 20 years, is International Islamic University Malaysia rector