MALAYSIANS must discuss and define a version of what liberalism means as most people remain confused by the notion of liberalism and see it as a largely western concept, researchers said today.

According to a public opinion survey on liberalism run by Merdeka Centre and Freidrich Naumann Foundation, a large majority of Malaysians did not actually understand the meaning of liberalism.

“From the results, only 15% of Malaysians understand liberalism, whereas 74% do not understand and 11% which are unsure,” said Ehsan Shahwaid from Merdeka Centre who presented the findings.

The survey was conducted on 1,206 voters aged 21 and above who were interviewed via telephone across Malaysia, from November 26 to December 4, 2017.

The survey had 11 questions which assessed the Malaysian perception and understanding of liberalism without comparing it with the universal definition of liberalism.

At a four-panel forum titled “Liberalism in Politics, Social and Economic” today, Wong Chin Huat from the Penang Institute said the Malaysian constitution guarantees a limited form of liberalism.

But in order to achieve optimal liberalism, Wong said that a person’s future must be determined based on merit and not who he is born as.

“I hope that one day we can be different but equal, we don’t need to assimilate to society before everyone is treated equally,” he said at the forum held to discuss the findings of the report.

“We can only be liberal when the future of someone’s life in Malaysia does not depend on the category he is born in, whether a higher social class, race and others,” said Wong.

Asma Abdullah from G25, the pro-moderate group of former Malay civil servants, said liberalism was a concept that needed to be addressed by the Malay Muslims in Malaysia.

“At the cross cultural level, Malay Muslims in Malaysia have to come to terms with the concepts of human rights, pluralism, liberalism feminism, sexism and moderation,” she said.

Asma said these were “Western concepts” that needed to be adapted to a Malaysian context before being defined.

“We need to recognise that these terms are not universally accepted, because Malaysia is a highly diverse culture.”

As such, Asma said it is crucial to identify the differences when practicing liberalism in Malaysia.

“Have we made an attempt to identify that difference? We have to highlight what is unique about our society that we need to examine.

“In the era of globalisation we all have our own definitions of liberalisation, and this must be addressed,” she added.

The forum also saw two other panelist, namely Kangar MP Noor Amin Ahmad and Shahrul Aman from Bersih 2.0 who agreed that Malaysians need to have more awareness on liberalism. – July 28, 2018.