CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS: THE MALAYSIAN EXPERIENCE

Article Sidebar

PDF Full Text
Published: Dec 30, 2010
Keywords:
celebrations Malaysia multi-religious constitution and ethnic group

Main Article Content

Mohd Shuhaimi bin Haji Ishak

Abstract

Malaysia, a multiethnic and multi-religious society in Southeast Asia, has a population of 27.7 million comprising three major ethnicities, consisting of 67% Malays/Bumiputras, 24.7% Chinese, and 7.4% Indians along with many smaller minority groups. The Federal Constitution of Malaysia declares Islam as the official religion, but guarantees religious freedom. Malaysian observes a number of celebrations according to the religious faith of its people. The Malays celebrate their Muslim festivals such as Aidil Fitri and Aidil Adha. The Chinese in Malaysia celebrate festivals like Chinese New Year and Chap Goh Mei where cultural celebrations such as the lion dances and Chingay procession take place. For the Hindus, apart from the Deepavali celebration, the festival of light, the Thaipusam is a celebration where more than one million people flock to Batu Caves. While in East Malaysia, the grandest celebration is Tadau Keamatan in Sabah, and Gawai Dayak in Sarawak. Both celebrations are of significance as the occasion to mark rice harvesting season. The paper attempts to highlight the celebrations of the major ethnics groups in Malaysia and depicts real experiences of individuals of each group to show that it accommodates the differences in culture and religious belief.
 
Keywords: celebrations, Malaysia, multi-religious, constitution and ethnic groups

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 15 (2010): Abstract & Full Paper
Section
Articles

JATI PUBLICATION ETHICS & PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT:

These guidelines are fully consistent with the COPE Principles of Transparency and Best Practice Guidelines and the COPE Code of Conduct (https://publicationethics.org). 

We encourage the best standards of publication ethics and take all possible principles of transparency and measures against publication malpractices. The Department of Southeast Asian Studies, as the publisher, plays its role of guardianship over all processes of publishing seriously, and we perform our ethical and other tasks. 

  • General duties and responsibilities of editors
    Editors should be accountable for everything published in their journals. This means the editors should strive to meet the needs of readers and authors; constantly improve their journal; have processes in place to assure the quality of the material they publish; champion freedom of expression; maintain the integrity of the academic record; preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; and always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed. In addition to these general duties, the editors accept the obligation to apply best will and practice to cope with the following responsibilities: 

  • Editorial Board
    Will generate editorial board from recognized experts in the field. The editor will provide full names and affiliations of the members and updated contact information for the editorial office on the journal webpage. 

  • Duties of Reviewers
    Contribution to Editorial Decisions 
    Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions, and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. 

  • Duties of Authors
    Reporting standards
    Authors should follow the format of reporting the original research with accurate data gathered. The author should include sufficient detail and references to allow others to replicate the work. It is unacceptable if the author performs malpractices in the paper.

  • Originality and Plagiarism
    The authors should ensure that they have produced original articles and must appropriately cite or quote if the authors have used the work and words of others.

  • Concurrent Publication 
    It is ethical and acceptable for an author to submit or publish the same research or manuscripts in more than one journal or primary publication. 

  • Acknowledging the Sources 
    Authors should cite properly publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. 

  • Paper authorship 
    Those who have contributed significantly to the paper should be named as an author and co-authors. Those who have participated in the aspects of the research should be listed as contributors. All co-authors should have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. 

  • Announcement and Conflicts of Interest 
    All authors should include the financier or grant giver if the manuscript or research is financed by the research grant or any financial support body. 

  • Errors in published works 
    The author is responsible for communicating and co-operating with the editor to retract or correct the paper when a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work. 

  • Publication decisions 
    The editor should decide which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always drive such decisions. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision. 

  • Peer review process 
    All journal's content (articles) are subjected to a double-blind, peer-review process. Articles are first reviewed by editors and may be rejected because it is not dealing with the subject matter. Articles that are found suitable for review are then sent to two experts who are unknown to each other in the field of the paper. 

    Reviewers are asked to classify the paper as publishable, with amendments and improvements, or rejected. Reviewer's evaluations usually include what to do with the article. The author then sees the reviewer's comments. 

    Editors should be ready to justify any important points from the described process. Editors should not reverse decisions on publication. Editors should publish guidance to both authors and reviewers on everything expected of them. This guidance should be regularly updated and referred to or linked to this code. 

  • Fair play
    The editor should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors. Editors' decision to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based only on the paper's importance, originality and clarity, and the study's relevance to the journal's aim.

  • Digital Archiving
    The editor will ensure digital access to the journal content by the University of Malaya Journal depository section at http://jati-dseas.um.edu.my and MyJournal at http://www.myjurnal.my/public/browse-journal-view.php?id=39.

  • Confidentiality
    Editor and any editorial staff must keep confidential all information about the manuscript's submitted and review process to anyone except the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher.

  • Publication and Submission fee
    Authors are freed from submission fees. Authors are required to pay the Article Processing Fee, RM300 or USD80. 

  • Open Access Policy
    The journal is freely available online. Authors must agree with this open access policy which enables unrestricted access and reuse of all published articles. The articles are published under the Creative Commons copyright license policy CC-BY.

  • Reporting standards
    Authors of papers should present an accurate account of the work performed and an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the article. An article should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable. Review and professional publication articles should also be accurate and objective, and editorial 'opinion' works should be identified as such.

  • Originality and Plagiarism
    The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works and if the authors have used the work and words of others, this has been appropriately cited or quoted.