Fostering Community Integration in Malaysia: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of community integration initiatives in Malaysia, focusing on programs designed to foster racial harmony and social cohesion within the multicultural society. It begins by defining racial integration and its importance in the Malaysian context, tracing the historical development and the formation of Malaysia in 1963. The report then details various programs and activities implemented to promote integration, including ethnic relations courses, the Vision School model, and the RIMUP program, highlighting their objectives and operational mechanisms. It further examines the positive impacts of these programs, such as enhanced social interaction, improved intercultural communication, academic excellence, and reduced conflicts. The report also addresses the factors hindering engagement in racial integration activities, such as lack of awareness, cultural stereotypes, and income disparities. The report concludes by discussing the effectiveness of these programs and providing insights into the challenges and opportunities associated with fostering community integration in Malaysia.

Community Of
Malaysia

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Types of activities or programs that foster community integration in the Malaysian society.....1
Impacts of activities that are racially integrated..........................................................................3
Factors preventing engagement in racial integration activities or programs ..............................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Reflection ....................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Racial integration can be defined as a process of ending systematic racial segregation.
Integration main aim is to create equal opportunity regardless of race as well as develop different
cultures of people. This study is based on culture of Malaysian society whose formation began
after the independence as well as formation of Malaysia in the year of 1963. Through some
processes of accommodation, amalgamation, racial integration took place. This study is going to
show different types of programmes which helps Malaysian society and indigenous people in
regards of community integration and make them feel respected and valued (Smrekar, 2019).
Vision school, RIUMP are some programs which shows and promote integration. It will also
show some positive and negative impacts of all implemented and developed programs as it
protects different cultures of people and indigenous against discrimination on the basis of
different race. Further, this study will discuss all those factors that prevent individuals from
engaging in racial integration programmes. Ethnic relations courses have effectiveness as they
promote harmony in the multicultural society.
TASK 1
Types of activities or programs that foster community integration in the Malaysian society
In the context of cultures of Malaysia it can be said that several cultures of people like
Chinese, Indians and Malay s have lived together in Malaysia foe generation. It is known as
multi cultural society. For solving problems that occur due to different cultures like cultural
acceptance, compromization, language barriers, several types of programs has been designed.
The main aim of designing of community integration programs is to help people to optimize their
social and personal competencies to live in the society successfully. In addition, it can also be
said that for multi cultural that independent living, social activity, productive activity are not
getting equal weighting and attention so there is a requirement of several types of programs that
can foster community integration of Malaysian society. Community integration can be defined as
a participation of different culture of people in the community life. Integration of people with
discrimination, disabilities is being protected by various programs (Karim and Rashid, 2017).
Ethnic relation courses at institutions: This is the main course that was introduced at
the University Putra Malaysia as an effective program for maintaining ethnic relationship among
different culture of people. It is also stated that after the year of 1969 ethnic riots, political fall
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out that led to affirmative action policies. These policies created a quota system in universities
that led inequality in higher education. According to this ethnic relation courses, universities try
to bring together to students and children of all races. In this system and courses, national
language is being used that help students of different culture to facilitate communication and
interact more.
Development of vision school: Vision school has also been initiated and introduced in
Malaysia in order to measure and foster racial harmony. According to this model and policy,
there is a medium of instruction in native languages with the main aim of sharing common
facilities. There are several other institutions who argued this school model and said that this
policy is inadequate and unproductive. It is also stated that it has housed three major vernacular
elementary schools such as Tamil, Chinese and Malay which shares the same and the common
physical facilities. No particular religion and people of a particular community was given special
treatment and discriminated (Omar and et.al., 2016). The main aim of redesigning of this school
policy is to create a sense of multiculturalism among different culture of students. They are also
allowed to coordinate and share their opinion, culture views and integration of resources. 3
schools building such as Malay, Chinese and Tamil are interconnected to improve interaction
and communication among pupils from these schools. Some objectives of redesigning this school
model are: to improve integrity among students from different school types, to inculcate the
spirit of integration among all students, to produce those students who have high tolerance and
understanding towards one another and to promote or develop maximum interaction among
members of the school community to remove discrimination problems.
RIMUP program: RIUMP (Rancangan Integrasi Murid Untuk Perpaduan) is a program
in which different cultures of students specially Malay primary schools and non-Malay primary
schools participates in joint activities. This activity and program got success and foster
community integration in the Malaysian society and only because of this success, Government of
Malaysia announced to enhance and scaling up of this RIUMP program and total number of
these activities (RIMUP program for community integration, 2019). It is called one of the best
and effective education policy that has improved ethnic relations and also has developed national
integration. This program gives several positive impacts as ethnic relations has demonstrated. It
also faces the least resistance from different parties as improve education system of Malaysia.
On the other hand, it is also stated or reported that this program diminished due to some financial
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crisis and instability, since, it restarts in 2005. Malaysian government tried to enhance this
program and allocate efficient financial resources. So, it can be said that The government has
introduced a new approach as this program to promote unity in diversity as well as national
integration.
So, from above discussed activities and programmes it can be said that they all involve
people of different cultures that foster community integration in the Malaysian society.
Impacts of activities that are racially integrated
It is already stated that Malaysia has been facing several challenges because of emerged
creation of multi-ethnic society. Different cultures, religion believes, languages are some types
of challenges. For reducing discrimination problems, Government of Malaysia introduced
several programs like redesigning of vision school, RIUMP program, ethnic relation courses etc.
The main and common purpose of developing and introducing all these programmes is to
promote unity in diversity and develop national integration. There are several positive impacts of
programmes and activities which are described as follows:
Social interaction: There are several programs has been developed including vision
school. The main impact which this model give is it fosters racial interactions among students of
different ethic group. There are almost 13 schools involved in this vision school model. This
became the main and an effective platform for teachers as well as pupils of different ethnic group
to engage them in an effective intercultural communication (Patacchini and Zenou, 2016). By
improving interaction among different cultures and backgrounds of students, it helps in
improving unity. It also produces a generation of students who have knowledge, posses superior
spirit and high sense of unity. In the vision school and RIMUP program, different types of
schools in the same district come together. Each group and school like Tamil group and Chinese
group made up of a multi-ethnic students' composition.
Intercultural communication: Participations of different cultures of students as per the
RIMUP programmes, support and enhance the local community. The main aim and results which
has been achieved from all these activities is it promotes the spirit for teamwork that creates an
effective environment and atmosphere. It also increases their understanding and tolerance power
among students of different races which create harmony in society. It also decreases conflicts
among different cultures of people. Miscommunication and language barrier was the main
problem of Malaysia as there are different types of culture live such as Chinese, Tamil, Malay
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and Indians. It becomes difficult for them to communicate with each other die to different
understanding of languages. Development of programs like ethnic relation courses, RIMUP
helped them to increase their understanding and knowledge to adapt different languages and
believes of different cultures.
Academic excellence: Some PIUP activities allow different ethnic group of students and
people to increase their experience by sharing their views and learn together under a multi-ethnic
environment. The main aim of these activities and program is to promote integration and make
all students able to create a learning and effective environment, This environment make academy
more excellent as it includes workshops, academic seminars, quizzes etc. Pupils of different
cultures try to solve problems of each other that increase their productivity as well as increase
goodwill of schools and Universities. It also allows them to instil respect, increase
understanding, tolerance power and the spirit of accomplishing academic excellence and
common goals (Impacts of racially integrated activities, 2014).
Conflicts and violence reduction: The other main impact of different racially integrated
activities is it decreases the problem of violence and conflicts. Biasness, quota system in some
schools and universities, became the reason of ethics riots and conflicts among different cultures
of people. For solving these problems and creating harmony in the Malaysian society,
Government of Malaysia took an active participant and announced to develop some activities.
All activities like vision school, involved different cultures of students in a common activity. It
increases their relationship which have directly impact on the society as it decreased conflicts
among them (Hoggard and et.al., 2015).
So, it can be said that all activities and practices which are being redesigned and
developed by Malaysian Government, they hep and foster community integration. They also
improve their relationship and improve communication. All these positive impacts are improving
the goodwill of schools, university and the society.
Factors preventing engagement in racial integration activities or programs
Despite having plenty of racial integration programs still it has been challenging to assure
the active participation of the communities in such programs. There are several barriers or
preventive factors which influences the community decisions to support or participate in such
programs. The first program is lack of awareness and education. Most of the people does not
have any kind of awareness regarding such programs (Awang, Ahmad and Rahman, 2017). For
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instance though higher education providers conduct and provides ethnic relation courses but
these programs are not accessible or in knowledge of those individuals who does not approach
for higher education.
The cultural and social stereotypes has also been one of the barriers in achieving goals of
racial integration programs. Most of the community members have strong opinion regarding
ethnic diversity and they believe that ethnocentric classification is necessary and integral part of
the society. However the racial integration programs are not effective enough to manipulate or
correct this perspective. The strong support to the ancient stereotypes proves to be major obstacle
in restricting individual to participate in such programs.
Due to strong prejudices and stereotypes people have developed strong perceptions and
show strong resistance towards changing it. As a result of this even if racial integration programs
or activities are employed at large scale, they fails to bring required outcome. Thus along with
the racial integration programs there is need to enhance and develop better understanding so that
people can accept the relevance and need of such programs (Mahamed and Omar, 2017).
Opportunity and income gap is another critical factor affecting success and effectiveness of such
programs. The ethnic fabric of Malaysia is also defined by the huge inflow of immigrant
population. The migrant labours from the neighbouring countries also contributes in economic
development.
However the income and living standard gap between the immigrants and migrants
population creates a racial separation. The integration programs have not been able to dominate
the integration of income gap and racial separation. Another factor which limits the success of
programs for establishing racial integration is identification of the target population for the
programs. The population of immigrants population has been increased greatly to an extent such
that it has become challenging for the authorities to identify such population groups and to
approach them so that they can be integrated in main stream or such integration programs.
The Malaysian constitution provides special rights and advantages to Malays in public
services, education and business for promoting the national culture. However other racial groups
find that the national policies are also favouring a particular racial groups. Thus the racial
integration programs which are initiated and supported by government are not much appreciated
or emphasised by the local communities. The inability of access the resources or the financial
resources is also one of the limitation affecting the quality of these programs. For instance for
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developing the racial understanding among the learners ethnic relation course is effective.
However many students does not have necessary financial support to take admissions in such
courses or to organise the experimental work which can enhance the experimental learning of the
students. Most of the people are also not able to have necessary financial resources or assets to
participate in such programs.
TASK 2
Reflection
In my opinion education and lack of awareness regarding cultural diversity and
acceptance is one of the key factor which influences the effectiveness of the racial integration
programs. Thus the ethnic relation courses and the similar educational programs provided at
institutions seems to be effective in promoting harmony (Mahamed and Omar, 2017). For the
multicultural society such as Malaysia such courses are best way to introduce the racial
integration learnings. I have attended such programs and I think these programs gave me an
excellent opportunity so that I can expose myself to social perspective relation to race and
cultural diversity.
The programs are effective because they provide understanding of the issue in learning
and practical approach. Within classrooms when I used to interact with students from different
cultures then I got a chance to practically implement, observe and understand the concepts. I
have also read various information about racial integration (Mahamed and Omar, 2017).
However people like me have only limited knowledge of such concepts but when I attended the
course I also gain important knowledge perspective regarding ethnic relations in terms of power,
solidarity and social problems.
The persistent inequalities among different individuals and racial groups is also one of
the factor which influences the relations among various groups. However by engaging in such
classrooms individuals also get a chance to perform a critical analysis that how social policies
are affecting citizenship, diversity and inequality. In my opinion goals of cultural integration
cannot be achieved if people are not willing to change their stereotypes, racial ideologies and
prejudices. The individuals does not allow themselves to review the relevance and necessity of
these ideologies which results in increasing gap between communities.
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However courses based on improving and acknowledging ethnic relations provides such
opportunities where people can themselves witness the diversity, its actual implications and the
need of required strategic improvements. With other types of racial integration programs such as
awareness campaigns and promotional events approaching the exact population is extremely
tough. This type of courses encourage students to interact with members of various groups and to
have in depth discussion of diversity related issues (Awang, Ahmad and Rahman, 2019).
However I think that the courses need to be more inclusive in terms of its goals, scope and
achievements. The courses are limited to only higher education or school level. It limits the
knowledge and understanding to a great extent. Thus these services can be made more
productive and influencing if there scope is redefined. Such type of courses must be initiated at
school or lower level so that individuals can adopt and learn the cultural diversity issues at basic
level.
In higher education most of the individuals become so firm about their stereotypes and
prejudices that they event does not explore the opportunities provided in such courses. I also
believe that though these courses promote the racial integration but there is need to address
certain challenges as well in their implementation. For instance Malaysia has vast range of
system choices for the students particularly Malaysian students. This also impose implications in
terms of curriculum and language preferences. The ethnic relation courses are also developed in
Malay language. Thus by default it creates a barrier for international learners or the other racial
groups of Malaysia to fully accept and accomplish the program.
However it cannot be denied that these programs are effective in managing ethnic
relations for providing interaction platform to individuals from various socio-economic and
ethno- religious programs (Khairi and Jamaluddin, 2017). I have also observed that this ethnic
relation course is described as the general education course. Thus its definition and aim is also
idealistic and it is very challenging to measure its success. The classification of the course as
general education also affect the quality of education. The teaching and learning schedules are
highly packed and thus in the course of timely completion they are often considered as burden
and thus they are marginalised as compare to other prioritised courses.
The teachers and lecturers who deliver knowledge in these courses are provided special
trainings and seminars so that they can understand the need and approaches of the course
objective. I believe that effectiveness of these programs can be enhanced by incorporating more
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inclusive programs. For instance teachers must adopt inclusive practices to ensure that in these
classrooms all learners are provided with equal opportunities. For instance in ethnic relation
classrooms it is possible that some learners may find it comfortable to interact and share
knowledge with people from other cultural and racial groups (Awang and et.al., 2016). However
some learners may need additional guidance and motivation from the teachers I doing so.
Thus I think that suitability of these types of educational courses can be improved to
great extent by encouraging inclusive training programs. These types of educational courses
provides in depth knowledge to the learners about racial integration and social diversity issues.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discussion that ethnocentric society has been one of
the major issue affecting the development of Malaysia. The ethnic relations are influenced by
negative perspectives and behaviour towards other ethnic groups. It is not only affecting the
social interactions but also has critical impact upon economic development. Thus it is very
essential to maintain the integration and harmony in Malaysian society. It has been also analysed
that racial integration based activities provide significant contribution to the enhance growth of
society and economy. It can also be concluded that activities which foster the racial integration
must be promoted and implemented to great and deeper extent. For this purpose various factors
affecting community engagement must be identified and addressed.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Awang, A.A. and et.al., 2016. A theoretical analysis of racial integration through New Economic
Policy and 1Malaysia Concept. Advanced Science Letters, 22(5-6), pp.1363-1367.
Awang, M.M., Ahmad, A.R. and Rahman, A.A.A., 2017. Social integration practices among
multi-ethnic youths. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences.
Awang, M.M., Ahmad, A.R. and Rahman, A.A.A., 2019. Social integration practices among
multi-ethnic youths. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 40(2), pp.454-458.
Hoggard, L.S. and et.al., 2015. Capturing the cardiac effects of racial discrimination: Do the
effects “keep going”?. International Journal of Psychophysiology. 97(2). pp.163-170.
Karim, H.A. and Rashid, S.M.A., 2017. Community participation: Towards a safer housing
environment. Asian Journal of Environment-Behaviour Studies. 2(2). pp.39-51.
Khairi, A. and Jamaluddin, M.K.A.M., 2017. Community-Based Peacebuilding in Malaysia:
Penang Experience. Suyatno Ladiqi, Ismail Suardi Wekke, Cahyo Seftyono, p.151.
Mahamed, M. and Omar, S.Z., 2017. Citizen Journalism Role in Promoting Cultural Integration
and Peace in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and
Social Sciences, 7(8), pp.673-680.
Omar, D. and et.al., 2016. Youth participation in urban neighbourhood community. Procedia-
social and behavioral sciences. 234. pp.309-316.
Patacchini, E. and Zenou, Y., 2016. Racial identity and education in social networks. Social
Networks. 44. pp.85-94.
Smrekar, C., 2019. How Choosing Schools Intersects with District Policies to Influence Racial
Integration. Handbook of Research on School Choice. p.259.
Online
Impacts of racially integrated activities. 2014. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.idosi.org/mejsr/mejsr19(icmrp)14/21.pdf>
RIMUP program for community integration. 2019. [Online]. Available
through:<https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-981-13-9857-5_4>
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