Lailawati Madlan

The Prejudice of Bajau: From Own and Others Ethnic Perspective: A Preliminary Study in Sabah

The purpose of the study is to identify prejudices among government and private worker toward the ethnic of Bajau in Malaysia, especially in Sabah state. A total of 22 workers from government and private agency were invited to join this study. In-depth interview had been used to investigate perception of Bajau towards own ethnic and perception of others ethnic toward Bajau. From analysis, ethnic groups identify themselves according three major aspects, which are 1) attitude and behavior, 2) physical and appearance, 3) culture. The conclusion from these research, the understanding from others ethnic groups toward Bajau is on the lesser side, but there are some of the factors that match the perception of Bajau toward themselves, such as Bajau is or rude natured. This might be due to the less understanding from others ethnic or the disappearing traditional culture of Bajau.

Workers and head of departments: Investigating the trust factor

This study aims to provide further information on the topic of Malaysian workers trust towards their head of departments. A total of 185 workers (males = 81, females = 104) from four of the Malaysia’s government department in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah were selected as the respondents in this study. The respondents completed an open-ended questionnaire regarding what are the underlying reasons that the employees trust their head of department and how much they trust their head of departments. The results from the thematic analysis revealed that there are five main themes have been identified from the generated data for workers’ basis of trust development towards their head of department. Namely, 1) status privileges and role; 2) competency; 3) benevolence; 4) worker - leader relationship, and 5) head of department’s integrity. From the above identified themes, it was found that, status privileges and roles along with the head of department’s competency are among the two most important aspects in the development of trust in workers towards their head of department.

A Multiethnic Perception through the Eyes of Students

Malaysia is a country with diverse races and cultures, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak. Racial harmony in this country is admired by other countries. What so ever, the racial diversity in this country needs high tolerance practices in order to maintain the harmonious under one roof. On the contrary, there is no doubt that behind this harmony exists prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination that may be ambiguous. Therefore, this study attempts to identify the kind of prejudice, stereotype and discrimination that may be experienced by the five major ethnic in Sabah. Indigenous psychology approach was used in collecting the data. Overall, this study confirms the existence of prejudice and stereotype between ethnic but not at an alarming level. The findings will be discussed further in this paper.