Citizenship Education in Malaysia: Through Surveys on the Development of Students’ Citizenship Abilities and ASEAN Awareness

Abstract

AbstractSince independence, the national integration policy is the biggest challenge for Malaysia which is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country. Hence, “Civics”, “Local study” and “History” and the current “Civics and Citizenship Education” subjects which contents target the core that is “citizen” = “nation” and “citizenship = responsibility and rights as the nation” aiming to finally produce “Becoming a member of Malaysia”, through emphasizing the improvement of national consciousness which targeted to nurture the citizenship related to “National” through various occasion. The priority element for the image of citizen (nation) can be considered as: 1. Appreciate the responsibility and moral value as the member (citizen) of each community. 2. Understand and respect the characteristic of each ethnic’s custom. 3. Have the responsibility to the participation in politics and society, the rights given and obligation as a Malaysian. As stressing the “challenges and success towards globalization”, “sustainability and development of Malaysia as the world recognition country”, etc., it is also desired to go beyond “National” to achieve multi-layer citizenship in “Regional”, “Global” and “Universal”. In a sense, the process of forming a Malaysian society that seeks to “coexist” while recognizing diverse ethnic identities in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural complex society can be considered as a “Little ASEAN”. Therefore, the experience of Malaysia in creating National Integration for a Nation can be useful to be utilized by ASEAN to create a Regional Integration in the form of “ASEANness” and “ASEAN citizenship. Therefore, Malaysia is seen as a country which can take the leadership in ASEAN to create the curriculum of “experiential and practical learning approach” and “Active citizenship” by utilizing the common communication language English and ICT education.KeywordsActive citizenshipCivics and citizenship educationComplex nationLittle ASEANNational integration