KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 — A majority of West Malaysians want respect for Islam and respect for multiculturalism to go hand-in-hand.

This is part of findings in a survey recently conducted by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Projek SAMA (Stability and Accountability for Malaysia).

In the survey, Projek SAMA found that 75 per cent of Malay and Chinese respondents want this, while 81 per cent of Indian respondents wanted this.

Only 22 per cent of Malay respondents felt that respect for Islam must take precedence over the respect for multiculturalism, while 21 per cent of Chinese respondents and 16 per cent of Indian respondents wanted the exact opposite.

"A weighted sample based on West Malaysia’s ethnic composition shows that 76 per cent wanted both respect for Islam and respect for multiculturalism to go hand-in-hand while 16 per cent wanted respect for Islam to take precedence and the remaining 8 per cent wanted instead to prioritise respect for multiculturalism,” co-founder and Sunway University political scientist and professor Wong Chin Huat said at a findings presentation here today.

Three statements were posed to respondents and asked "which of these statements is closest to how you think Malaysia should be”.

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.

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.