The Star July 21: The Malaysian not there yet
PETALING JAYA: A national survey has found that racial integration is still not yet a reality.
The survey, conducted by the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research, found that the majority of respondents still identified themselves according to their race and religion.
When asked what they considered themselves to be first, 61% of the Malays surveyed gave their religion as the answer, while 28% said Malaysian. Interestingly, only 5% gave ethnicity as the answer.
As for the Chinese, 47% gave their ethnicity as the answer while 44% answered Malaysian. Only 5% gave their religion as the answer.
Of the Indians surveyed, 75% saw themselves as Malaysians, 14% by their ethnicity and 5% by their religion.
The survey, entitled National Youth Opinion Poll on Civic Engagement, involved 1,505 Malaysians aged between 18 and 32.
Of those surveyed, 52% were Malays, 20% Chinese, 8% Indians, 8% natives of Sabah and Sarawak and 2% others. There were 748 male and 757 female respondents.
The answers were obtained via telephone interviews over a one-month period.
When presented the statement “One’s responsibility should first begin by helping members of one’s ethnic group before helping others in society”, 63% of the Malay respondents agreed, as did 44% of the Chinese and 22% of the Indian respondents.
However, on questions related to the future of Malaysian society, the survey found that the majority felt that Malaysians of various ethnic backgrounds were “coming closer together” rather than moving apart.
When asked specifically what their expectations of Malaysian society were, 43% said they desired a society where the various races and cultures were treated equally, 27% wanted a more democratic society, 18% wanted a society where Islam played a bigger role and 6% said they wanted a Malay-dominant society.
On the issue of morality, 62% said they wanted the Government to regulate it.
In terms of ethnic breakdown, 73% of Malays and 67% of Indians wanted morality. As for the Chinese, the majority surveyed favoured morality being self-regulated or by the family.
The survey also found that Malaysian youth were also not as uncaring as assumed to be.
When asked whether they were concerned about the problems in their immediate community, 71% said they were.
This, however, did not necessarily translate to action because 59% of the respondents had never taken part in any community service or any volunteer activity.
Announcing the results of the survey yesterday, Merdeka Centre programmes director Ibrahim Suffian said the organisation conducted the survey to understand the perception of young Malaysians of society and how they related to issues and concerns affecting the country.
