# Introduction alaysia is a typical multi-racial and multireligious country. It is a prime example of a multi-racial society. One of the outstanding characteristics of its multi-ethnic population today is its highly variegated ethnic mix. The ethnic groups of Malaysia consist mainly of the Malay community, the Chinese community and the Indian community. (Malaysian Year Book, 1980: 15) Malaysia also has other ethnic groups like the Eurasians and the natives of West Malaysia 1 Author: Lecturer at Department of Dakwah and Leadership Studies, National University of Malaysia. e-mail: raza@ukm.my and East Malaysia. Because of the multi-racial character of the population, it also has a variety of culture, religion, social norms and values. This makes the country a rich field for studying the integration of the various ethnic groups. It is important to appreciate the recent level of integration in a multi-racial context such as Malaysia in order to make possible the development of policies that could sustain solidarity within the community. (Abdul Ghafar Don, et. al., 2012:546) Without this information the country will face a serious troubled situation, created by the feelings of disaffection between all races. One of the minority ethnic group in Malaysia is Kristang people which faced an identity dilemma relating to their ethnicity belonging in the process of integration, especially when the process happen being a Kristang means to be Malay in Malaysian context. For example, an individual born in a Malay family living in 1 West Malaysia which called Peninsular Malaysia which has thirteen states and two special territories considered as a centre of federal Malaysia (referred to as West and East Malaysia) known as Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, while East Malaysia or sometimes called Borneo has two states; Sabah and Sarawak. Malaysia would accept herself/himself as 'Malay'. An individual born in a Kristang family living in Malaysia, contributing to the economic development of the country might want to be known as Malays to benefit from being a Bumiputera 1 F 2 or would like to be known as Kristang to conform to the family roots or would just like to be known as Bumipetera. Pressure from the society and the environment to be accepted by a common factor in a community could strongly trigger 'ethnic switching' or 'identity dilemma'. Nevertheless individual's economic contribution to a country is elicited to the acceptance of the common factor in a community. Many ethnic minorities not only develop their own ethnicity but also assimilate to the ethnicity of the majority ethnic group in the country. The recognition that there are some similarities or shared characteristics with the majority ethnic group led to some overlapping forms of social identity. (Abdul Ghafar Don, et. al., 2012:550) This was confirmed by a study by Gleason (1981) where he found that the ethnic minority residents of the US not only develop ethnic identities but also assume some form of American identity as well. (Gleason, P., 198: 483) Judd et.al (1995) further elaborated that those members of ethnic groups who perceive themselves as different from the average American are more likely to develop a greater sense of ethnic identity because of their feelings of being a member of an out-group. Those individuals who are members of an ethnic group perceive their status as separate from the larger, dominant culture, and as a result, spend time exploring and developing their ethnic identities. (Phinney, J.S., 1990:499-514) Phinney and Devich-Navarro (1997) found that the ethnic minority individuals develop multiple identities: one representing their own ethnic cultures and the other dominant, national/ethnic ones, being Americans. (Phinney, J. S. and Devich-Navarro, M. 1997:3-32) Weisskirch (2005) found that Asian Americans and Latinos have the highest levels of ethnic identity and see themselves as not being typical Americans more than other ethnic groups. However, Latinos who report not being typical Americans have higher levels of ethnic identity. For Asian Americans, the perception of being a typical American made no difference in levels of ethnic identity. (Weisskirch, R. S. 2005:355-366) II. # Kristang People Background in Malaysia The Kristang people are a creole ethnic group of people of mixed Portuguese and Malaccan (Malay) descent based in Malaysia and Singapore. People of this ethnicity have strong Dutch heritage, some British as well as Chinese and Indian heritage due to intermarriage, which was common among the Kristang. In addition to this due to the Portuguese Inquisition in the region a lot of the Jews of Malacca assimilated into the Kristang community. The creole group arose in Malacca (Malaysia) between the 16th and 17th centuries, when the city was a port and base of the Portuguese Empire. Some descendants speak a distinctive Kristang language, a creole based on Portuguese. Today the government classifies them as Portuguese Eurasians. The Kristang language is formally called Malacca-Melayu Portuguese Creole, made up of elements of each. The Malay language, or Bahasa Malaysia, as it is now called in Malaysia, has changed to incorporate many Kristang words. For example, garfu is Kristang for "fork" and almari is Kristang for "cupboard"; the Malay language incorporated these Kristang words whole. Kristang community believed that they are originated in part from liaisons and marriages between Portuguese men (sailors, soldiers, traders, etc.) and local native (Malay) women. The men came to Malacca during the age of Portuguese explorations, and in the early colonial years, Portuguese women did not settle in the colony. Nowadays intermarriage occurs more frequently between Kristang and people of Chinese and Indian ethnicity rather than Malay because of endogamous religious laws. These require non-Muslims intending to marry Malay-Muslims first to convert to Islam. Eurasians are not always willing to alter their religious and cultural identity in this way. (Alan N. Baxter, 1988:87) In earlier centuries, Portuguese and local Malays were able to marry without such conversions, because such religious laws did not exist. The name "Kristang" is sometimes incorrectly used for other people of mixed European and Asian descent presently living in Malaysia and Singapore. This includes people of Portuguese descent who were not part of the historical Kristang community, and people with other European ancestry, such as Dutch or British. The name comes from the Portuguese creole kristang (Christian), derived from the Portuguese cristão. A derogatory term for the Portuguese-Malaccan community was Gragok (slang term for Portuguese geragau or shrimp, referring to the fact that the Portuguese Malaccans were traditionally shrimp fishermen). The community historically called themselves gente Kristang (Christian people). Malacca was a major destination in the great wave of sea expeditions launched by Portugal around the turn of the 16th century, and it eventually was controlled as part of the Portuguese Empire. The first Portuguese expedition to reach Malacca landed in 1507. The Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) noted that the Malays first called them Bengali Puteh (White Bengalis), as the Portuguese brought to mind traders from Bengal but were more pale skinned. In the early years, the Malays called the Portuguese Serani (short for Malay Nasrani, meaning followers of Jesus the Nazarene). A story was recorded that the Portuguese landing party inadvertently insulted the Malaccan sultan by placing a garland of flowers on his head, and he had them detained. In 1511, Portuguese fleet came from India to free the landing party and conquer Malacca. At that time, Portuguese women were barred from traveling overseas due to superstition about women on ships, as well as the substantial danger of the sea route around cape Horn. Following the Portuguese colonization of Malacca (Malaysia) in 1511, the Portuguese government encouraged their explorers to marry local indigenous women, under a policy set by Afonso de Albuquerque, then Viceroy of India. To promote settlement, the King of Portugal granted freeman status and exemption from Crown taxes to Portuguese men (known as casados, or "married men") who ventured overseas and married local women. With Albuquerque's encouragement, mixed marriages flourished and some 200 were recorded by 1604. (Taylor, Jean Gelman. 1983:174-179) By creating families, the Portuguese men would make more settled communities, with families whose children would be Catholic and loyal to the Crown. A powerful sea power, the rising Dutch nation took Malacca from the Portuguese in 1641. This coincided with the Portuguese Restoration War in Portugal that ended the 60-year period known as the "Union of the Crowns" (1580-1640), when the crown of Portugal was joined with the crown of Spain by personal union. Almost all political contact between Portugal and Malacca ended. Portuguese trade relations with the former colonial outpost of Macau have continued to this day. Even after Portugal lost Malacca in 1641, the Kristang community largely preserved its traditions, practicing Catholicism and using Portuguese and Kristang language within the community. The Kristang in general practice Roman Catholicism. Christmas (Natal) is the most festive occasion of the year, when many Kristang families get together to celebrate by eating seasonal dishes, singing carols and branyok, and reveling in saudade. Like many other Portuguese-speaking Catholic communities around the world, the Kristang also celebrate a string of major Saints' days at the end of June, beginning with St. John (San Juang) on June 24 and closing with St. Peter (San Pedro), the fishermen's patron saint, on June 29. The June festival of St. John's village is a major tourist attraction of Malacca. (Van Imhoff, E., Beets, G., 2004: 48) Tourists come to observe the festivities, which are religiously based. A small community of Kristang Jews does exists with the Secular Judaism sect brought by the Kristang Community for Cultural Judaism. Since then, the Kristang Jews now practices Orthodox Judaism instead of the secular sect which brings the Kristang Jews to be a Haredi Jew Rabbi. The Kristang community still has surprising cultural and linguistic continuities with today's Portugal, especially with the Minho region, from where many early settlers emigrated. The Kristang continue to hold some church services in Portuguese, and Malaysians often refer to the community as "Portuguese". As the Kristang language is not taught in schools, it is nearing extinction, with the exception of within the Portuguese Settlement in Ujong Pasir, Malacca. (Lusse, Leonard, 1986:302) The Kristang people in Malaysia do not have full Bumipetera status, a status which applies to indigenous ethnic groups. However they have been given the privilege to apply to be members of a trust scheme known as Amanah Saham Bumiputra. This is a privilege shared by Malaysians of Thai descent. The government sponsored this program to help the Malays increase their participation in the national economy. Nowdays, Kristang population in Malaysia around 53,897. The figures representing those who declaring themselves as Kristang. Some of them more confortable to be Chinese or Indian or Bumiputera because of inter-marriage situation. Although the both criteria's which are to collect the data and to measure the participating of Kristang people on Malays culture followed on what was used by Chuah. O (2001), but the content of every single question in the questionnaire of this research as well as the question format is different. The differences happen because this research has own objectives to be achieved. As a result, the main purpose in following established theories and methodologies is to ensure this research in achieving the goal. Furthermore, it is difficult for researcher to create a new theory to collect the data and to measure the participating, since a new theory is not being proved yet in any research or report. Then, it will affect the finding of the research on the side of validation. # III. # Field Work Methodology # b) Survey Questionnaire Methodology The survey questionnaire is a crucial part in this research to obtain the data and to enable the measurement. Without the correct design, difficulties in measuring the participating can result. Moreover, the research finding also will be affected by poor design. It is important to voice here that the survey questionnaire was chosen in this research to obtain the data and finally to measure the views, because all information will be documented and not just verbal. It is more critical when the usage of SPSS (Statistical Package for the Science Social) needs to be applied. Noticeably, verbal data are difficult to analyze and very hard to conduct through the system (SPSS). This survey questionnaire will write in two languages; English and Bahasa Malaysia (the Malay language) Respondents will be asked in all aspects of Malays culture especially practiced by Malays. Possibly, the questions will touch their experiences, recent practices, attention and awareness, feeling and willingness on certain issues related to Malays culture and other questions in order to measure their view on such things. The questionnaire will be divided into 2 sections; section 1 covering the criteria for collecting data which are respondents' criteria where includes six criteria based on the hypothesis. This is followed by section 2, which deal with questions includes items for measuring the view on Malays culture. Furthermore, the questionnaire covers up three question formats, which are: 1. Open question format. In this type of question, respondents will be asked especially about their ages, educational and occupational backgrounds and their monthly income. The advantage of this format is to get the genuine answer from the respondents and then it will easily categorize and analyze their answers. However, the researcher uses this format only in section 1 in the questionnaire. 2. Statements with tick box categories. The respondents need to tick the box that best matches with the answer. This type of format is suitable for general attitude measurement and is easily understood and yet quick to complete. The researcher uses this type of format to get the information's about gender and marital status of the respondents in section 1 of the questionnaire. 3. Rating scales statement. The respondents will be given questions with a rating scale of 1 to 5. The scales 1 and 2 will indicate their convenient and agreement with the question or statement while scale 4 to 5 indicates their inconvenient and disagreement with the question or statement. In the meantime, scale 3 shows a neutral response to the question or statement mentioned. This sort of format is used in sections 2 and appropriate to measure respondents view on Malays culture. Furthermore, this type of format followed the Likert scale which produced by Rensis Likert. IV. # Criteria for Collecting Data For this research, 600 questionnaires will be distributed to Kristang people to measure their view and participating in Malays culture. In addition, to ensure the reliability of data collection and to learn about the community will not only depend on numbers of respondents but also for background information about them. The discussion below sets out the criteria of the backgrounds of the Kristang people determined by the researcher in line with the Chuah, O. (2001) theory. # a) Age Group of Kristang people Although the number of Kristang people shows consistent in all age groups, most of them are between the ages of 25-30. Young Kristang people is subjected to the education system of Malaysia, where Islamic terms are usually used Malay is a compulsory language in all schools and is the medium of interaction and instruction including at the universities. This young Kristang people seems to be more opening minded and ready to accept the Malays culture at least as part of their life in education surrounding. On the other hand, for the older group, some of whom cannot speak any other language except their 'mother-tongue'. It is hard for them to communicate with others especially those who came from Malay ethnic. Moreover, having already lived their whole life as an Indian with Indian ways and culture, it is of course more difficult for them to accept a new culture (Malays culture) This may be the reason why the 55 years-old and above age group has the lowest number, compared with the other age groups, who have practiced Malays culture. The researcher will select 600 respondents from various levels of age groups of Kristang people. They will fill in the questionnaire and data gathered will represent the community. They will be divided into eight age groups 4 # b) Gender , where each group has an expected number of respondents. 100 of them will represent the age of 15-17 years-old, 60 will represent 18-24 yearsold, 100 will represent 25-30 years-old, 60 will represent 31-35 years-old, 60 will represent 36-40 years-old, 100 will represent 41-45 years-old, 60 will represent 46-54 years-old and 60 will represent those Kristang people from the age of 55 and above. In order to get the expected number of the age group, researcher will directly ask in the questionnaire about date of birth. These kinds of question are to ensure the exact age of the respondent, because most probably some of the respondents not yet reach into certain age during they answer the question. So, it is vital work to analyze return questionnaire sequentially to get an exact age group of the respondents. Generally, both male and female Kristang people has similar chances to know and practice Malays culture. Asian women as they practice the Indian traditional way of life as a housewife. They will take responsibility to raise their children according to their customs. Then, they have plenty of time to add their knowledge via various sources such as mass-media, through their daily communication with their local community and through their gathering during certain ceremonies such as weddings. Interaction and integration take place on a social as well as professional and educational level and there are no social barriers. Meanwhile, their husbands have more opportunities to know the Malays culture when in their daily work they communicate with Malays. They are influenced by the Malay way of life. Furthermore, in recent year, statistics show that females dominate in enrollment to the universities in Malaysia. 5 This enables young Kristang people females to communicate and integrate with their Malay counterpart because 60% of the universities' population must be from Bumiputeras (especially Malays). 6 4 The reason of dividing the respondents based on age into eight groups is to follow the same age group separated by Chuah, O. (2001) theory. Then, any analysis or ideas make by researcher after this will easily understood because it in row with establish framework. 5 The census run by Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia in the year 2011 showed that the percentages between male and female at the campus are; 40% male and 60% female. 6 The percentages of universities population in Malaysia (60% for Bumiputeras and 40% for others) was practiced by Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia to ensure that Bumiputera has a right as "son of the soil" On the other hand, it does not mean that males lack chances to know Malays culture and to communicate and integrate with the Malays. Often, they inherit their father's work as businessmen. They run big or small business, a corner shop to a big financial company. Of course, their clients are mostly Malays, which means they need to interact and integrate with Malay Muslims. Based on the situation above, the researcher decided to include similar amounts of both male and female respondents. This will avoid a biased conclusion from the data. Both of them will represent 300 respondents. # c) Occupational background Occupation is an important criterion to show that the Kristang people are influenced by the Malays culture and unconsciously communicate and integrate with Malays daily. Furthermore, some of them work as government servants where Islamic teaching is used for rules and regulations formally or informally. For example they practice 'government servant dress code' where the code was derived from Islamic and Malays dress code. In addition, some of them are involved with the jobs of the Malays, such as being the Muballigh or Islamic preacher at Islamic preaching organizations. As mentioned before, although they run big or small businesses their clients are mostly Malays. They need to know what Malays need as Muslims. For example, when they run a grocery shop, they ensure that h? al?l meats and foods are supplied to them, if not they would lose their Malay clients. Similarly, when they run a finance company, they need to guarantee that they are not involved with riba' 7 On the other hand, it is too difficult to list all the respondents' occupations because they may be involved with the several different types of employment. Sometimes as businessmen they may run more than one type of business and that will affect the data analysis. To solve the problem and to represent their types of work, the criteria will list employment according to the following: 'general workers' such as all kinds of laborers, housewives, and the unemployed 'semi-skilled workers' (who work without certain formal training which is forbidden by Isl?m. However, it is too early to come to a conclusion about Malays culture participating without specific data. Although Kristang people and Malays know each other through their daily communication, the level of Kristang people participating in Malays culture is unknown. The level will be affected for those Kristang people (respondents) whose work is 'Indian based'. For example, Indian in Malaysia is commonly known for their herbs and 'curry' shops. Indian herbs and 'curry' shops have spread out everywhere especially in big city in Malaysia. Those (respondent) who works in this area typically lack knowledge about Malays culture and they do not obviously communicate with the Malays to the same extent as others may. 7 Riba' is Arabic word referred to some profits (usually shown by sum of money) without clearly known where it came from or sometimes called 'interest'. Isl?m was banned the Riba' based on 'unclear profit'. certificates) such as clerks, salesmen, businessman, supervisors and so on. 'Skilled workers' (who work with certain formal training certificates) such as teachers, policemen, technicians and artists and finally, 'professional workers' (who have and used a degree or equivalent as a qualification to practice jobs) such as students, executive officers, bank officers, lawyers, doctors, lecturers and others. 8 # d) Educational Background Each occupation group will have 150 expected respondents. Furthermore, by generals the occupational background mentioned above will guarantee the respondents to answer the question. This is because some of the respondents may try to hide their working; since the job probably is not permitted by Islam like waiters serving an alcohol drink. They have to continue the job for a temporary period before they find a new suitable job. There are two types of schools run in Malaysia, government and private schools. Government school refers to any school which is operated using Malay as the language medium and fully financially supported by the government. 9 Meanwhile, private schools will use one language medium from three major languages groups represented by ethnic groups which are Tamil (for Indians) 10 , Chinese (usually they use the 'Cantonese' dialect for the Chinese), and Arabic (sometimes called Madrasa school taken from the use of Arabic as language medium and this type of school is attended by Muslim children especially from Malays) 11 The government enforces the Malay language subject in both government schools or 'National-School' and private schools or 'National-type School' and 'Religious School'. The subject needs to be taught at least 5 hours a week (from 5 school days, Monday to Friday). Furthermore, the government regulation of school periods for the children must be followed. The compulsory periods are 'Primary School' which is 6 . Furthermore, the private schools generate their own money from fees and other sources. years schooling to children from 7 years-old 12 years-old and 'Secondary School' is 5 years of schooling to children from 13 years-old to 17 years-old. After 11 years of schooling, the children have a choice based on their examination results (in such a period mentioned, they will be tested three times, firstly when they reach 12 years-old, secondly when they are 15 years-old and finally at 17 years-old). At 17 years-old, they can leave school or continue their education and enter College or in Malaysia sometimes called 'Institute' or 'Pre-University Classes' for two years more. After that, they will go to universities in Malaysia or abroad for their further studies. Unfortunately, there are some parents who stop their children's schooling after 'Primary School' or 'Secondary School' for reasons such as poverty or a desire to have children continue their family business (especially those who have family businesses). Based on the discussion above, educational background plays an important role to Kristang people to know the Malays culture Although they only learn the Malay language through their schooling, Malays and Isl?m are synonymous, which means in Malaysia all Malays are Muslim, those who studied Malay will study Isl?m as well and indirectly they studied Malays culture. Moreover, many words in the Malay language are adopted from Arabic. So, Kristang people has an opportunity to interact and integrate with the Malays in all periods of education whether in 'Primary' or 'Secondary' school or in 'College/institute/Pre-university Classes' or in the university itself. Starting from that point, the researcher decided to categorize educational background based on such periods of schooling and expected to get the same amount of respondents in all categories which is, 150 respondents. In conclusion, this type of criteria is not trying to discriminate the respondent through the educational background. The main purpose is to get their opinion with different background of study, since it well known the different background has a different way of thinking. # e) Monthly income Generally, through the monthly income several circumstances will appear to relate to the view of Kristang people about Malays culture, such as: 1. Those that are in the Upper income group 12 12 Malaysian Ministry of Labourers divided monthly salaries basis into three categories, Upper Income Group (those who received RM 5000.00 or upper than that value, monthly), Middle Income Group (those who received RM 4000.00, RM 3000.00, RM 2000.00 or RM 1000.00 monthly) and Lower Income Group (those who received RM 900.00, RM 800.00, RM 700.00, RM 600.00, RM 500.00, RM 400.00, RM 300.00 or RM 200.00). However, according to the ministry, RM 2000.00 is the border value between lower earn income and higher earn income in Malaysia based on the basic salary received by graduate worker. have more purchasing power. Therefore, they will spend a lot of money to get everything appropriate to their status of income, such as services. Usually, the monthly expenditure will include the service of 'Pembantu Rumah' (housemaid) which is a group of employees, dominated by Malay women. Some of them keep up to three maids in their house with different role such as a 'cleaner' or as 'nursemaid' and others. Furthermore, they spend a lot of money on education by inviting teachers to give some tuition to their children in several subjects like mathematics and statistics, science and Malay language. Usually, the teachers come from the Malay ethnic group since, based on Malaysian Ministry of Education statistics, 90% of trained teachers are Malays. Therefore, those who are included in this income group have a huge opportunity to know Malays culture. Consequently, the main purpose of evaluating view of Kristang people on Malays culture base on monthly income is to get the best result which group source is mostly participating in the culture. Then, it will be supported to other criteria's to bring the concrete conclusion. In order to get the data, the researcher will divide Kristang people income into three categories which are Upper, Middle and Lower income groups with certain values of earning. The expected respondents are 600 made up to 200 respondents from each group. It is important to be voiced here, the purpose to categorize the respondents into the monthly income researcher tries to avoid any other purposes as use the information gathered to be released to another party and finally will reveal the information for the purpose of prejudicing especially among the multiethnic condition in Malaysia. # f) Marital status Marital status was included in this measurement based on hypothesis derived from the observation that Kristang people usually has children who will influence them through their Malay schooling. On the other hand, there is a lot of factors to consider which could disprove the hypothesis. For example, from the point of view of freedom, those who are single in general have more time to interact with Malays who practiced Malays culture compared with those who are married, who may have less free time because of their family schedules. Moreover, most of the Kristang people involved in 'Malay oriented education' is single (they are between the ages of 18 and 23 years-old or at the beginning of the 'Pre-University Classes' period until they finish their study at certain universities at home or abroad). Although, this research cannot deal with all the complex factors influencing, it does attempt to objectively measure these factors or in other words it finally involves with subjective matters. As a result, researcher wishes to focus on married and single status of Kristang people and examine which group predominantly participating in Malays culture. Thus, in order to get the data, the researcher divided respondents into 'single' and 'married' status and expected 300 respondents for each status. # V. Respondents' Demography, Instrument Reliability and Research Finding Obviously, the table of respondents' demography can be reviewed at Table 1, appendix 1. Meanwhile, reliability in this research means consistency, or the degree to which an instrument will give similar results for the same individuals at different times. The best quotation to explain the instrument reliability in research is through the definition the term given by Joppe (2000). She defined the reliability as "...the extent to which results are consistent over time and an accurate representation of the total population under study is referred to as reliability and if the results of a study can be reproduced under a similar methodology, then the research instrument is considered to be reliable" (Joppe. M., 2000:14). However, the researcher cannot be sure of unchanging elements in extraneous influences, such as something that might cause an attitude transformation among the respondents. This could lead to a difference in the responses provided. In spite of this, any attitude change that can be considered as unexpected cannot be counted as a cause of an unreliable instrument. Following on what Joppe (2000) illustrated in reliability analysis by using the alpha (?) method, she concluded that an alpha (?) score of 0.6000 and above has a good reliability. (Joppe. M., 2000:23). The result of reliability testing of this research, after using the same method of testing as Joppe (2000) is shown in the following table, which is Table 2 at appendix 1. The result shows that each of the instruments (questions) has alpha 0.9000 and above or alpha 0.9990 in percentage. It means the instruments or the questions used in this research are reliable and can be validly applied in the questionnaire. The word 'level' in this research can be interpreted as certain numbers within the measurement which allows one to conclude that integration is at the high or low levels. Apparently, the usual formula used to get the levels is by looking at the 'Median'(Y) value score, comparing it with the 'Mean'(X) value score; if the 'Median' (Y) value score is higher than the 'Mean' (X) value score (Y>X), it means one can come to the conclusion that the level of integration at the high level. On the other hand, if the Y