KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 — In a recent survey conducted by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Projek SAMA (Stability and Accountability for Malaysia), has found that a majority of West Malaysians wanted the government to act against violence instead of ordering a blanket ban on 3R (race, religion and royalty) discussions.

The NGO advocating institutional reform to enhance political stability and accountability in Malaysia found that 78 per cent of their respondents who are Malays wanted the government to take stern actions against use, threat or instigation of violence, whether or not the issue is related to 3R.

In contrast, 67 per cent of the Malay respondents wanted the government to prohibit hurtful or harmful comments in 3R discussions while only 41 per cent wanted the government to prohibit any discussion related to 3R even if the discussion is civil and rational.

According to Projek SAMA co-founder and Sunway University political scientist and professor Wong Chin Huat, there was a similar but lower pattern of support on these three issues amongst the Indian respondents — action against violence 63 per cent; prohibition of hate speech in 3R discussions 56 per cent; and prohibition of all 3R discussions 34 per cent.

"Chinese respondents were at 55 per cent, 42 per cent and 26 per cent (in the same order).

"A weighted sample based on West Malaysia’s ethnic composition shows that 71 per cent expressed support for stern actions against violence, 60 per cent for provision of hate speech in 3R discussions and only 37 per cent for a blanket ban on 3R discussions,” Wong said in the NGO’s findings presentation here today.

The survey response derived from three questions asked.

They are: whether the government should prohibit any discussion related to 3R even if the discussion is civil and rational; whether the government should prohibit hurtful or harmful comments in any discussion related to 3R; and whether the government should take stern action against the use, threat or instigation of violence, whether or not he issue is related to 3R.

"The pattern is clear. Across the three ethnic groups, the support for prohibition of violence was higher than the support for prohibition of hate speech, which was in turn higher than the support for blanket prohibition of any discussion on 3R issues,” Wong said.

The survey was conducted based on concerns on whether Malaysia’s ethnic relations deteriorated in recent years after democratisation when various socio-political forces were unleashed as the society opened up.

"We decide that we wanted to find out for sure, especially after the KK Mart incident occurred, and subsequently more incidents,” Wong added.

The KK Mart Group had in April made headlines when one of their outlets were found to be selling socks with the word "Allah” printed on them.

Projek SAMA, in collaboration with pollster Invoke conducted its first quarterly survey on ethnic relations in West Malaysia, where the challenges are the greatest.

The survey took place on from October 1 to 28, utilising Random Digit Dialing (RDD) and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Robocalls.

It obtained complete responses from a total of 611 adults of 18 years old or above: 306 Malays, 200 Chinese and 105 Indians.

The sampling method was stratified random sampling on ethnicity and gender.