Data: What do Malaysians think about current social and economic issues?

A collaboration between Undi18, Architects of Diversity,Women's Aid Organisation and Vase.ai, the “Malaysia’s Temperature Check” research was produced in order to understand the Malaysian public opinion on contemporary Social and Economic issues, as well as understudied opinions. It was also intended to discover what Malaysians are agreeing and disagreeing with, in order to guide further public conversations and future policy directions. This research is an attempt at identifying what Malaysians are undecided on, in order to facilitate discussions and better education/awareness on these particular issues.

Methodology & Limitations

Survey questions were jointly developed by Vase.ai, Architects of Diversity and Undi18. The survey was administered from 2nd -3rd September, 2020. Respondents were able to answer the survey in English, Bahasa Melayu or Mandarin. 1,027 responses were included in the final sample.

Sampling

The survey was administered to Vase.ai’s online panel using an active quota sampling-method, where only people contacted are allowed to participate. Respondents aged 18 years old and above were quota sampled according to census statistics by Race, Gender, Age and Region of residence.

Vase.ai’s online panel ensures duplicate entries are prevented by the use of unique survey links and the limitation of one entry per link. Identifying demographic information was cross-validated with Vase.ai’s existing information on the survey respondent. Speed and straight line checking were also performed to exclude low quality responses.

Weighting

Weights were constructed to improve the representativeness of the survey sample. Six demographic characteristics were used to ensure consistency with the actual population and reduce bias from non-random sampling: race, gender, age, state, occupation class and household income(1).

Iterative proportional fitting (raking) - one of the most standard weighting methods - was used. The maximum weight value used was set to 5 in line with recommended practices(2). Chi-square test was used to evaluate the goodness-of-fit of the weighted data compared to actual demographic proportions.

All demographic variables passed at the p = 0.01 level except for age, where those 65 and above are underrepresented by 5.6%. Weights were not increased due to possible over-inflation of outliers.

Limitations

Individuals aged 65 and above are underrepresented, likely due to lower rates of Internet usage among those above 60 (3).

In addition to older individuals, non-random online panel samples may also have lower and non-equal probabilities of sampling rural populations with lower Internet connectivity. WP Labuan, WP Putrajaya and Perlis were excluded from disaggregated figures due to small sample sizes.

References

1. Population distributions were obtained from the 2010 Malaysian Census, Labour Force Survey and the Institute of Labour Market Information and Analysis by the Department of Statistics, Malaysia
2. DeBell, Matthew and Jon A. Krosnick. 2009. “Computing Weights for American National Election Study Survey Data.” Stanford University.
3. Malaysian Communications and Media Commission. 2018 "Internet Users Survey".

Some Insights from the research:

• 54% of Malaysians disagree that people should be allowed to choose their gender identity, while 20% are undecided.
• 61% of Bumiputera Malays disagree that apostasy should be allowed in Malaysia, while 42% of Bumiputera non-Malays agree it should be allowed in Malaysia, and 44% Chinese and 56% Indians remain undecided.
• 78% of Malaysians agree that Political parties should stop aligning based on race and focus putting together fair policies instead.
• 47% of Malaysians agree that the race box/column needs to be removed from all official forms/documents, while 30% disagree.
• 63% of Malaysians agree that Home owners should not be allowed to rent/sell their property to only a specific race/religion, while 18% agree that they should be allowed to do so.
• 89% of Malaysians agree that more policies are needed to ensure women are not subjected to sexual harassment in any context, including the workplace, universities, and on the street, while 8% remain undecided.
• 53% of Malaysians agree that Women should have the right under the law to make choices relating to their reproductive system and health, including the choice of obtaining an abortion, while 20% disagree that women should have this right under the law.
• 75% of Malaysians agree that the total paid maternity leaves for mothers should increase, while 8% disagree.
• 70% of Malaysians agree that the total paid paternity leaves for fathers should increase, while 10% disagree.
• 70% of Malaysians agree that teachers in training should be required to learn about Sex Education, to better educate youngsters, while 13% disagree and 17% remain undecided.
• 57% of Bumiputera Malays and 42% of Bumiputera non-Malays disagree that homosexual intercourse should be decriminalised in Malaysia, while 47% of Chinese and 36% of Indians remain undecided.
• 40% Bumiputera Malays disagree that the race box/column needs to be removed from all official forms/documents, while 62% Bumiputera non-Malays, 51% Chinese, and 90% Indians agree that the race box/column needs to be removed from all official forms/documents.
• 56% Bumiputera Malays agree that Malaysia should abolish vernacular schools (e.g. SJKC, SJKT), while 43% Bumiputera non-Malays, 71% Chinese, and 78% Indians, disagree that Malaysia should abolish vernacular schools (e.g. SJKC, SJKT).
• 64% of Bumiputera non-Malays, 79% of Chinese, and 94% of Indians, agree that the quota for non-bumiputra students in the pre-university matriculation programme should be increased.

This data is publicly available for use. If you are using this data, you would need to attribute the data to Vase.ai by stating "Survey conducted by Vase.ai in collaboration with Undi18, Architects of Diversity (AOD) & Women's Aid Organisation (WAO). Find the data at "https://vase.ai/resources/malaysia-temperature-check/"

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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The views and opinions expressed in the report above are an aggregate analysis taken from 1,027 respondents sampled according to Malaysian Census and Malaysian Internet Census data. This aggregate analysis does not necessarily mirror the values and opinions of Vase Technologies Sdn Bhd (1152290-M). Vase Technologies is the operator of a platform to collect user opinions, and as such will not take any liability for the statements above. In case of any damages or other liabilities arising, no party can be liable as the data above is taken in aggregate.