Ethnic and political tolerance on rational voting behaviour in Malaysia

Tolerance has been regarded as an essential key element in the modern multi-diversity society culturally, ethnically, religiously and politically. Various empirical evidence confirmed that tolerance has a positive effect towards social stability and harmony. However, when it involves voting behaviour as rational on ethnic and political tolerance, there has not been a sufficient study to explain such phenomenon. This study adds to the existing literature on ethnic tolerance, political tolerance and voting behaviour in Malaysia. This study has been conducted to address these matters, specifically, exploring the levels of ethnic tolerance and political tolerance in Malaysia. It also examines the relationships between ethnic tolerance, political tolerance and voting behaviour, as well as the effect of ethnic political tolerance on voting behaviour. This study also analysed the relationship between social status and voting behaviour. Finally, this study scrutinised ethnic political tolerance in the context of multi-ethnic Malaysia, with specific reference to the Johor Bahru (P160), Shah Alam (P108) and Bukit Bendera (P48) parliamentary. This quantitative study approach uses survey method with the self-administered set of the questionnaire as a data collection technique. Data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). 600 respondents were engaged in the survey using multistage cluster and random sampling techniques. The findings revealed that the level of ethnic tolerance can be considered as a medium with Bukit Bendera (P48) is the more ethnically tolerant compared to the other two constituencies. On the note of political tolerance level, the medium-good level is achieved with Bukit Bendera (P48) is the more politically tolerant as opposed to two other constituencies. The study discovered that ethnic tolerance had a significant negative relationship with voting behaviour, while political tolerance is not statistically significant. But both, ethnic tolerance and political tolerance had a significant positive correlational relationship. It also discovered that social status that is; level of education, party supported and ethnicity had a significant positive relationship with voting behaviour. Thus, it is evident that ethnic political tolerance has a considerable effect on the rationale of voting behaviour. However, the consequences vary, in which homogeneous and heterogeneous ethnicities act as intervention factors. The present study filled the gap to the current body of knowledge and bears great significance at a situation where ethnic politics are perceived as the most important matter, and tolerance has increasingly become Malaysia’s national agenda in managing a multi-cultural society.

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