The changing role of Ethnic Chinese in Malaysia

Leadership has been an active area of scientific research since the Second World War, with scholars developing different perspectives on antecedents, processes, and outcomes. Since the founding of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) in 1949, the political party has been subjected to many leadership challenges and crises which have many a time threatened its unity and the interests of the party and members. Of interest will be the understanding of the attributes of leadership which the members would prefer. If these preferences of the members can be examined in the context of consumer/voter behaviour or decision in the electoral marketplace based on the contention that the leaders are products and services, we can bring marketing concepts and tools to the study of voter behaviour or decision (in elections) and so take a step towards an understanding of leadership while providing new evidence concerning MCA members' preferences for their President. Consumer behaviour theory can indeed be applied to voter behaviour in the electoral context. / One of the marketing tools available for this purpose is the use of conjoint analysis as a method for predicting choice of leadership, although it is considered exploratory and unprecedented as there are little or no attempts having been made to apply conjoint analysis for such study. Since the mid-1970s, conjoint analysis has been used as a method to realistically simulate consumer decisions in the context of trade-offs among multiple-attribute products and services in the product development and marketing domains. The reliability and validity of this method have been well documented in the literature. The application of conjoint analysis in the Leadership Studies domain will open up a new dimension of its robustness and dynamics as a method for predicting choice. / Consumer behaviour marketing has much to contribute to the broader interdisciplinary interest in politics and the functioning of the democratic process. This research was carried out in three stages: 1) to explore the leadership attributes model construct in a review of literature; 2) using a focus group study, to develop a final leadership attributes construct considered relevant, applicable and meaningful for the study of the members' preferences for their President; and 3) using web-based Adaptive Conjoint Analysis as a method for predicting choice, to operationalize the leadership attributes construct by subjecting them to voter behaviour (decision-making) during elections in the electoral marketplace. The results from the conjoint study show that Decisiveness, Vision, Openness, Inspirational Motivation, and Relational/Network are the top five attributes for the MCA members' preferences for their President whereas Charismatic (Idealized Influence), Intellectual (Basic Qualification), Communication Language Proficiency, Analytical, and Good Performance Record are the bottom five attributes for the preferences for the leadership. This is important because a significant part of political marketing is candidates and parties spending large amounts of money on targeting voters to influence their decisions as experienced by the MCA in the past especially during the leadership struggles. More importantly, the leadership struggles can be very costly and damaging to the interests of the party and its members if unchecked or moderated. The result of the research is not expected to be the solution to the leadership struggle but the implications for a new evidence of MCA members' preferences for the President as discussed may serve as guidance to the future leadership, as are directions for future research. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005.

馬來人、華人和印度人構成馬來西亞的三大種族，馬來人占馬來西亞總人口半數以上，華人和印度人屬少數族群。馬來族群享有憲法上的特權，在政治、經濟、文化、語文、教育上，華人則一直遭受不平等待遇，受到歧視。馬來西亞的報界也反映了這個多種族的不平等特質，馬來文報和英文報具有政治和語言優勢，在社會上具有影響力，而華文報的影響力只侷限在華人圈子。本研究所欲探討的便是：在這種大環境下，馬來西亞華文報記者角色的自我認知。 　　本論文以Cooley的「鏡中自我」和Mead的「概化他者」為理論基礎，再引用Strauss, Stone和Goffman強調的情境式identity，配合Hirsch提出的職業、組織、制度三個研究分析層次，來深入分析華文報記者在不同層次的工作場域，以及面對不同的概化他者，所型塑出的自我認知類型。 　　筆者以滾雪球的方式，訪問了18位在吉隆坡的華文報記者，每位做了一至二小時不等的深度訪談，本研究發現，在職業層面，面對華文報同行，記者有糊口飯吃和受同行認同與賞識的自我認知，而這種自我認知則受記者在報館地位和新聞組別的影響。當面對外文報同行時，有的記者的自我認知是高人一等和承認自己弱點，而有的記者則頗負面，有不屑與卑微的自我認知。 　　在組織層面，本研究發現，記者面對報館這個概化他者時，出現三種情況：在主流與非主流報章的差異方面，非主流記者的自我認知受到報館地位的影響小，反而因為在報館享有較少的規範與約束而產生高自我認知；相反地，主流報章記者的自我認知，則因為報館地位和規範與約束的影響，產生正負兩種自我認知。此外，記者也會因報章風格而影響自我認知。在大報方面，記者的自我認知不會受報章銷售量滑落影響，反而因為報館的名聲、影響力、地位以及悠久的歷史而產生高自我認知。 　　在制度層面，本研究將記者與報業環境作連結，發現記者都將造成自我認知卑微的原因歸咎於外在的結構因素，包括華文報業結構和政治環境，卻沒有發現本身語言能力、專業素質和態度的不足，也是出現卑微的自我認知的因素之一。當記者面對政治力量和法令時，產生三種類型的自我認知，包括敢於挑戰、自我設限和反感。 　　本研究也發現，受到了馬來西亞各種族不平等的政、經、社、教情境的影響，華文報記者有既自大又自卑的自我認知。本研究係質性的「厚描」，將來如有人做量化的社會調查，當能使我們對馬來西亞的華文報與華文記者有更全、更深的認識。 / Three main races, Malays, Chinese and Indians, compose of Malaysia’s population with the majority Malays enjoying special constitutional privileges while the Chinese suffering political, economic, cultural, linguistic and educational inequality. Such state is also reflected in the Malaysia press. While the Malay and English language newspapers wave greater social and political influences, those of the Chinese language press are limited within the ethnic Chinese. This thesis is aimed at finding out the self-identity of Chinese language newspaper reporters in this unequal multi-racial Malaysian context. Conceptually, this research is constructed on Cooley’s theory of “looking glass self” and Mead’s “generalized others”. The “situational identity” proposed by Strauss, Stone and Goffman also forms a basis on which the thesis examines the identity of Chinese press reporters on institutional, organizational and individual levels as theorized by Hirsch. By a snowballing method, this author interviewed 18 Chinese language newspaper reporters in Kuala Lumpur. Each in-depth interview took from one to two hours. On the occupational level, the generalized others are found to be other Chinese language newspaper reporters, whose self-identity ranges from making a living to wanting to be recognized or appreciated by colleagues. The latter is influenced by the status of newspapers and different kinds of newsgroups. When compared with Malay or English language newspaper reporters, the Chinese language press reporters perceive themselves possessing a higher social status while at the same time admitting self’s weakness. On the other hand, there are Chinese language newspaper reporters who show an identity of disdain and humbleness. On the organizational level, three situations characterize the interviewed reporters. First, while non-mainstream newspaper reporters are less influenced by the status of newspaper, they have higher self-perception due to less restriction and higher autonomy in their work. Meanwhile, these reporters express both positive and negative self-perceptions influenced by the status and restriction of their newspaper. Second, reporters show different self-perception when the style of newspaper acts as one of the prominent factors. Thirdly, reporters at quality newspapers are less influenced by sales of the newspaper. Their higher perception self-identity is found to derive from the reputation, influence, status and history of the newspaper. On institutional level, this study has found that the interviewed reporters attribute their humble self-identity to such structural factors as Chinese language newspaper’s internal structure problems and external political environment while circumventing their own insufficiency in language command and professionalism. When faced with Malaysia’s unequal political and legal realities, there are three kinds of self-identity: daring to challenge, practicing self-censorship or showing resentment. This study adopts a qualitative method of “thick description” in its analysis. Future research shall reveal more by adopting a survey of statistically sampled reporters.

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旅居者在進入新文化社會時，往往面臨著跨文化適應的議題。而社群媒體的出現與滲透，也改變著旅居者流動於原文化與主文化之間的樣貌。本研究透過深度訪談探究背負著特殊脈絡的馬來西亞僑生，在進入台灣社會過程中所歷經的文化衝擊與跨文化適應歷程，並以新傳播科技臉書社群平台的角度切入，分析線上管道對馬來西亞僑生的疑慮消除及雙邊文化連結的影響，試圖描繪出臉書在旅台馬來西亞僑生跨文化適應經驗中所扮演的功能與角色。 研究發現，多數馬來西亞僑生在來台前透過人際與媒體管道的接觸而對台灣有著美好的印象，因此進入台灣社會即面臨著種種的文化衝擊，其中包含：生活、語言溝通、學業、人際關係、意識型態與價值觀等五個方面的適應問題。其跨文化適應歷程呈現壓力－調適－成長的螺旋上升模式。在旅居新文化社會台灣的初期，由於擁有較劇烈的衝擊，因此會在臉書採取主動、被動與互動的疑慮消除策略兼用的方式適應台灣，有助於初期龐大壓力的調解；而隨著時間的積累，雖然他們仍會面臨新議題事件的碰撞，但由於日常人際網絡日趨穩固以及跨文化經驗的提升，因此轉向被動策略的臉書使用。 整體來說，臉書為馬來西亞僑生在台灣的跨文化生活所提供的助益包括：資訊獲取與整合、情感支持、維繫關係與發展關係。在旅居初期如同橋樑一般，提供馬來西亞僑生在台灣社會中凝聚與跨越雙邊文化網絡的管道，讓流動於不同脈絡的他們，可以同時發揮不同連結人際網絡的潛力，將衝突化為成長的奠基，從而達到更好的跨文化適應階段，並在成長過後，更加自如地運用臉書作為生活的調味料，點綴其旅居生涯，成為更深層的跨文化能動者。 / Sojourners often come across the issue of cultural adaptation when they step into a new social environment. However, the presence of social media and its penetration change the way sojourners shift between host and ethnic culture. This study is about the cultural adaptation of Overseas Malaysian Chinese students in Taiwan’s social environment, through the social media platform, Facebook. This research analyzes in which way Facebook affects uncertainty reduction and bilateral culture context of the students, therefore demonstrating the functions and the role of Facebook in the cross-cultural adaptation of Overseas Malaysian Chinese students in Taiwan. The study is done through in-depth interviews with the students. This research shows that before most Overseas Malaysian Chinese students arrive, they have a remarkable impression of Taiwan. All these made up through social and media exposure of the country. It is also the reason they encounter culture shock upon their arrival, adaptation problems include living, communication, academic, social relationships, personal ideology and values. The stress – adaptation – growth model shows a rising spiral pattern during the period of adaptation. Due to severe culture shock during the early stage of the sojourners’ arrival, they tend to actively, passively and interactively utilize uncertainty reduction strategies to adapt Taiwan, it is effective to accommodate the high level of stress faced by them. In time, although they would still bump into new issues, they could passively make use of Facebook because they have stronger social networks and more cross-cultural experiences. To conclude, the benefits of Facebook toward Overseas Malaysian Chinese students in Taiwan include, gathering and compiling information, emotional support, sustaining and developing relationships. In the early stage, Facebook acts as a connecting bridge, providing a channel that bonds and breaches bilateral culture contexts, at the same time unleashing the potential their social relations among different ties. Eventually this will improve the cross-cultural adaptation process as conflicts are transformed into a foundation for growth. Subsequently after the growth, they are more casually utilizing Facebook being a condiment in their lives, to enhance the living in the country, as well as being an experienced cross-cultural agent.