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The 22 Most Important Issues Facing Malaysia in 2022

What do our Malaysian readers really think about the current state of Malaysia and the most important issues facing the country? In stage 1 of The Citizens’ Agenda , we asked them to answer the following question:

In your opinion, what issues do you consider important to Malaysia? What do you think the candidates should be talking about as they compete for your votes in the upcoming election?

1,236 people responded. Unlike in 2019, where the Citizens’ Agenda responses were entirely online through New Naratif’s survey portal, this time we worked with a survey company, Vase.ai , to ensure that we surveyed a statistically representative sample, and of course this year we have expanded the research to Malaysia. The responses were extremely diverse, intelligent, and passionate. If you’d like to see the (anonymised) raw data, here it is (warning: some people used language that may be considered offensive).

As in 2019, we read through all 1,236 responses and then grouped all the responses into 22 broad issues. People brought up many different topics, from the economy to climate change to racism. Take a look at the responses below—and then go read the report for Stage 2 !

A note on our survey company: Vase.ai is a survey platform that has 3.6 million people across Southeast Asia in its panel. Through its platform, it aims to provide surveys as an automated service , thus making it easy and affordable to run statistically-accurate surveys across the region in different countries. However, this automation also involves constraints and trade-offs, and one trade-off is that we have to conform to its pre-defined panel demography. This includes only two genders (male and female), the MCIO racial categorisation, and a geographic location limited to the state level. In New Naratif’s own public survey, we sought to be more inclusive, but the majority of the data (1,230 respondents) comes from Vase.ai and the results are accordingly limited.

The Issues Summarised

For brevity in stage 2, we summarised each issue in under 280 characters. Each issue includes examples of the questions and concerns that people raised. Here they are, in alphabetical order:

• 💰 CORRUPTION How do we deal with systemic corruption? Do we need tougher punishment for corruption or is there something else that has to be changed?
• 💸 COST OF LIVING Should the cost of goods be subsidised or should wages be increased instead? Why are house prices and rent so high? Should we continue subsidising petroleum products or should the people be assisted through a more targeted approach? Should the government start building houses for the people to rent?
• 🦠 COVID-19 Will we see another round of lockdown? Can the economy return to how it was prior to the pandemic? Should we have implemented some structural change to our way of life during the pandemic or strive to return to how it was before?
• ⚖️ CRIME & JUSTICE Should drug usage be decriminalised? Should the government retain the mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking offences or let the judges decide on it? Do we need more community policing or should we let each housing community decide how to guard their own community? Should the police be given more power?
• 🏗️ DEVELOPMENT Do you think Klang Valley is developed enough or overdeveloped? Should we restrict development in Klang Valley and redirect development efforts to other parts of the country? Should the country’s administrative and economic capital be moved elsewhere? Should we restrict further development in order to reduce the occurrence of natural disasters such as flooding and landslides? What form of future lies for Malaysia? Do we keep doing the same thing while expecting a different result?
• 🧮 ECONOMY How should the Malaysian economy be developed in the post-pandemic era? Should we keep our wages low in order to stay competitive against other ASEAN economies or should we focus on higher-income sectors? Should the value of the Ringgit be prioritised over our export? Would you accept higher inflation for higher wages vs having a lower wage with a subsidised cost of living?
• 🎓 EDUCATION How do we ensure equitable access to education for everyone? Should university education be free? How can we make the education system more inclusive? Does a vernacular education system still have a place in our society? Should religious education be kept separate from the national schooling system? Should we allow parents and the local community to be more involved with our school’s management?
• 🌏♻️ ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY How do we deal with climate change and its effect on our cities? How can we reduce pollution? Are we willing to forgo some progress and resources in order to conserve the environment? What are we doing as a country to reduce our carbon emissions?
• 🌾 FOOD SECURITY How do we ensure we have a secure supply of food? Should we increase subsidies to local farmers to guarantee food security? How do we deal with reduced food output caused by climate change?
• ✊ GENDER & SEXUAL EQUALITY Should we ban all forms of child marriage without exception? How do we support single mothers? What can we do to address the issue of discrimination and harassment in the workplace? How do we empower women’s participation in the workforce?
• 🩺 💊 HEALTHCARE Do we need more private or public hospitals? Should health insurance be made compulsory? Should our healthcare system be paid personally or collectively? Do we expand the current public healthcare system into a universal single-payer system with only minimal private healthcare service providers?
• ⚙️ PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE How do we take care of our current infrastructure? Do we build more or improve what we have? Are we as a society too reliant on car usage? How can we reduce traffic congestion? How do we plan our infrastructure going forward to ensure sustainability? How do we manage and mitigate the recurring problem of flooding? How can we ensure the widest internet availability for everyone and an affordable rate? Should the internet be considered a public utility like electricity and water supply?
• ⌛️ ⏳ POLITICAL REFORM Should we bring back local council elections? Should the Parliamentary term be fixed so that everyone will know when an election will be held? How can we improve the independence of the Parliament and the Judiciary from the Executive? Should we have a term limit for the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers? Do we need to restructure our government ministries and merge them together?
• 🔏📇 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS How do we select office-bearers of prominent public institutions? Should we be electing our police chief, attorney-general, and head of the anti-corruption agency? Can the Parliament be entrusted with the task of vetting these important appointments?
• 🧳 JOBS & WAGES Do we have enough jobs, especially for the younger generation, or are we facing a demand and supply mismatch? Should we increase our minimum wage instead of trying to import more foreign labour? How can we empower workers to better negotiate their working conditions with their employers? How can we encourage work from home policy? How can we increase our minimum wage with minimal impact to the economy?
• 🫶 RIGHTS & DISCRIMINATION How do we deal with various forms of discrimination? How can the rights of minority groups (class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality) be protected? Should we allow some form of discrimination (such as affirmative action for certain ethnic groups)? How do we deal with abuse and integrity issues within the police force? How can we safeguard our freedom of speech and association?
• 🗳️ ELECTORAL PROCESS Should political parties not be allowed to change coalition after an election? Should an elected representative who switches parties be forced to contest again under their new party’s banner? How can we reduce the misuse of religious and racial rhetoric in politics? Do a candidate’s personality and ideals matter to you? Would you choose a candidate for an issue they personally champion even though you do not agree with their political party? Do you prefer a newer candidate over a veteran? Should an elected representative be someone who focuses on legislative issues or do they also have to be the one taking care of problems within their constituency?
• 🖇️ RACE RELATIONS Should we replace the New Economic Policy with something based on needs? Does the racial imbalance within the civil service matter to you? Do we need more policing of racialist elements within our society? Do you think the adoption of the national language by everyone is important?
• ⚓️🌱 WELFARE & SOCIAL SECURITY How do we ensure generations of Malaysian who withdrew their EPF savings during the pandemic will be able to retire? How do we make sure those with lifelong disabilities are taken care of? Should older/retired Malaysians be entitled to a state-sponsored basic pension to allow them to live peacefully? How do we help those who are homeless?
• 📊 📈 FINANCE & TAXATION How do we ensure equitable distribution of tax revenue between the Federal government and the State governments? Should we bring back GST to guarantee sustainable revenue for the government? Should other sources of tax revenue (such as inheritance tax, vacancy tax, and wealth tax) be explored? How do we ensure tax revenue is fairly spent for the benefit of all citizens?
• 🇲🇾 CULTURE & IDENTITY What does it mean to be a Malaysian? How do we (and should we) preserve this Malaysian identity? How can we (and should we) unite Malaysia and/or Malaysians under one shared identity?
• 🌏🗺 MIGRANTS & REFUGEES Should we allow refugees to work and integrate into our society? How do we manage illegal immigration?

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• Government corruption and bribery were a major issue identified by respondents across the board. In general, there was a great sense of frustration and anger with the government, both in terms of a lack of competence and a lack of integrity. There was frustration with the government’s inability to solve problems, with one respondent specifically expressing frustration over a lack of change, despite all the political events of the past four years and all the efforts of voters to vote for reform. Party-hopping was also identified as a major issue.
• Equally, people raised the issue of political reform and greater empowerment of the rakyat, in an effort to break through the deadlock and inconclusiveness of the past few years. Local council elections were suggested but most people did not have specific suggestions about how the political system could be reformed (to be fair, the question only asked them to identify issues, not to suggest solutions!).
• The economy, inflation, the rising cost of living, and the falling value of the Ringgit were another key concern. This was true across the board, regardless of age or race or language, although younger respondents bemoaned a lack of job opportunities (and especially reasonably paid jobs) while older respondents focused on the cost of living, inflation, and pensions. Numerous respondents argued for a raise in the minimum salary, arguing that RM1500 was far too low. 
• The climate crisis was often raised, in connection with food security or transport. 
• For food security, people worried about both cost and access to food. The ban on the export of fresh chicken was symptomatic of a country worried about its ability to feed itself (and the export also triggered concerns with food security in neighbouring Singapore—see the Singapore Stage 1 survey report ).
• Climate change and transport were frequently raised in connection with flash flooding making it impossible to get around any of the major cities. This was raised by respondents across most states, suggesting that the flooding issue is widespread across most of the major cities. In general, respondents are worried about the future livability of their cities.
• Racism was frequently identified as an issue, although, unlike other issues, almost everyone who identified it simply stated “racism” as a self-evident problem. Unlike the economy or the government, few people elaborated on the issue.
• Policy discrimination against the states of East Malaysia , for example, the lack of development in East Malaysia in comparison to West Malaysia, was also frequently identified by residents of Sabah and Sarawak as an issue.
• In general, the welfare of the people was of frequent concern—healthcare, mental health, safety, and security. Help for refugees, stateless, and other vulnerable people were also raised, as were people’s rights and the issue of the death penalty.

Issues Not (or Infrequently) Mentioned

• The war in Ukraine was not mentioned at all by any respondent, and national security in general was not an important issue.
• Only one person mentioned LGBTQ discrimination.
• COVID-19 itself was not mentioned as a healthcare crisis, but instead, nearly everyone who mentioned COVID-19 talked about the economic recovery as the most pressing issue instead.
• Issues were overwhelmingly domestic in nature. Only one person mentioned immigration as an issue. Several people talked about foreign investment and foreign workers, but there was no consensus here—some felt more of both were needed to boost Malaysia’s economy, while others felt foreign money was raising costs for locals and foreign workers were competing with locals for scarce jobs. 
• No one mentioned fake news and online falsehoods (such as those which swung the Philippines Presidential elections), despite this being a major problem globally. This suggests that either people know about it but regard it as less important relative to other issues, or that people do not yet know about it.

By the Numbers

Longest response: One response consisted of 385 words, covering three topics—political reform, the economy, and the empowerment of youths, racial minorities, and women. The answer proposed reforms to the Political Funding Act, workers’ rights, minimum wage, the tax code, and rules around Malaysian mothers with foreign-born children. It also discussed digital upskilling, tackling racial and religious discrimination, and Bumiputra’s special privileges.

Shortest response: “Tol”. “Bribe/Corruption/Rasuah” and “Economy/Ekonomi” were the most frequent one-word responses. Other one-word responses: “health”, “unity”, “equity”, “prices”, and “money”.

We’re not going to tell you which were the most popular responses, as we don’t want to influence your response in Stage 2, but here is a word cloud:

Finally, a demographic breakdown of 1,230 respondents on Vase.ai. Numbers are rounded to the nearest percentage point and so the percentages may not add up to 100%:

Now that you’ve seen the breakdown, you can learn more about the top five most important issues facing Malaysia! Share your takeaways with us and spread the word.

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COVID-19 and social wellbeing in Malaysia: A case study

• Published: 12 September 2021
• Volume 42 , pages 9577–9591, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

• Siew Siew Yong   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9138-4737 1 &
• Joseph Kee-Ming Sia   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7829-2635 2  

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The world has witnessed the largest single disruption to social wellbeing since the first known case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was reported in China in December 2019. In Malaysia, the government implemented the Movement Control Order (MCO) on 18 March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, this paper highlights how the Malaysian government responded to COVID-19 in comparison with some Asian countries; and what has and has not worked for the MCO imposed by the government. The paper adopts a review approach that is supported by findings from both grey and academic literature. The findings reveal that the COVID-19 pandemic has significant impacts on the society’s wellbeing in Malaysia, the most severe of which are negative mental health and job unemployment. On the other hand, COVID-19 has sparked a surge of volunteering in society. This paper presumably and hopefully represents a frontier review with more empirical research to be conducted to investigate the extent of the social impact of COVID-19, the outcomes of which are a call for re-envisioning of social policies in Malaysia. To the best knowledge of the authors, little empirical research has been conducted to explore the social-wellbeing implications of COVID-19 in Malaysia. By reflecting on the various scenarios—both detrimental and beneficial in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the paper identifies potential avenues for relevant research in the social wellbeing realm.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

On 25 January 2020, Malaysia announced its first COVID-19 case as an infected Chinese national who travelled to Malaysia from Singapore (Profdten & Ahmad, 2021 ). While going through the transformative constitutional phase, an exponential rise in cases occurred due to a mass Islamic missionary gathering in Sri Petaling on 27 February 2020, which was reported as the highest number of coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia on 15 March 2020 (Mat et al., 2020 ; Song & Ling, 2020 ). Consequently, the Malaysian government imposed the Movement Control Order (MCO) for the common good from 18 March 2020; it was replaced by the Conditional MCO (CMCO) on 4 May 2020, and that has been subsequently replaced by the Recovery MCO (RMCO) since 10 June 2020. During the initial stage of MCO, it was difficult for the Malaysians to adhere to the drastic restrictions such as prohibited public gatherings and social distancing requirements; Malaysians are a sociable lot and social gathering is part and parcel of their everyday life (Aziz et al., 2020 ). The infodemic of unconfirmed and unreliable news spreading in the social media amplified the irrational fears among the Malaysians, leading to panic buying of essentials before the MCO (Azlan et al., 2020 ; Kaur et al., 2020 ). Qiu et al. ( 2020 ) indicated that information about COVID-19 in the social media caused tension and anxieties among young adults and women. Malaysia’s human resource minister pointed out that 99,696 Malaysians had lost their jobs since the implementation of the MCO (Surendran, 2021 ). Unemployment and uncertainty of the future resulting from the pandemic can take a serious toll on the people’s psychological wellbeing. The purpose of this paper is threefold: firstly, provide insights into the unprecedented Malaysian experience in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison with two Asian countries (Singapore and Taiwan); secondly, explore the implications of COVID-19 on social wellbeing; thirdly, conduct Political, Economic, Social, Technological (PEST) analysis with recommendations, and propose pertinent research questions for future investigations.

This paper is divided into five sections. Firstly, we present the respective actions taken by Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia to mitigate COVID-19; we compare and contrast the policies of the three countries. Secondly, we critically analyze the success-enabling and success-disabling factors in mitigating COVID-19 based on the numbers of cases reported from March 2020 till January 2021 by the government of Malaysia, with reference to policies, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and enforcement in Singapore and Taiwan. Thirdly, we explicate the implications of COVID-19 on social wellbeing. Fourthly, we develop a PEST analysis and put forward a few recommendations. Finally, we propose various research ideas that need to be further investigated by future researchers. The discussions covered in this paper are premised on data available until 30 April 2021, as the war against COVID-19 is an ongoing effort.

Asian Countries’ Responses Towards COVID-19

Singapore registered the world’s lowest COVID-19 death rate thus far (Geddies & Aravindan, 2020 ). The total number of deaths related to COVID-19 for Singapore is 29 as of 30 January 2021 (Ministry of Health Singapore, 2021 ). What is the secret of Singapore in reporting the lowest COVID-19 death figure in the world? One of the significant actions is that the government started temperature screening for all the travelers arriving from Wuhan since 3 January 2020, even though there was no reported case in their region at that period of time. This is vital as Singapore took prevention measures through border controls as soon as the disease emerged in Wuhan, China. Singapore detected the first COVID-19 case on 23 January 2020, and the government immediately imposed three phases of actions to combat the spread of the virus (Yong, 2020 ). Under Phase 1, they carried out aggressive testing, contact tracing, border control measures, early screening, and suspected patient isolation (Wang et al., 2021 ). The city-state moved to Phase 2 or safe transition on 19 June 2020 with the government imposing rules of wearing face masks in public places, and this is one of the significant steps to lower the possibility of another wave of COVID-19 (Geddies & Aravindan, 2020 ). Under Phase 3, the government put in place strict community-wide measures by closing all the non-essential businesses and schools, and prohibited mass gatherings (Wang et al., 2021 ). Another action is levying heavy fines on and meting out punishments to those who failed to follow the rules set by the government - fined up to US$10,000 or jailed for 6 months. Given the lessons learnt from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic, the Singapore government devised a disease-outbreak response strategy with activation levels similar to those of the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Alert Response System. Through early prevention measurements, strict enforcement of law, and meticulous contact tracing, Singapore has successfully controlled the spread of COVID-19; the reported numbers of daily new cases averaged of between 1 and 2 digits in January 2021 (Tan, 2021a ). For financial aid, the Singapore government has provided COVID-19 support grant to the unemployed or low-income households. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, they have introduced Stabilization and Support Package, Resilience Budget, Solidarity Budget, and Fortitude Budget worth S$4 billion, S$48.4 billion, S$5.1 billion, and S$33 billion respectively (KPMG, 2020a ). These unemployment-reducing budgets are allocated as incentives for job support and job growth.

Taiwan had the world’s best virus-prevention record by far with only 553 confirmed cases among 23 million citizens as at 31 October 2020, while the cumulative confirmed cases worldwide had reached 46.14 million with 1.20 million deaths (Wang & Ellis, 2020 ). According to the Taiwan Centers for Diesease Control ( 2021 ), the country registered 1-digit COVID-19 daily cases throughout January 2021. People living in Taiwan have a psychological trauma and are better prepared for COVID-19; they possess a high degree of awareness after they experienced the SARS outbreak in 2003 (Lei & Klopack, 2020 ). In addition, after the SARS catastrophe, their government established the Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC) to introduce and monitor prevention measures for handling future pandemics. To facilitate rapid communications, the government activated the CECC as a physical command center on 20 January 2020, a day before the first COVID-19 case was reported in Taiwan (Cheng et al., 2020 ). They also implemented mandatory self-quarantine, early border controls, banning foreign visitors; and employed big-data analytics to trace high-risk persons based on their medical or traveling history. Instead of shutting down its economy for weeks to halt the infection, Taiwan used a different approach. After rapidly shutting its borders and prohibiting the export of surgical masks, the authorities utilized contact tracing, and mobile sim-tracking to locate and ensure people under quarantine were following the laws (Jian et al., 2020 ). Yang et al. ( 2020 ) highlighted that when the virus cases spiked in China, the Taiwanese government stocked up on personal protective equipment (PPE) five times the required amount. This is a vital preemptive effort as most countries faced a shortage of PPE for the frontline and healthcare workers during the pandemic. The CECC also sets the price for PPE, and each resident in Taiwan can purchase a limited quantity of PPE only. In a nutshell, by learning from the previous SARS experience in 2003, the Taiwanese government and society responded swiftly to the COVID-19 pandemic by taking uncompromising preventive and control measures as those mentioned above. The concerted efforts contributed to the decline in the infectious disease with no occurrence of a second wave as of 31 January 2021. Taiwan’s COVID-19 relief measures fall into three categories: financial aid, job support, and tax reductions. The government allocated a total of US$35 billion for the special relief packages (Kuo, 2021 ). For financial aid, the public banks extended the loan repayment deadlines and deferred the credit card payments; the authorities adjusted the rent for national properties and supported small and medium enterprises by providing funds for business operations (KPMG, 2020b ). In terms of job support, the government provided training programs and unemployment benefits (KPMG, 2020b ). The government also allowed deferral of tax payments, conversion of lump sums to instalments, and waiver of corporate income tax payment for businesses affected by the pandemic (KPMG, 2020b ).

In Malaysia, the Ministry of Health (MoH) played a crucial role in containing the spread of the virus. They conducted aggressive mass testing by tracing all the contacts of infected people and enforced health screening at all access points (Aziz et al., 2020 ; Shah et al., 2020 ). The findings by Gill et al. ( 2020 ) posit that the ability to trace high numbers of contacts in a timely manner could control the COVID-19 outbreak successfully. Likewise, both Singapore and Taiwan are doing the same by controlling the suspected patients’ movements to avoid another wave of infection. Drive-through screening tests that can be done within 5 min are available at various locations, and the MoH installed thermal scanners in all entry points to the country (Ch'ng, 2020 ; Tay et al., 2020 ). These measures are also implemented in Singapore and many other Asian countries.

Besides, the MoH has identified hospitals that would admit COVID-19 patients and hospitals that would act as screening and health centers. The hospitals also introduced telephone or internet consultation for non-urgent cases and only accepted urgent walk-in cases (Tay et al., 2020 ). Several scholars emphasized telemedicine’s importance and the potential for further development in Malaysia (Abdullah et al., 2020 ; Khor et al., 2020 ). To obtain quality surveillance data, the MoH used the eNotifikasi, a web-based infectious disease reporting system to model the spread of COVID-19 (Gill et al., 2020 ). The hospitals also introduced the Cloud Auto Detection Solution to enable early detection and diagnosis of infected patients (Chung, 2020 ). Taiwan has introduced a similar platform named TRACE since 2017 and utilized this platform for monitoring the development of COVID-19.

To reduce the financial impacts of the pandemic, the Malaysian government introduced several emergency economic aids such as the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (PRIHATIN), the National Economic Recovery Package (PENJANA), and KITA PRIHATIN Package worth a total of RM315 billion; these supporting monetary schemes are designed to ease the people’s financial burden and help the enterprises who are struggling to retain their employees (The Star, 2020 ). The above economic packages include wage subsidy program 2.0 to support businesses faced with drops in revenue to ensure that their employees are getting reasonable wages and to reduce layoff or termination during the pandemic period. Consequently, those incentives sustained more than 300,000 enterprises, contained the unemployment rate, and saved 2.4 million jobs as of 24 June 2020 (Mohtar, 2020 ). Comparatively, Malaysia allocated the highest fiscal policy package to ease the people’s financial burden during pandemic period among the Asian countries, and ranked 2nd in the world, after Austria (Sarkodie & Owusu, 2021 ).

Unemployment and deaths are the most critical social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of unemployment rate, Malaysia recorded the highest compared with Singapore and Taiwan. As at April 2021, Malaysia recorded a 4.6% unemployment rate as compared with Singapore (2.9%) and Taiwan (3.71%) (Trading Economics, 2021 ). This is the result of the prolonged lockdown imposed by the Malaysian government, which had a significant impact on the national economy. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate for Malaysia decreased by 0.4%, that is, from 5% in April 2020 to 4.6% in April 2021 (Trading Economics, 2021 ). This is the positive outcome of implementing the above-mentioned economic stimulus packages by the Malaysian government in reviving the economic activities.

With reference to Fig.  1 , Malaysia reported the highest death rate owing to the high number of confirmed COVID-19 cases compared with the figures of Taiwan and Singapore as at 30 April 2021. The total deaths in Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore are 1506, 12, 30 respectively (Our World in Data, 2021 ). This indicates that the measures taken by Malaysia have not been very successful in reducing COVID-19 related deaths so far. One possible main reason is that many people staying in Malaysia are yet to be vaccinated. For instance, only 552,862 out of 32 million people had completed both doses of the vaccine as at 30 April 2021, which works out to only 1.73% of the population (The Star, 2021 ). The section below provides an analysis of the success-enabling and success-disabling factors of the Malaysian government in combating the COVID-19 pandemic thus far.

Cumulative COVID-19 deaths and cases for Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan as at 30 April 2021. Source: Our World In Data ( 2021 )

Success-Enabling and Success-Disabling Factors

Success-enabling factors.

When the number of COVID-19 cases rising significantly since 14 March 2020, the Malaysian government implemented the MCO from 18 March to 3 May 2020 (Refer to Fig.  2 ). Thankfully, the MCO successfully broke the chain of COVID-19 infection in Malaysia on 29 April 2020 with the lowest national daily cases figure (two-digit number) reported since the enactment of the MCO, and the recovery rate was at 68.91% (Kaos, 2020 ; Kaos & Chung, 2020 ). In terms of recovery rate, Malaysia ranked 4th among the ASEAN countries as at 29 April 2020 - Cambodia (97.54%), Brunei (89.95%), Vietnam (83.33%), Malaysia (68.91%), Laos (36.84%), Indonesia (13.18%), Philippines (12.25%), Myanmar (10.67%) and Singapore (7.54%) (Fevre, 2020 ). As the number of confirmed cases decreased, the government relaxed the regulations, and the MCO was replaced with CMCO from 4 May until 9 June 2020. Since the number of positive cases was under control during the CMCO, the government replaced the CMCO with the RMCO from 10 June to 31 August 2020; domestic travelling or religious gatherings were permitted, the aims of which were to put the national economy on a recovery path and improve the social wellbeing of the people.

Daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Malaysia from 25 February 2020 to 30 January 2021. Source: Profdten and Ahmad ( 2021 )

During the MCO, the government shut down non-essential businesses and schools, banned outdoor sports or activities, imposed regulated travel bans, and 14-day mandatory self-quarantine in MoH-designated places for those entering Malaysia (Kaur, 2020 ). All foreigners or tourists were barred from entering the country to minimize the imported cases (Prime Minister’s Office of Malaysia, 2020 ). This movement control is similar to those of Taiwan and Singapore. These two countries imposed mandatory quarantine for anyone who entered their land, which successfully curbed the transmission of the virus. As a collective society, Malaysians in general adhere to reasonable instructions from the government as the benefits are clearly explained. Malaysia government also introduced strict enforcement of roadblocks to curb unauthorized travel and ensure people comply with SOPs; penalties were handed down to those who failed to abide by the rules - up to RM1000 fine or/and a jail term of not more than six months (Tanzizi, 2020 ). As reported by Timbuong ( 2020 ), the Royal Malaysia Police worked with the Malaysian Armed Forces to conduct roadblock operations at key points along the main roads throughout Malaysia, the purposes of which were to prevent unauthorized inter-state and inter-district traveling or traveling of more than 10 km from home. People were only allowed to travel within 10 km from their homes to purchase necessities (Rahim, 2020 ). As at 9 April 2020, the Royal Malaysia Police had issued 95 summonses with RM1000 fines to those who travelled more than 10 km from home without a working permit from the companies (Palansamy, 2020 ). High penalties are an effective tool to stop people from going out needlessly, and hence can limit the spread of the virus. Like New Zealand, Malaysia imposed a full-scale lockdown for the whole nation during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, and enforced strict laws to ensure the people obeyed the instructions. However, Western European countries such as Germany and France imposed partial lockdowns during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. In France, the schools stayed open and outdoor sports were allowed (Thiessen, 2020 ). Compared with the RM1000 (USD 241) fine imposed by the Malaysian government, the French imposed €135 fine (USD 164) (Palansamy, 2020 ; Thiessen, 2020 ). In Malaysia, the minimum monthly salary is approximately RM1200, and the RM1000 fine is more than half of the wage - a pretty heavy fine in compelling individuals to stick to the government-mandated restrictions (Ashley, 2020 ). Meanwhile, the minimum monthly salary in France is around €1500; the €135 fine is a small fraction of the pay (Perlman, 2019 ). Consequently, France recorded a total of 129,584 COVID-19 confirmed cases in the country, while Malaysia only recorded 6002 cases as at 30 April 2020 (Worldometers, 2021a , 2021b ). Nevertheless, The WHO indicated that France offered the most comprehensive overall health care in the world for the year 2020 (World Health Organization, 2020 ).

In terms of risk communication, the MoH works with the Malaysian National Security Council (NSC) to disseminate daily updated information about COVID-19 to a broader public through various media. For instance, the MoH has created CRPC KKM Telegram and Facebook pages such as Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia (Ministry of Health) and Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CRCR) (Kaur, 2020 ; Shah et al., 2020 ). The CRCR is similar to Taiwan’s CECC that facilitates communication related to COVID-19, to ensure the pandemic information is transparent and available to the public daily. With the free flow of data, people will feel more confident about the government’s ability to curb the transmission of the virus, and allay the fear of out-of-control conditions. A mobile app, MySejahtera was launched in April 2020 in Malaysia; the public can use it to scan the QR code when entering any premise. In addition, the app provides various pieces of the latest information: statistics of COVID-19 cases in the country and respective states; places that the infected patients had visited; locations of nearest health facilities, and health guides (Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission, 2020 ). This is similar to the TraceTogether app launched by the Singapore government with similar features to track suspected carriers of COVID-19 (Ungku, 2020 ).

Malaysian government implemented social distancing SOPs during the pandemic outbreak. To decrease the risk of infection, people must maintain a minimum of a one-meter separation between each other. Shops or offices have to place the “1 m” marking on the floor to guide customers on queuing distance. MoH encourages no handshake practices in the workplaces and maintains a one-meter physical space between workers (Ministry of Health Malaysia, 2020 ). During CMCO, dined is allowed in the restaurant or café but limited to two-person per table to prevent infection (Anis, 2020 ). The one-meter separation between each other and workplaces social distancing are also implemented in other countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, France, and Germany. It is not a norm to practice social distancing either in high-context or low-context cultures. For high-context cultures such as Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia, people valued collectivism and believe that the government is working for the community’s good (Kim et al., 1998 ). As therefore, most people follow the social distancing SOPs as they are afraid of the heavy fines. Meanwhile, people in low-context cultures countries value personal interests and individuality. For low-context cultures such as France and Germany, they act based on their beliefs on the best way to proceed (Kim et al., 1998 ). For example, people in France still hang out in parks and outside cafes after the government announced a lockdown and encouraged people to stay at home (Baker, 2020 ).

On the education front, the Ministry of Education introduced online learning for the students due to the closure of all schools and universities (Povera & Yunus, 2020 ). This policy is similar to those of Taiwan and Singapore, with the aim of preventing mass gathering and reducing the risk of infection. The curve was flattened since 29 April 2020, and this demonstrated that the MCO with SOPs implemented by the government was producing a positive result (Kanyakumari, 2020 ; Tan, 2020 ). In comparison, the pre-MCO model simulation highlighted that the MCO could minimize the number of active COVID-19 cases by 99.1% (Gill et al., 2020 ). Malaysia succeeded in flattening the infection curve of COVID-19 on 17 May 2020 (Song & Ling, 2020 ). The situation further improved with an affirmation that there was only one imported case reported on 1 July 2020, the lowest figure since the MCO was imposed, and the number of infected cases remained in two digits until 7 September 2020. In brief, the underlying success of Malaysia in combating the pandemic at the early stage was attributed to various enabling factors: total lockdown, closing of borders, mandatory quarantine, heavy fines for not following SOPs, risk communication via social media, social distancing, and online learning.

Success-Disabling Factors

The third wave of COVID-19 started in September 2020 with the number of positive cases increasing sharply and hitting three digits on 8 September 2020. The number of daily COVID-19 new cases was on the rise from 8 September 2020 until 30 January 2021. As shown in Fig. 2 , Malaysia reported more than 1000 new daily cases for the first time on 24 October, with 1228 cases; and more than 2000 cases on 24 November 2020, with 2188 cases. Unfortunately, Malaysia hit more than 3000 daily new cases, with 3027 confirmed positive, on 7 January 2021, which escalated to 4029 cases within two weeks, on 16 January 2021. Fearing further rise, the government reintroduced the MCO on 13 January 2021. There was a sudden surge of COVID-19 cases even though Malaysia had successfully controlled the infectious disease in the second quarter of 2020 as mentioned above, why? What caused the COVID-19 active cases trending upward again? The paragraphs below critically analyze the sudden spike of COVID-19 cases from September 2020 to April 2021.

The spike of COVID-19 cases since September 2020 was triggered by an election in the Sabah state (East Malaysia); people who were infected during the time travelled back to West Malaysia after the election (Geraldine, 2020 ). This happened as the politicians were having mass gatherings without following the SOPs - many of them did not wear face masks and did not observe social distancing during the election campaign period (Sukumaran, 2020 ). This scenario was different from that of Singapore when the country held the general election on 10 July 2020 with strict adherence to SOPs. The political party leaders were only allowed to run the online campaigns as all mass gatherings and physical rallies were banned (Murad, 2020 ). To safeguard the voting citizens’ safety, the election department formulated various contingency plans such as strict SOPs on hygiene, different timing of voting following the age groups (high-risk group and low-risk group), social distancing in the voting centers, reducing the number of voters for each station, and extension of polling hours (Government of Singapore, 2020 ). There are a vast number of dissimilarities between Singapore and Malaysia when it comes to handling the SOPs for the election during the COVID-19 period; the loose SOPs practiced in the Sabah election led to another wave of infection in Malaysia.

There was also an epidemic of COVID-19 in the Sabah detention centers, where the undocumented immigrants from the Philippines and Indonesia were kept in October 2020. This happened due to the overcrowding in the lock-ups, and the state government failed to practice social distancing for the detainees (The Straits Times, 2021 ). In November 2020, the Teratai cluster that was linked to Top Glove Corporation, the world’s biggest glove manufacturer, caused more than 1000 infected cases, most of whom were foreign workers (Salim, 2020 ). The lack of compliance with the SOPs in the manufacturing sector and the absence of clear SOPs were the main reasons that had led to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. Shankar ( 2021 ) posited that these companies’ human resource departments failed to follow the SOPs, and the government authorities did not closely monitor the situations. An estimated 3 million documented and undocumented migrant workers are affected by the pandemic, in one way or another (Lim, 2020a ). On the other hand, Singapore reported that almost 47% of the foreign workers had been infected with COVID-19; however, the Ministry of Manpower came out with clear SOPs during mid-2020 for the business and industrial sectors to slow down the transmission (Lim, 2020b ). Here are some examples of the procedures: compulsory systematic testing for all the foreign workers; maintaining a high standard of the hygiene conditions in the workers’ dormitory; and employer-provided transportation from the workplace to the dormitory. These are some of the differences between Singapore and Malaysia in handling the migrant workers. To sum up, Malaysia has not been taking proactive actions in formulating strict SOPs and executing them accordingly during the early stage of infection.

Another reason for the spike of COVID-19 cases again is the lack of enforcement of the laws. This can be observed through the numbers of people arrested for not following the COVID-19 SOPs. Notably, 4189 people were arrested for defying the MCO as at 1 April 2020, but only 674 people were detained during the RMCO as at 11 October 2020 (Bedi, 2020a , 2020b ). Comparing the total population of the two countries, Malaysia has a total 32.69 million population while Singapore only has a 5.69 million population (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2020a ; Department of Statistics Singapore, 2020 ). Singapore has a smaller population but issued a higher number of fines - 6600 as at 1 July 2020; and 140 working passes of migrant workers were revoked for failing to follow the SOPs. There is also a double standard in meting out punishments - a minister escaped prosecution even though the person breached the quarantines rules (Jaipragas, 2020 ). Collectively, it can be demonstrated that Malaysia has been lacking in enforcement of laws, and the authorities have not been consistent in executing the laws in the society.

The living conditions of certain groups of people have also contributed to the high number of COVID-19 cases, which can be grouped into three categories. The first is cramped accommodations of rented properties, which have been converted into multiple cubicles or rooms (Bong, 2021 ). One property might house as many as four or five households, which work out to as many as 20 people in it. Overcrowded living spaces and poor hygiene contributed to the spreading of COVID-19. For example, the people-packed rented properties of Sibu Jaya Flats in Malaysia caused 1079 COVID-19 positive cases on 23 March 2021 (Dayak Daily, 2021b ). The second is the longhouses in the states of Sarawak and Sabah, Malaysia; the household units of which are built in close proximity. A longhouse is a stilted timber building with one section divided into a series of individual family rooms, and the other utilized as an open communal area for social gathering. By sharing the common areas with a large number of households, it is difficult to practice social distancing, and hence the chances of infection increase. This space problem led to the occurrence of more than 2000 COVID-19 positive cases as at 9 March 2021 (Dayak Daily, 2021a ). The third is foreign employees are housed in overcrowded dorms, which serve as breeding grounds for the coronavirus (Bernama, 2020a ). Due to the extreme confined spaces, there was little room for social distancing among the workers. The poor living conditions contributed to the increase in COVID-19 cases in Malaysia. For instance, more than 5000 positive cases occurred in the overcrowded workers’ dorms of Top Glove Corporation in Malaysia as at 30 November 2020 (Hassan, 2020 ).

To overcome the aforementioned issues, the Malaysian government introduced the enhanced MCO (EMCO) in the infected areas. When an area is declared as EMCO, barbed wire fencing will be installed around the affected area, which is meant to control the movements of the people. Permanent and temporary residents of the infected living places are not permitted to leave their houses, and non-residents are not permitted to enter the area (Hassan et al., 2021 ). The EMCO is effective in curbing the spread of COVID-19, as it limits people movement in a high-risk area, and reduces the infection rate. It also facilitates early detection of positive cases, screening, and curbing the spread of COVID-19 among the residents. The battle against COVID-19 is still ongoing in Malaysia. For instance, in Sarawak state alone, there were 50 areas under EMCO as at 29 April 2021 (Sarawak Disaster Management Committee, 2021 ).

In summary, the spike of positive cases in Malaysia from September 2020 to April 2021 was attributed to several factors: failures to follow the SOPs during the Sabah state election; the lack of enforcement of the laws, that is, allowing mass gathering during the MCO for some events; slow in taking actions in handling the outbreak of infection among undocumented immigrants and foreign workers; and poor living conditions of certain groups of people. This raises a question: Can we replicate Singapore’s COVID-19 success model in Malaysia or other Asian countries with high daily new cases? In a longer term, the COVID-19 pandemic is not merely hurting the economy and people’s livelihoods, it will also affect the people’s mental health adversely. The implications of the pandemic to the society will be discussed in the next section.

Implications of COVID-19 for Society

Mental health.

There is a change in the standard and manner of human interaction due to the pandemic that will affect people’s social wellbeing; for instance, self-quarantine and social distancing. A study conducted by The Centre Malaysia from 5 April to 10 April 2020 among local people residing in Malaysia indicates that 48% of the respondents (Malaysians aged 18 and above) experienced anxiety, and 45% showed signs of depression during the MCO (Azuddin & Zakaria, 2020 ). The study was conducted during the MCO period with peak daily cases recorded at 235. Using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) questionnaires, the online survey was assisted by a consultant psychiatrist. The DASS measures an individual’s emotional well-being in three aspects, namely depression, anxiety and stress (Azuddin & Zakaria, 2020 ). The survey results indicate that many Malaysians experienced high levels of negative emotions and depression during the first introduced lockdown.

The country’s economic upheaval and uncertain future during the pandemic period fueled worries and chronic anxieties, which could lead to cognitive deterioration (Hassandarvish, 2020 ; Shanmugam et al., 2020 ). The public cannot foresee how the pandemic would pan out or how the government would formulate or change policies from time to time to deal with the current perilous situations. The employers are concerned that the country can come under the MCO anytime, sometimes quite abruptly, when the number of confirmed positive cases increases. Reintroducing the MCO could lead to the closing of specific businesses or industries, whereas the employers need to continue to bear the fixed costs of the business operations such as rent or workers’ salary, even though there is reduced revenue or none at all. The employees are worried about the future of the companies they work for and wonder if they would lose their jobs. All these concerns could generate lots of fears in the people’s minds and even cause panic attacks, especially when the pandemic appears to be out of control. Besides, social distancing could disrupt the people’s social rhythm and work routines; loneliness as well as feeling of hopelessness and worthlessness could easily set in, and in extreme cases, might lead to suicide attempts (Gunnell et al., 2020 ; Holmes et al., 2020 ). It is a difficult and poignant situation when people are away from families, facing the uncertainty of their jobs or financial sources, and have no one to talk to. Holt-Lunstad et al. ( 2015 ) reported that the mortality rate for those suffering from severe social isolation could be as high as 29%. Social distancing and wearing face masks stop people from getting close to each other, depriving them of lots of friendly gestures such as shaking hands or seeing the smiley faces. Some people might be isolated during the pandemic and they have nobody to share their feelings with, and on top of that, people around them cannot observe their feelings because of the face masks; this is very dangerous and the possibility of suicide cannot be ruled out (Hwang et al., 2020 ).

For the person under investigation (PUI), the person under surveillance (PUS), and patients tested positive for COVID-19, the isolation could induce negative psychological emotions within them. Murugappan ( 2020 ) highlighted that these groups of people could experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In Malaysia, one PUS who was confined to a quarantine center had vandalized the room, and another PUI committed suicide (Chua, 2020 ; Zolkepli, 2020 ). The swab test, the fear of being tested positive for COVID-19, and social stigma heighten the anxiety level among the PUS. Patients who recovered from COVID-19 live under tremendous stress, worrying about the risk of re-infection as some recovered patients had tested positive again during the follow-up health checks (Vanar, 2020 ). Self-quarantine and social distancing have a more significant impact on specific groups of people who are emotionally vulnerable, for example, those with a borderline personality disorder or psychiatric disorders (Chong, 2020 ; Gunnell et al., 2020 ). The hospital staff members and frontline workers are busy copping the pandemic, and these particular groups of people cannot get close to others because of the nature of their jobs; besides they receive little attention from the health authority. These working and social conditions do not augur well for the above groups of people; over a prolonged period, negative emotions might slip in such as anxiety, fear, and even depression.

By exposing to long-term stressors and job demands, the front-liners may experience burnout, develop psychological fatigue, and eventually exhibit poor work performance. In a recent study, Malaysia’s frontline workers were apart from their families for months (Nienhaus & Hod, 2020 ). Most of them felt stressed and depressed as the public saw them as “infected persons” due to their working environment. Frontline workers are required to work extra hours to cope with the massive number of infected patients. Most of them are tired of overwork, under job pressure, and scared of facing patients with the deadly virus. All these factors can stimulate mental stress and cause insomnia, which will adversely affect their work performance. These scenarios are highlighted in Tan ( 2021b ) report indicating that some of the frontline workers have suffered from depression and resorted to relying on antidepressants as the negative emotions become unmanageable.

Woon et al. ( 2020 ) pointed out that students’ stress and anxiety levels were elevated after the MCO was lifted; they were fearful of the long-time exposure to the high-risk learning environment. Higher education students who were away from home and had difficulty switching to online learning also experienced a high level of anxiety during the COVID-19 outbreak (Grubic et al., 2020 ). The online learning has its challenges - unstable Internet connection, limited data capacity, or lack of proper electronic devices (Borneo Post, 2021 ). Consequences of measures taken by the government, such as social distancing, uncertainty in school commencement, delay in examination, and necessity of online learning, have increased the perceived threats in the people’s minds, which in turn led to mental depression among university students in Malaysia (Sundarasen et al., 2020 ). The students’ mental health and wellbeing are at stake with the constant fear and anxiety about a bleak future. To elaborate more, Sundarasen et al. ( 2020 ) elucidated that more than 30% of university students in Malaysia felt anxious during the pandemic between April and May 2020.

Job and Domestic Violence

Social capital is a more influential driver of the society’s wellbeing compared with economic wealth in the South Korea context (Lee & Kim, 2018 ). However, the looming COVID-19 economic havoc has caused socioeconomic distress followed by mass unemployment. Beja ( 2019 ) illustrated that the indirect cost of unemployment is twice higher than the direct cost of subjective wellbeing, which leads to a reduction in social society participation and an increase in personal violence. Many enterprises in Malaysia are providing unpaid leave, reducing the workforce’s size, cutting wages, or even closing down due to the economic costs of COVID-19 (Shanmugam et al., 2020 ). For instance, Genting Malaysia has cut 15% of its workforce (Ngui & Chew, 2020 ). Social Security Organizations and Employment Insurance System reported that the job losses have increased by 42% in Malaysia, in the first quarter of 2020 (Bernama, 2020b ). Consequently, the unemployment rate rose to 5.3% in May 2020, and was expected to rise to 8% by the end of 2020 (Murugiah, 2020 ). Department of Statistics Malaysia ( 2020b ) pointed out that 52.5% of Malaysians were financially affected during the MCO, and the Central Bank of Malaysia estimated roughly 951,000 people would face unemployment (Khalid, 2020 ). The loss of income and anxiety of uncertainty led to a more aggressive character for those pre-existing aggressors. As a result, as at 26 March 2020, the number of domestic violence cases spiked with call-ins increased by 57% or 1893 calls from women in distress, via Talian Kasih (Caring Hotline) in Malaysia (Arumugam, 2020 ; Hassandarvish, 2020 ). From 18 March to 30 April 2020, 526 investigation papers were opened in connection with domestic violence in Malaysia (Baharin, 2020 ). During the lockdowns, there is limited access to and assistance from the support structures for domestic violence victims. The majority of women are forced to stay at home with their aggressors for longer than usual due to these factors: travel restrictions, working from home, and kids learning from home.

In short, the COVID-19 pandemic led to health-related anxieties which could open up possibilities of suicides. The implementation of social distancing and lockdowns has produced adverse psychological outcomes. Self-quarantined persons had experienced PTSD, feelings of anxieties or depression. Due to the massive volume of chores in the workplace, many frontline workers experience burnout and they are in a state of depression. The students feel stressed and anxious; they have to cope with the uncertainties and challenges of new teaching mode - from classroom to online.

Volunteering and Mental Wellbeing Benefits

Amid the anxiety, stress, and fear, it seems the COVID-19 might have engendered changes in the people’s attitudes towards volunteering. Trautwein et al. ( 2020 ) conducted a study on volunteering during the lockdown using an online survey of 565 COVID-19 volunteers in Switzerland from 6 May 2020 to 3 June 2020. The study reveals that the fulfilment of the self-enhancement motive and value motive positively affected the volunteers’ satisfaction. There have been several studies done showing that volunteering is not just about giving, but also gaining mental wellbeing benefits; increased life satisfaction through established social ties; counteracting negative emotions; and reducing anxieties (Thoits & Hewitt, 2001 ; Tierney & Mahtani, 2020 ; Veerasamy et al., 2013 ; Wilson, 2012 ). With the social distancing measures, volunteers’ roles have extended to runner services such as medicine delivery and buying groceries for the most vulnerable, with the panic buying chaos going on (Etkind et al., 2020 ). In Malaysia, the MoH indicated that more than 1000 retired nurses and 2300 volunteers had joined the frontline workers during COVID-19 (Zainul, 2020 ). Volunteer tailors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around Malaysia helped produce personal protective equipment for the frontline workers (Shah et al., 2020 ). Besides, the civil society campaign - # kitaJagakita (We care for each other) was started by a group of Malaysian volunteers to support society by matching people who want to help with people who need the help (Teoh, 2020 ).

The positive emotions from volunteering can reduce the negative emotions such as fear or anxiety due to the pandemic (Tierney & Mahtani, 2020 ). Volunteering offers a chance for people to support and contribute to the society in the pandemic period. Helping others during their difficulties can increase a person’s self-confidence and give a sense of identity of pride. In a nutshell, the COVID-19 pandemic leads to reflection and rethinking of what volunteers and social purpose organizations can do for the society, hence, creating a volunteering society. The next section discusses the PEST analysis.

PEST Analysis

To provide insights into practitioners, the PEST analysis is presented in Table 1 below, with the lessons learned from Malaysia’s experience while combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the experience, recommendations are proposed for each aspect as well. For political factors, there is a full lockdown during the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, imposition of heavy fines and strict enforcement of laws, and running elections during the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, for economic factors, the analysis looks into the surge of the unemployment rate and residents’ financial burden. In terms of social factors, mental health issues cropped up and the number of domestic violence cases spiked during the pandemic period, which are discussed in the table. Lastly, the analysis covers technological factors such as online learning and introducing the mobile application for COVID-19 purposes.

Final Thoughts

As a concluding remark, at the point of writing this paper, Malaysia has experienced some degrees of success and failure in the national effort of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. By and large, COVID-19 has impacted the society both positively and negatively. In the year 2020, a slew of key research associated with COVID-19 has been conducted particularly in the epidemiological, medical, and virological realms. Hence, there is an urgent need to carry out empirical research on social wellbeing related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several aspects should be addressed in the future investigations: How do social distancing policies impact the landscape of social lives? Will the post-COVID-19 environment reset the standard of social happiness and wellbeing in high-context cultures? To what extent and in what manner does the volunteering during COVID-19 affect the psychological distress and life satisfaction in high-context cultures? The research ideas presented in this paper are by no means exhaustive; however, we believe these notions are likely to help future researchers to formulate problem statements and refine research questions in the social wellbeing domain. Exploring the above research questions should yield substantive and meaningful findings that can uncover the impacts of COVID-19 on various aspects of the society’s wellbeing. Lastly, we hope more studies can be carried out in the Asian countries so that the COVID-19 pandemic can be investigated in different contexts and from different perspectives. This will enable useful and generalizable findings be shared among the research fraternity. Using substantially the “Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic” (WEIRD) samples, Henrich et al. ( 2010 ) noted that more social psychology research should be conducted in the under-represented regions such as Asian countries (high-context cultures).

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Yong, S.S., Sia, J.KM. COVID-19 and social wellbeing in Malaysia: A case study. Curr Psychol 42 , 9577–9591 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02290-6

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The concept of a ‘social issue’ can be thought of in a many ways, with the definition differing depending on the thinker’s perspective. This often leads to a degree of confusion and misalignment on what exactly constitutes a ‘social issue’. Most broadly, a ‘social issue’ can be thought of as a problem that influences or affects a considerable number of people within a society. These must be distinguished from the standard ‘personal life’ issues faced by all members of society, and from the economic issues every nation faces. The identification of prevalent social issues within Malaysia requires a clear vision as to which segments of society require the most and immediate attention. Thus, this study aims to identify categories to understand what constitutes a social issue, to clarify what the term means in a Malaysian context based on previous studies via meta-analysis techniques. There were 30 journals articles collected from SAGE journal and Science Direct starting from 2010 to date .After a review analysis, there are seven categories of Social Issues: (1)Falling prey to abuse ; (2) Committing Crime; (3) Obstacles to employment (4) Quality of living condition (5) Obstacles to healthcare (6) Obstacles to Education and (7) Engaging in vice.

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What is self-injury? Self-injury is the intentional act of harming yourself without the intention of suicide, such as scratching, cutting or burning. We need to urgently address self-injury in our society as self-injury is increasingly common especially among youths and it can increase the risk of death by suicide up to 7 times. Who is […]

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Youth suicide costs a staggering RM350 mil each year, according to Relate Malaysia’s new study. In the paper, Economic Cost of Youth Suicide Malaysia, Relate Malaysia found that, for every youth suicide in 2019, the Malaysian economy lost RM676,165. Dr Chua Sook Ning – clinical psychologist and founder of Relate Malaysia – said the shocking […]

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On 6 November 2020, the 2021 Malaysian Budget was tabled by Finance Minister YB Dato’ Sri Tengku Zafrul bin Tengku Abdul Aziz. Regarding the allocation for mental health, these are the two separate figures we should be taking note of: RM 24 million for the Mental Health Program, Prevention of Physical Abuse and Substance Abuse […]

World Mental Health Day 2020

by Dr. Chua Sook Ning, PhD We celebrate World Mental Health Day on October 10th 2020. This international event offers an important contribution to raising mental health awareness and advocating against the social stigma of mental health. The 2020 World Mental Health campaign encourages us to invest: it calls on society to invest in providing […]

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Why we should have mental health insurance coverage and more

As the demand for insurance companies to cover mental health conditions, insurance companies are explaining why they cannot do so. Here is why we need to continue pushing for mental health coverage.  Dr. Chua Sook Ning Summary: It cost more when people are not treated than when people are treated. I estimate it will cost […]

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In March 2019, Cuepacs (Congress of Union of Employees in the Public and Civil Services Malaysians) released a statement saying that more than 400, 000 civil servants (or 20-30%) experience emotional stress, with a number of them needing psychiatric treatment. This was quickly followed by a press conference by the Public Service Department disputing the […]

Insurance for mental health conditions

Election promises.

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Review of The Human Exhibit: Mental Health

Relate Mental Health Malaysia was part of a ground-breaking theater production on Mental Health by I’M Entertainment. ‘The Human Exhibit’ is one journey that the audience will take to watch different representations of certain mental illnesses. Instead of looking at paintings/sculptures, there will be a human representation of the mental illness in the form of dance, […]

Public perception of mental health Part 1

Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah had worded perfectly what one of the common stigmas surrounding “mental illness” has been (in the context of a lack of awareness): “Mental health is a very misunderstood issue and many associate it with madness. We should not simply dismiss […]

Make mental health a priority in 2018

It’s the best time of the year! For the mentally ill, festive seasons can be of little cheer. The hustle of festivities, the expenses incurred, and the hosting of visitors can be overwhelming. There is also the unspoken pressure to look cheerful. 2017 has been encouraging for mental health advocacy in Malaysia. Mental health issues have […]

Going mental?

It’s bittersweet to see more and more mainstream news outlets cover mental health issues (a step in the right direction) but while using language that perpetuates stereotypes and stigma. A recent NST headlines screamed : “[Exclusive] Overworked souls risk going mental and dying early”. The Oxford Dictionary defines “Going mental” as informal phrase that means […]

The 2018 Health Budget – A new budget, same old story?

The new 2018 budget has been tabled and there is an increase in the Health Ministry 2018 budget from RM 25 billion in 2017  to RM26.58 billion in 2018. Unfortunately we have yet to see a specific mental health allocation in the health budget. There was no mention of increasing mental health resources in Malaysia, […]

The Malaysian perspective on the criminalization of suicide

“Suicide is not a blot on anyone’s name; it is a tragedy.”   Due to a lack of awareness on the validity behind mental health issues, there is a tendency for mental illness to be chalked down as ‘something that went wrong’ with the people who dare to share about their struggles. For example, depression […]

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a particular state of awareness cultivated through intentional practice. WHAT IS PARTICULAR ABOUT THIS STATE OF AWARENESS? 1. It is focused on the present moment. Our awareness is usually caught up in thoughts about the past or the future. We therefore cruise through life on autopilot unaware of what’s actually happening now in […]

Relate Let’s Talk: What You Need To Know About Depression

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The government allocated RM 25 billion for health care in the 2017 budget. According to WHO, Malaysia dedicates 1.5 % of the health care budget on mental health, or approximately RM 375 million. This RM 375 million would be for mental health care in general. That is far from sufficient. According to US researchers, the cost of […]

How to heal from emotional injuries.

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The reasonable response to mental illness and violent crimes

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What if: A case of depression

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Sexual recidivism is not a mental illness

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Mindfulness: A practice in being present

What is mindfulness? i. It is focused on the now. There is a time to reflect on the past, and a time to plan for the future. This time is for the present, to experience what is going on with the now. Just because we don’t think about it, does not mean it does not […]

Mental health in prison

By Dr. Chua Sook Ning In the past week, there has been a great deal of attention on the incarceration of certain prominent activists, leading many Malaysians to protest against SOSMA and its application. Since 2000, the prison population in Malaysia has doubled and many of these offenders do not have anyone to speak up on their […]

Placing suicide in context

By Dr. Chua Sook Ning In 2005, the Ministry of Health (MOH) conceded that the rate of suicide is severely underestimated and that the true rate of suicide ranges from 10. 5 – 13.5 people per 100000 (Malaysia Health 2005, p. 162). Below is a screenshot of the summary posted in the report.   How does the rate […]

The official record vs. The hidden reality of suicide

By Dr. Chua Sook Ning Dr. Ong Kian Ming, MP of Serdang recently asked the government for the annual rate of suicides in Malaysia. This week in parliament, the government reported that 1513 suicides were recorded from 2010 to September 2016, or on average 227 people a year. This means one person every 2 days commits […]

Mental health status in Malaysia

By Dr. Chua Sook Ning Did you know that 1 in 3 Malaysians are suffering from mental health issues? RELATE is going to take you through the report released by the Institute for Public Health, Ministry of Health, Malaysia. The measure: General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) It has been used by the National Health and Morbidity Survey since 1996. […]

Stigma of mental illness in Malaysia

By Dr. Chua Sook Ning In ancient Greece, the word stigma referred to a mark that was cut or burned into the skin of a slave or criminal. This brand served to visibly identify this individual to society as unworthy or a risk to society. It was to warn the people this individual was to be […]

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Cilisos recently reported on the treatment of the mentally challenged at a welfare home in Perak. RELATE believes in behavioural treatment as the first line treatment for children and adults who are mentally challenged, and medication if necessary to handle psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety or aggressivity.    

A response to the Chief Minister of Terengganu

By Dr. Chua Sook Ning Recently the Chief Minister of Terengganu, Ahmad Razif Abd Rahman, denied the National Health and Morbidity Survey report that 1 in 4 residents of Terengganu are mentally ill. He claimed that mental illness refers to crazy (“gila”) and that the statistics refers to the prevalence of mental health problem such […]

Is mental illness fashionable?

Mental illness is not “madness“. By Dr. Chua Sook Ning It is not just being misunderstood. Mental illness causes distress and impairs someone’s functioning in important areas of his/her life. Perhaps there are a blessed few who are able to use their illnesses to achieve great heights but most people suffering from a mental illness are […]

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National Mental Health Strategic Action Plan announced

With the sharp increase of mental health problems, the ministry of Health is planning to  come up with a National Mental Health Strategic Action Plan. It is intended to be a comprehensive plan that puts programs and strategies to “tackle the problem”. It is unclear what the government conceptualises as the problem. The government does intend to increase awareness […]

Mental illness prevalence increase

The numbers are out – 30% of Malaysians are suffering from a mental health problem. In 2011, the Ministry of Health reported that every 1 in 10 Malaysians suffer from a mental health problem and today, the research shows that it is 1 in every 3 Malaysians. Read more at http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/09/176013/one-three-msian-adults-struggling-mental-health-issues

Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Bullying — The Problem of Bullying in Malaysia

The Problem of Bullying in Malaysia

• Categories: Bullying Malaysia

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Words: 3027 |

16 min read

Published: Mar 28, 2019

Words: 3027 | Pages: 7 | 16 min read

Table of contents

Factors on why bullying is happening, statement of significance, scope, limitations and assumptions of the study, bullying cases in malaysia.

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Social Problems In Malaysia Which Is Vandalis Essay Example

• Pages: 10 (2507 words)
• Published: November 18, 2017
• Type: Case Study

1. 0 Introduction

1. 1 objective.

This report has several objectives:

• Define vandalism
• To analyse the social problem of vandalism in Malaysia
• Consider what makes people commit acts of vandalism
• Examine the impact on the community
• Discuss strategies to prevent vandalism

1. 2 Structure of the report

This report start with define the meaning of one of the social problems in Malaysia which is vandalism and more information about vandalism.

The body include the main causes of vandalism, impact of the problem to our society and the ways to solve this problem.Under conclusion, we summarize all the main points and make some appropriate recommendations in order to prevent social problem of vandalism in our society from become worse. 1. 3 Vandalism Vandalism is the intentional abuse, damage or destruction of any porti

on of someone else's property or common or shared property such as our residential facilities, furnishings or public property.

Though vandalism is usually the result of a deliberate act, it can also occur as a result of neglect or lack of consideration for fellow residents.It includes behavior such as breaking windows, slashing tires, spray painting on public places with graffiti, removing an exit sign and etc. Vandalism is a malicious act and may reflect personal ill will, although the perpetrators need not know their victim to commit vandalism. The recklessness of the act imputes both intent and malice. Because the destruction of public and private property poses a threat to society, modern statutes make vandalism a crime.The penalties upon conviction may be a fine, a jail sentence, an order to pay for repairs or replacement, or all three.

In addition, a person who commits vandalism may be sued in a civi

tort action for damages so that the damaged property can be repaired or replaced. Vandalism is a general term that may not actually appear in criminal statutes. Frequently, these statutes employ the terms criminal mischief, malicious mischief, or malicious trespass as opposed to vandalism. A group of individuals can be convicted of conspiring or acting concertedly to commit vandalism.Generally, the attempt to commit vandalism is an offense as well, but the penalties for attempted vandalism are not as severe as the penalties for a completed act. Penalties also depend on the value of the property destroyed or the cost of repairing it.

Destructive acts will not be excused merely because the defendants acted out of what they thought was a noble purpose. Political demonstrators may exercise their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and assembly, but if they deface, for example, government property with spray-painted slogans, they can be convicted of vandalism.The peak period for committing relatively minor property crimes is between the ages of fifteen and twenty-one. In the Malaysia adolescent vandalism, including the wanton destruction of schools, causes millions of Ringgit Malaysia of damage each year. Apprehending vandals is often difficult, and the costs of repairing the damage are passed on to taxpayers, private property owners, and insurance companies. Some states hold parents financially responsible for vandalism committed by their minor children, up to specified limits.

These statutes are designed to encourage parental supervision and to shift part of the cost of vandalism from the public to the individuals who are best able to supervise the children who destroyed the property. Vandals are criminals because they destroy property, waste time and money, and cause

suffering and death. There is no single type of vandal. Both sexes and generations are guilty.

Most vandalism to private property is committed by male adults. Female adults are the second most frequent offenders. Most vandalism to public property is committed by juvenile males. Female juveniles are second. Over one-half of all the crimes associated with vandalism occur in high schools.

2.0 Types of Vandalism

Vandalism happens everywhere, but most often: where building design and lighting offers concealment and anonymity, in areas frequented by young people such as schools, parks, shopping centers and public buildings, in unoccupied buildings, open spaces or parked vehicles where minimum surveillance is given to the property. Basically, there are three categories of vandalism which are public vandalism, school/campus vandalism, and private vandalism.Public Vandalism Public vandalism is a deliberate act that are damage or destruction of any portion of public property such as spray painting on public places with graffiti, removing an exit sign and so on. Private Vandalism Private vandalism is a malicious damage to someone else’s property like car or breaking others home windows. School/Campus Vandalism School/Campus vandalism is willful, malicious damage to property of school grounds which is so extensive in scope that parents and teachers rally together and the police are called into investigate.

3.Main Causes of vandalism

Although most vandals do not have a clear motive for their acts, studies show that basic social problems and attitudes are at the root of the vandalism. Among the many explanations for the crime are anger against society, boredom, drug and alcohol abuse, disciplinary problems and personal problems.

3. 1 Lack of parental guidance

Materialistic word in parents are busy working day in and day out,

trying to earn enough money.

In doing so, they neglect their duty, responsibility to bring up their children. Children need guidance while they are growing out.The lack of it will bring them to astray. Besides, parents do not spend time with their children. They are either too tired or couldn’t be bothered to do.

As a result, their children felt lack of love from their parents. They go to seek attention elsewhere by destroy somethings to protest. Broken families also one of the reason, the children who are caught in this situation will have extra disciplinary problem. They are angry and destroy whatever things to rent their anger.

3. 2 Bad influence from movie

Some movies may contain negative issues.Our minds are corrupted when we are free access to such movies which are available through internet / DVD / VCD / satellites. People are easily influenced by the actors and they imitate their action especially for the young people.

Young minds can’t differentiate the right from the wrong, they think what they do is correct. They will associate the experience with pleasure without think that vandalism is a crime.

3. 3 Bad influence of peer groups

As we know, we spend much of our time with our friends and we are more easily influenced by friends especially teenagers who are still young.In order to be accepted they need to follow what the group is doing.

They need to fit in. As the saying goes, ‘Birds of the same feather flock together. ’ If friends participants in vandalism, they will more likely being influenced and become vandal.

3. 4 Drug and alcohol abuse

Furthermore, a lot of people nowadays are very excited and more appetence to

attempt something new or never try it before without think twice that how the effect after do it.

They want to try new experience and how it feel if do that. They even don’t know the basic facts about drugs and how drugs can affect their brains and bodies.They may become violent under the influence of drugs. They may loss control and become more aggressive after drink. As a result, they will damage whatever things around them with pleasure and that is causing vandalism!

3. 5 Stress Another main cause is stress.

Young people become stressed for many reasons. The most common of these are:

•  Break up with boy/girlfriend
•  Increased arguments with parents
• Trouble with brother or sister
•  Increased arguments between parents
•  Change in parents' financial status
•  Serious illness or injury of family member
• Trouble with classmates
• Trouble with parents
•  Cannot complete school works
•  Examination stress The majority of people face the stress of negative life events, find internal or external resources to cope and move on. The actions in response to stress were also different.

Some of them may response it using the positive ways but some of them will express their stress out by exhibiting much more anger, aggressive, and antisocial behavior such like graffiti, spray paint anywhere they like and so on.

4. 0 Impacts of Vandalism

How many times have you strolled through the streets and noticed unsightly vandalism?Most often, the vandalism is graffiti spray-painted on to walls of local businesses or the fences of private citizens. Other examples of vandalism could be damaged or destroyed property or broken windows. The effects of vandalism to a community can also be varied.

Spray-painted walls and fences are unsightly and

encourage more vandalism in the future. Items damaged or stolen from parks and green spaces are expensive to replace. It caused our government should spend more money to repair or repaint those facilities that had been destroyed every year.In many small communities, fund raising efforts of local citizens is what helps to purchase play structures enjoyed by children in the local park.

When someone comes along and damages these structures, the children are the ones who lose. Vandalism will diminish property values and lower the community standard. This is because no one like to stay in the town with full of sprayed everywhere, and dirty place. Tourist or visitor who are visit to those country that are ugly, unsightly places full in the country, after back to their country, they may express their displeasure by engage negative words of mouth of that country to everyone.Automatically, the image of the country will drop down and outside people won’t spend their money to visit those countries anymore.

5. 0 Ways to Overcome Vandalism

Vandalism is a serious social problem that will lead to many bad effects to our society moreover country. Hence several ways are suggested to overcome this problem.

5.1 Teach by Example

As parent, we are considered responsible for our child's behaviour. Setting a good example start from younger is the best way to influence children to behave properly.

• Respect the law, plus other people's rights and property. Don't offer excuses for lawlessness; don't be indifferent to it.
• Don't break laws, no matter how small (e. g.violating traffic rules).
• Teach children to take care of their property from an early age.
• Talk about what vandalism is and how it spoils the environment.
• Explain that all property belongs to someone.
• Talk about how people feel when their things are damaged and destroyed.
• Help children to find positive ways to use their leisure time.
• Give them skills to resist pressure from their peers.

5. 2 Report Incidents

As a citizen, we are responsibility to report suspicious persons or activities near our residential area or our neighbour's home to our local police.

Report to authorities if we spot unusual activities at odd hours near our school, church and etc. Work with our local newspaper and radio stations to emphasize the nature and extent of the problem. Encourage them to publish a weekly "destruction list" enumerating acts of vandalism and the cost to taxpayers. If we are confronted by vandals, cooperate with local police force to see that they are caught and punished.

5. 3 Be Aware

Your child will probably be exposed to vandals in his school. Make sure you discourage him/her from participating in their activities.

• Give your child enough attention. Give plenty of love as well as discipline.
• Encourage his activities, recognize his successes and help him learn from his failures.
• Be aware of who his friends are and know how he spends his time. Give advice when needed.
• If your child begins to destroy things around them, get professional counseling. It can keep minor problems from becoming major difficulties.

5. 4 Get Involved

Besides, encourage your family and friends to join anti-vandalism organizations.Join a townwatch in your area, or start one if there isn't one already in your neighborhood. Contact your local police department for information on townwatches in your area. Townwatches

are neighbors that meet and plan preventive measures against vandalism and other crimes such as watching each other's property, patrolling the neighborhood, and reporting any suspicious activities.

Become active in youth programs that provide young people with constructive alternatives to vandalism and enable them to take pride in their neighborhoods instead of destroying them.These include neighborhood beautification programs; community camping trips; basketball teams; or theatrical groups. You can also help develop counseling centers or anti-vandalism campaigns in schools or assist other youth groups such as the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls, Boys Clubs, Big Brothers/Big Sisters or other youth oriented community service organizations.

5. 5 Other solutions

Education programs: School institution can organise campaigns in schools can help children realise the consequences of vandalism and graffiti and discourage them from these activities.

Surveillance: Government or those organization involved should increased surveillance, through professional security patrols or guards - or more expensively via closed circuit television - can be required in heavily vandalised areas where the benefits outweigh the costs. Information sharing: Comprehensive statistics should be kept on vandalism so the scope of the problem can be understood, and methods of preventing vandalism and repairing vandalised property should be shared among victims. 6. 0 Conclusion Vandalism is a crime that are willful or malicious destruction of public or private property.Every year, our government spend a lot of money on the projects of against vandalism and repair the willful destruction or defacement of property. Furthermore, vandalism leads to many bad effects to our society and drop our country image too.

There are many reasons lead to vandalism. Among the many explanations for the crime are anger against society, boredom, drug and

alcohol abuse, disciplinary problems and personal problems. When the reasons are identified, there are more easiest for us to combat against vandalism.Parents, public citizens, police, government and other related institution play an important role in this situation. Parents should spend more their time with their children and try to understand their children problems. Public citizens should be aware and report to police if notice suspicious persons or activities.

Police are responsible to having patrol around the vandalised areas more frequently. Government can organise anti-vandalism campaigns or any related activities to attract citizens involved in it to help citizens realise the consequences of vandalism and discourage them from these activities.As a conclusion, vandalism must be prevented from continue bringing bad effects for our society and country again. Thus, as a Malaysian, we must cooperate together and being responsibility to overcome the vandalism act in our country.

Bibliography Electronic Sources:

• <http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Vandalism> <http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vandalism>
• <http://www.aic. gov. au/publications/crimprev/graffiti/>
• <http://www. rotten.com/library/crime/school-vandalism/> <http://www. bins-n-benches. co. uk/vandal.
• htm> <http://www. btpolice. com/vandalism. htm>
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