MalayMail-Sept 7
A recently published study has cited a shared national identity and acceptance of diversity among Malaysians as the two biggest factors behind “social cohesion” in Malaysia, fostering its society’s sense of solidarity and togetherness. The “South-east Asian Social Cohesion Radar” released by Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) yesterday also found that Malaysian respondents did not rate the “feeling of fairness” much, rating it as having the smallest role in keeping harmony in the country. “Acceptance of diversity and identification were the two dimensions that were viewed as the most important in building social cohesion in Malaysia,” said the report released during the second International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS) here. Regionally, Malaysia was perceived as having the third strongest social cohesion in the region behind Singapore and Thailand, with just 40 per cent of respondents seeing Malaysian society as having a strong cohesion. Overall, 69 per cent of respondents felt that there is strong social cohesion in South-east Asia. The study defines “social cohesion” as “the state of affairs in which there are stable interactions among members of a society that take place in various domains of human associate life”. Put simply, this is also known as social harmony, unity or inclusion. Adapting the prior Bertelsmann Stiftung Asian Cohesion Radar to make it more relevant to the region, the RSIS study measured nine dimensions that contribute toward social cohesion: social networks, trust in people, acceptance of diversity, identification, trust in institutions, perception of fairness, solidarity and helpfulness, respect for social rules, and civic participation. Read more at: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2022/09/07/whats-the-glue-holding-malaysian-societies-together-study-shows-shared-identity-and-diversity-acceptance-biggest-influencers/26851
