Malaysian Policy Research Articles

Integrated sustainable urban planning: a new agenda for future urban planning in Malaysia

PurposeThis paper aims to propose an integrated urban planning framework to achieve sustainable urban development (SUD) in the Malaysian context.Design/methodology/approachIn the course of developing this framework, this paper reviews the related literature and Malaysian policies, programs and plans.FindingsThe findings highlight the importance of developing an integrated urban planning framework with respect to the processes, content and outcomes to achieve SUD in the Malaysian context. Successful SUD planning should be participatory and based on building consensus. Moreover, the content of the plan should include economic growth, social inclusion and development and environmental protection components.Originality/valueThis study makes a valuable theoretical contribution to the SUD and urban planning literature by proposing an urban planning framework for the promotion of SUD. In addition, this study has a number of practical implications for the Government of Malaysia and local authorities aiming to facilitate SUD.

Miao Zhang Comment on COVID-19: Malaysia Experience and Key Lessons

Miao Zhang Comment on COVID-19: Malaysia Experience and Key Lessons

MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AT WORKPLACE: AN OVERVIEW OF LAW AND POLICY IN MALAYSIA AND UNITED KINGDOM (UK)

Surveys showed that workers in Malaysia are at high risk of health problems including mental health problems that stemmed from the rising stress level at work. Despite having employees’ safety, health, and welfare being codified, depression will be a major mental health illness among Malaysian by 2020. The Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (OSHA 1994) that caters to legislative framework in terms of securing safety, health, and welfare among Malaysian workforces has no provisions to provide a supportive environment for mental health wellbeing at the workplace as well as support for employees with a mental health problem. Furthermore, OSHA 1994 is self-regulated, causing fewer employers to develop OSH codes of practice and guidelines. This is among the weaknesses of OSHA 1994. This paper aims to examine the existing law and policy in Malaysia on mental health at the workplace. It also aims to compare the policy and legal framework in developed commonwealth countries such as the UK. This paper applies qualitative and comparative methods, consisting of a doctrinal legal research approach to understand the principles of law and policies dealing with mental health. A comparative method is employed in order to compare the policies and legal frameworks of mental health wellbeing in developed countries such as the UK. The comparative approach involves an examination of the similarities and dissimilarities between situations within the same legal system. The paper concludes that in order to support mental health and wellbeing at the workplace, a comprehensive legal framework and effective policy are needed especially for Malaysia. Compared with the UK, Malaysia is still lagged behind and has so much to learn from UK’s experiences to tackle issues on mental health.

MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AT WORKPLACE: AN OVERVIEW OF LAW AND POLICY IN MALAYSIA AND UNITED KINGDOM (UK)

Surveys showed that workers in Malaysia are at high risk of health problems including mental health problems that stemmed from the rising stress level at work. Despite having employees’ safety, health, and welfare being codified, depression will be a major mental health illness among Malaysian by 2020. The Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (OSHA 1994) that caters to legislative framework in terms of securing safety, health, and welfare among Malaysian workforces has no provisions to provide a supportive environment for mental health wellbeing at the workplace as well as support for employees with a mental health problem. Furthermore, OSHA 1994 is self-regulated, causing fewer employers to develop OSH codes of practice and guidelines. This is among the weaknesses of OSHA 1994. This paper aims to examine the existing law and policy in Malaysia on mental health at the workplace. It also aims to compare the policy and legal framework in developed commonwealth countries such as the UK. This paper applies qualitative and comparative methods, consisting of a doctrinal legal research approach to understand the principles of law and policies dealing with mental health. A comparative method is employed in order to compare the policies and legal frameworks of mental health wellbeing in developed countries such as the UK. The comparative approach involves an examination of the similarities and dissimilarities between situations within the same legal system. The paper concludes that in order to support mental health and wellbeing at the workplace, a comprehensive legal framework and effective policy are needed especially for Malaysia. Compared with the UK, Malaysia is still lagged behind and has so much to learn from UK’s experiences to tackle issues on mental health.

The Sustainable Palm Oil Policies in Malaysia

In Malaysia, oil palm production serves as a leading sector which contributed a lot to the development of Malaysian economy as a great driving force for the country’s agro-industry. Malaysia has also received global recognition for resources allocation among its citizens and poverty alleviation within the country. It flourishes development of the agricultural sector, it increases government and training schemes. In Malaysia, palm oil has an important contribution to the economic growth, generation of revenues for workers and the government, employment chances in rural areas, improving infrastructure which includes facilities of health and education. Malaysia achieved all these due to good and sustainable policies. The objective of this paper is to show the sustainable Malaysian policies on palm oil, the research is qualitative, it has used document analysis and semi-structured interview, and used inductive thematic analysis to analyse the interview with help of Atlas ti 8 software, the finds of the paper are the sustainable Malaysian policies on palm oil. In conclusion, this paper shows the policies adopted by Malaysia on palm oil which lead to its sustainability.

Managing labour migration in Malaysia: foreign workers and the challenges of ‘control’ beyond liberal democracies

ABSTRACT This paper examines the issue of migration control in Malaysia. Despite the fact that the majority of the world’s migratory movements are between countries in the Global South, the dominant focus of research on migration control has tended to be liberal democracies of the Global North. Here, focussing on a country which is a major destination for migrants in Southeast Asia, this paper examines the varied policies enacted by the Malaysian government in an effort to decrease the number of undocumented foreign workers. As Malaysia is known for its frequent migration policy shifts, this paper traces the many twists and turns in Malaysian policy in the period from 2011 to 2019. In doing so, the paper seeks to help build a better understanding of the complex and sometimes contradictory tools states use in attempting to manage migration. Here I find that some patterns emerge from Malaysia’s use of a wide variety of policy instruments to reduce its population of undocumented foreign workers, but that ultimately these must be placed in the context of the overall economic reliance of Malaysia on foreign labour and its turbulent policies.

Malaysia-Indonesia Konfrontasi: The Struggle for Influence in the Middle East

Malaysia's non-alignment and pro-Arab policies can be traced back to Konfrontasi, Indonesia's challenge to the formation of Malaysia in 1963. Indonesia's reckless attempt to win the conflict through military action prompted a formal complaint from Malaysia to the United Nations. When African and Asian member in the Security Council expressed opposition to Indonesian aggression towards Malaysia, Indonesia sought support from the next largest sub-group in the Afro-Asian bloc, the Arab states. At first, Arab sympathies swayed towards Indonesia, persuaded by its misrepresentation of Malaysian policies towards Israel. Realising this, Malaysia adopted a pro-Arab and non-aligned position to win Arab support. By early 1964 non-alignment had become Malaysia's de facto foreign policy, although the policy was not formalised until 1970.

Malaysian Policy towards Refugees and Asylum Seekers: A Case Study of Rohingya Refugees

In Southeast Asia, the protection space that available for refugees and asylum seekers are very limited due to the lack of national legal framework in most of these countries. In fact, some of countries had introduced restrictive policies such as denying access to airport. The paper offer a discussion regarding to the Malaysian policy toward refugees and asylum seeker specifically related to the issue of Rohingya refugees. The study will illustrate the both nature and dimension of Malaysian policy in dealing with Rohingya refugees. Generally, Malaysia did not have any responsibility towards refugee who migrate into state of Malaysia as Malaysia is a non-signatory state to 1951 UN Convention relating to the status of refugee and its 1967 Protocol. However, UNHCR has been mandated to ensure refugees receive same protections in Malaysia. The paper highlights though Malaysia did not have any legal responsibility towards Rohingya refugees, however the country has given substantial cooperation to UNHCR in helping Rohingya refugees.

RESPON MALAYSIA TERHADAP KEBIJAKAN SINKING-SHIP INDONESIA

This research describes the Malaysian policy as a response to the Indonesian sinking-ship policy executed in 2014. This research uses qualitative research approach with descriptive analysis method. This research applied the concept of Foreign Policy Change by Tomas Niklasson with three indicators, the degree of foreign policy change (adjustment, reform, restructuring), time-frame for change (rapidly or gradually) and the scope of foreign policy changes (regulatory, security, trade and economic stability, national identity and autonomy). In this research categorizes that responses of sinking-ship policy at the level of adjustment (minor change) due to a little change and categorizes at the rapidly because of rapid responses and less than five years. In the scope of policy change indicators, this research found that the changes in two policies, security and economy.

Green Accommodation for Sustainable Tourism Development in Malaysia

The study identifies the initiatives of green accommodation in existing policies for achieving sustainable tourism development in Malaysia. It also analyzes the tourists’ perception of green accommodation from sustainability perspectives. Non-probability convenience technique has been used for the sample selection and a total of 100 respondents are selected from the tourists by purposive sampling to identified tourists’ perceptions. Malaysian policies have emphasized several green strategies in tourist accommodations, such as energy, water, and waste management, introduce renewable energy, build green, environment-friendly and energy conservation buildings, introduce green technologies, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and improve ecological services. The study shows the positive perception of tourists’ towards green accommodation which encouraging sustainable tourism development in Malaysia. They agreed that this accommodation is environment-friendly, suitable for resource efficiency, use proper waste management techniques, encourage local products, create employment opportunities for local, promote local culture and traditions as well as ensure well-being for the local communities.

Rethinking Preschool Physical Design: Enhancing environmental stewardship among children

Children are the future guardian of the Earth. Environmental Education (EE) at preschool level is crucial for instilling environmental stewardship. This paper discusses how preschool designs can be manipulated to facilitate and enhance the EE implementation. In summary, it is suggested that preschool settings should be designed to maximise children’s interaction with nature. It not only helps to optimise children’s development and literacy but also contributes to the prediction of their intentions to appreciate and to protect the environment. Findings are useful for Malaysian policy makers and designers in designing preschools that are sustainable and support EE.Keywords: Malaysian preschool; green preschool design; children environmental behavior; environmental education.eISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v3i13.150

Possible Impact of the Latest International Standard of Auditing 570 on the Rate of Going Concern Opinion Issuance in Malaysia

The problem that Malaysian auditors do not issue going concern opinion (GC opinion) to seriously financially distressed companies is still a pressing issue. The latest International Standards on Auditing 570 Going Concern (ISA 570) has been released and made effective in Malaysia starting from 15 th December 2016. It is reasonable to expect that the new ISA 570 (2016) could at least reduce the incidence of Malaysian auditors do not want to issue GC opinion to financially distress companies. Overall, we are in the opinion that there is no strong ground to expect the new ISA (2016) can reduce the problem of Malaysian auditor do not issue GC opinion to a very large percentage of seriously financially distress companies. This is because there is no new stricter measure has been introduced in the latest ISA 570 (2016). However, Malaysian policy makers and standard setters still have at least four measures if they want to improve the rate and practice of GC opinion issuance in this country. Researchers on the other hand should examine the effectiveness of the new ISA 570 (2016), at least.

A Review of Islamic Aqeedah Compliance Index (IACI) from Malaysian Perspectives

Aqeedah is one of Islamic knowledge foundations (apart from shariah and akhlaq) that covers all aspects of human life, which was rooted from revealed al-Quran and al-Sunnah. It covers the knowledge on human relation to Allah SWT; obeying His commands and leaving all prohibited deeds. This paper intends to reveal the implementation of Malaysia Shariah Index (MSI), Islamic aqeedah concept as well as the Islamic aqeedah compliance index requirement, as a second filter in modern scientific research ethics, which is based on Maqasid Shariah (MS). Generally, IACI development proposal suits the Malaysian government policy regarding MSI and it is suitable to be applied in various field of studies.

Quality of Malaysian teachers based on education and training

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how the quality of teachers based on education and training provided under new reform policies in Malaysia affects their earnings outcomes. The study conducted a benefit and returns analysis guided by human capital theory.Design/methodology/approachThe study used survey research methods to investigate human capital formation in the teaching profession using teachers’ qualifications, benefits and private rate of returns as key variables in the estimation.FindingsEarnings and experience levels were highly correlated with teachers’ education levels, as suggested by human capital theory. The private rate of returns in earnings for each additional year of schooling of teachers was found to lie between 3 and 4 per cent per year. Discrepancies were apparent in teachers’ qualifications and licensure levels regionally and at academic levels, as expected. These correlated with earning levels.Practical implicationsImprovements in teachers’ salary and employment opportunities will attract higher quality graduates to the teaching profession. Teachers’ annual earnings in Malaysia are comparable to other public sector and private professional jobs in the nation but lag far behind those of the world’s top education systems. Increasing teachers’ earnings will attract better qualified teachers. Policymakers could address these issues.Originality/valueThis paper demonstrates the utility of economic analyses in terms of earnings returns, to evaluate the Malaysian policy of upgrading teachers’ qualifications as a mechanism to improve the overall quality of schooling. Such studies are rare but needed to understand the benefits and returns of policy-driven teacher education and training investments. This study provides new evidence of schooling returns using a recent, national data set.

Imperatives of care and control in the regulation of homelessness in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 1880s to present

Recent shifts in Malaysian homelessness policy towards the intensification of criminalising measures and exclusionary rhetoric seem indicative of a ‘punitive turn’, as often theorised for advanced capitalist contexts. I argue that local adoption of globally circulating policy trends cannot be understood apart from linkages to the global history of vagrancy legislation. Drawing from data collected through archival research, I examine how global historical processes have shaped homelessness regulation in Kuala Lumpur, inclusive of neoliberal era developments. I find that, while the overall historical arc of relevant codes and institutions reflects broad trends that suggest conformity to the ‘punitive turn’ model, local contingencies starkly contrast those found in Global North countries. These findings suggest that common rhythms, and divergent materialisations, have persisted in the global and historical constellations of homelessness regulation. Thus, punitive trends presently emerging in part through unique social welfare initiatives in Kuala Lumpur are built from a neoliberal reinforcement of previously established, locally situated logics and institutions of care and control.

China's Assertive Posture in Reinforcing its Territorial and Sovereignty Claims in the South China Sea: An Insight into Malaysia's Stance

AbstractChina's growing assertiveness in strengthening its territorial and sovereignty claims in the South China Sea has arguably intensified friction and deepened tension between the rival claimant States. In sharp contrast to the strong reactions of its fellow ASEAN claimants, such as Vietnam and the Philippines, Malaysia traditionally has been less critical and more inclined to downplay China's perceived emotive actions. This subtle foreign policy orientation is likely to remain unchanged in the immediate future. Malaysian leaders are aware of the need to continue adopting a more cautious but pragmatic approach to counter China's increasingly aggressive actions in the Spratly Islands. Because of the significant economic and political benefits derived from its close relationships with China, Malaysia's policy preference is aimed to avoid jeopardizing such relations. However, the growing presence of Chinese military vessels in Malaysia's waters in recent years has forced the latter to reassess its foreign policy approach, which might include adopting a more assertive stance towards China. Set against this backdrop, this article aims to give an exploratory insight into Malaysia's external behaviour and actions in response to China's recent growing aggressiveness in the South China Sea. To this end, the aim of this article is achieved through a twofold approach. First, it examines Malaysia's overlapping claims to maritime features and waters with China, with the focus on the Spratly Islands group. Lastly, the article provides an explorative insight of Malaysia's rationalist stance, particularly under the current administration of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, in response to China's aggressiveness. It also examines the motivations, intentions, and basis of this external posture.

From ad hoc towards the institutionalisation: An assessment of Malaysia's policy evolution on Antarctica and the Southern Ocean

Malaysia's policy on Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (A&SO) in the last three decades has evolved from being focused on diplomatic engagement to pioneering science in cooperation with the international community and strengthening science diplomacy by becoming a member of the international governance of Antarctic. Through process-oriented evaluation, the aim of this study is to map out the development of Malaysia's policy on the Antarctic region (from 1982 to 2016) and consequently, identify the current capacities and future needs to strengthen its involvement. This study reveals that Malaysia's policy on A&SO has strong integration in foreign affairs, science and technology (S&T), and the environment, and the involvements are parallel with the national development plan. To move forward, Malaysia is currently establishing a suitable governance structure and a long-term management plan to ensure a long-term political commitment, sustain investment of resources and strengthen the dynamic participation of stakeholders. This study advances the scholarly understanding of the political processes and challenges to Malaysia's Antarctic policy development, in its journey towards institutionalisation which will create distinctive and valuable positions for Malaysia to contribute to current debates on the future of the Antarctic region. In the context of ad-hoc decision on certain policy, this case study will contribute relevant information about the development process, issues and challenges on policy through ad-hoc implementation.

Nurturing Environmental Stewards through Preschool Physical Design

Environmental stewardship starts with education. This paper aims to discuss how preschools can be used to nurture environmental stewards among Malaysian children. In summary, elements of preschool physical environments can be manipulated to enhance environmental education while landscape elements such as vegetation and topography can be manipulated to maximize interaction with nature. Effective interaction with nature is the most important factor to ensure environmental awareness. Findings are useful for Malaysian designers and policy makers to ensure that preschool’s physical settings support environmental education to respond to climate change and preserve the planet for future generations.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: Malaysian preschool ; Green preschool design ; Children environmental behaviour ; Environmental education

Nurturing Environmental Stewards through Preschool Physical Design

Environmental stewardship starts with education. This paper aims to discuss how preschools can be used to nurture environmental stewards among Malaysian children. In summary, elements of preschool physical environments can be manipulated to enhance environmental education while landscape elements such as vegetation and topography can be manipulated to maximize interaction with nature. Effective interaction with nature is the most important factor to ensure environmental awareness. Findings are useful for Malaysian designers and policy makers to ensure that preschool’s physical settings support environmental education to respond to climate change and preserve the planet for future generations.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creative commons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: Malaysian preschool ; Green preschool design ; Children environmental behaviour ; Environmental education

ACB2015: Biotechnology and bioeconomy for sustainable future.

ACB2015: Biotechnology and bioeconomy for sustainable future.