KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — The Merdeka Center’s 2024 National Youth Survey provided critical insights into the ongoing racial dynamics in Malaysia, particularly the discrimination faced by Indians and the intra-ethnic distrust among Malays.
With Malaysian youth at the forefront of these societal issues, the findings underscore the need for greater inter-ethnic understanding and trust-building efforts to foster a more inclusive future.
Indians face high level of discrimination
According to the survey, the Indian community continues to feel marginalised within Malaysian society, with 62 per cent of Indians reporting that they experience unfair treatment and discrimination and only 28 per ent feeling they are fairly treated.
According to co-founder and Programs Director of Merdeka Center Ibrahim suffian, this is a persistent trend.
It contrasts sharply with the 57 per cent of Chinese who feel their community receives unfair treatment and 40 per cent who feel they are fairly treated.
Inter-ethnic trust among Malays sits at 75 per cent.
Chinese and Chinese trust is at 95 per cent while Indian and Indian trust levels sit at 85 per cent.
Malays show low trust levels in other races. Trust towards the Chinese is at 57 per cent and 53 per cent for the Indians. The Chinese on the other hand show very high trust levels towards the Malays at 92 per cent, Indians at 83 per cent while the Indians trust the Chinese more at 83 per cent compared to Malays at 79 per cent.
“We have asked this question over several years, and the trend continues to persist. When we dig deeper into the data, there are two important trends. First, the higher degree of distrust is correlated with where people live, especially in the northern states and the east coast. The interaction levels there are very low, so they don’t know each other well, which is why they don’t trust each other.
“Moreover when we split the Malay community by region, we see that trust levels on the west coast are much higher, nearly the same as other communities, whereas in the east coast, it’s much lower.
"Proximity and the community they live in play a role. In many areas, they don’t have non-Malay neighbors or friends in schools, so their interaction and trust levels remain very low,” Ibrahim said when met.
Low trust among Malays
A key finding from the survey is the low level of trust among Malays towards other ethnicities. The data reveals that 57 per cent of Malays distrust the Chinese community, while 53 per cent distrust Indians.
This pattern of distrust is most prevalent in the northern and east coast states of Malaysia, where interactions between ethnic groups are lower due to geographic and social segregation.
“The higher degree of distrust is also correlated with where they live because we have a larger number of Malay respondents that are living in the northern states as well as the east coast. There, the interaction level is very low. So they don’t know each other, that’s why they don’t trust each other,” he said.
Explaining the distrust of Malays towards their own race, Ibrahim said: ”This intra-ethnic distrust is driven primarily by socio-economic factors, with lower-income Malays tending to distrust higher-income members of their own community,” he added.
The survey was conducted from April 3 until May 12, 2024, and took in 1,605 responses from youth aged between 18-30 via telephone (fixed or mobile lines). Twenty per cent of respondents were aged between 18-20, 41 per cent between 21-24 and 39 percent between 25-30 years old.
Malays made up 57 per cent of all respondents Chinese 21 per cent while Indians made up seven per cent of respondents.
