The influence of education, economy and religion domains in enhancing ethnic unity among Malaysian youths

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to quantitatively analyse the influence of education, economy and religious domains on enhancing ethnic unity among youth in Malaysia with reference to university students. It involved a survey of 373 students from two Malaysian public universities, namely Universiti Malaya and the National Defence University of Malaysia. The obtained data are subjected to descriptive analysis as well as structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis. The results show all these three domains are significant in strengthening ethnic unity, and the findings of this study could contribute to the current efforts by the government in the areas of the educational system, economic policies, and religious tolerance so that a more effective approach could be introduced.

The Value of Budi-Islam as the Foundation in Enhancing Ethnic Tolerance in Malaysia: A Case Study among Malay Students at the Public Higher Learning Institution

“…Even though there are other studies on the influence of budi values in the Malay community, but the description is more concentrated on the Malays' sociocultural elements whether in their village surroundings or the transformation into the modern life (Norazit, 2001;Abdullah, 2001). There were also scholars that debated on the Malays' social interactions in the political system and sociocultural platforms (Barnard, 2005;Reid, 2004), business aspects (Richardson et al, 2016) and influence of Islam upon the communal life (Husin, 2022). However, the explanation is more upon the nature of society, without any focus on the budi-Islam core values in the social environment of the Malay students.…”