Workers able to tap on

diverse and extensive

networks might have
greater access to social
resources (such as
information and influence)

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Malay Connections:
Presence and Absence

By Muhammad Farouq Osman & Vincent Chua

In a June 2015 interview with BERITAMediaCorp, then Minister in the Prime Ministers Office
Mr Masagos Zulkifli underlined the importance of networking for young Malays, stressing
that the opportunity to progress to different jobs on the career scale will increasingly lie in
expanding ones professional contacts. He added that cultivating such personal connections is
all the more pertinent, against the backdrop of intensified job competition brought about by
globalisation and technological change.
This recognition from a senior member of the Malay/Muslim political leadership of
the need to build social capital defined as resources embedded in social relations is
important and timely. It follows the introduction of a slew of SkillsFuture programmes
and initiatives, which the government has set up to promote lifelong learning and deepen
professional and technical skills. Workers able to tap on diverse and extensive networks
might have greater access to social resources (such as information and influence), which
enable them to augment their competencies. As the community strives towards improving
income levels and increasing its share of professional, managerial, executive and technical
(PMET) workers, this new focus on harnessing the power of social relations may well
prove to be the missing piece in the puzzle.
While there is growing evidence that social capital is unevenly distributed in society for
example, ethnic minorities tend to have less social capital than ethnic majorities all is not
lost. Social capital theorists posit that fostering connections to different social groups, usually
beyond ones ethnic, educational or class background, can help minorities transcend their

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disadvantaged status. Former dean of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Robert
Putnam calls this concept bridging social capital. It may not be immediately obvious, but
SkillsFuture components such as enhanced internships and the Earn and Learn programme
for fresh polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) graduates serve to enrich
the social capital of individual students, by exposing them early to industry contacts. The
challenge then, is to encourage more Malay students to sign up for such internships and make
the most of the latent opportunities.
Having said all that, are Singapore Malays really social capital-poor? If an indication of an
individuals level of social capital is the number of friends he has from outside his ethnic
group, then it is worth noting that nearly two-thirds of Malays have at least one Chinese
friend, according to a 2013 study by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and racial harmony
advocacy group OnePeople.sg. Furthermore, Malays, like other Singaporeans, are beneficiaries
of government policies aimed at facilitating inter-ethnic mixing and cohesion such as
the Ethnic Integration Policy which institutes racial quotas for public housing estates, and
National Service.
But let us take a closer look by unpacking the
different types of social capital. Might it be that
Might it be that Malays
Malays are doing well in certain measures of
are doing well in certain
connectedness, but less so in others? A 2015
measures of connectedness,
study on the geographical spread of personal
but less so in others?
communities may shed some light on the matter.
The study, conducted by Dr Vincent Chua in
collaboration with colleagues at the Future Cities Laboratory (a joint research centre between
Singapores National Research Foundation and ETH Zurich), examined the personal networks
of 410 Singaporeans. The findings show that Malays have larger networks than Chinese and
Indians. Larger networks tend to comprise a greater number of weak ties. Scholars confirm
that weak ties are useful as bridges that link people to new resources such as job information
and job opportunities. In contrast, strong ties are usually made up of close family members
and friends, who are less likely to know of such new information.

The study, conducted by Dr Vincent Chua in

collaboration with colleagues at the Future Cities
Laboratory (a joint research centre between
Singapores National Research Foundation and
ETH Zurich), examined the personal networks
of 410 Singaporeans.

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It seems, therefore, that all is well for Malays: the community scores well in terms of access to
larger networks and weak ties. Yet is there more to the research than meets the eye? Further
analysis of the data has revealed that while Malays have bigger networks, these networks
tend to be of poorer quality. Compared to the Chinese, Malays are less likely to have welleducated contacts: their family and friends have about 1.8 years less education than the family
and friends of the Chinese. To put it another way, as the Chinese are more connected to
people who are highly educated like degree holders compared to Malays, they have higher
quality social capital. We chose the title presence and absence to denote the observation that
although the Malays have bigger networks, their networks offer less potential for leverage
than the networks of the Chinese.
Nonetheless, there is reason to be hopeful.
Analyses on the same dataset demonstrated
This means that current
that every additional year of education
efforts by the community
increases social capital more for Malays than
in partnership with the
for the other ethnic groups. This means
government, to improve the
that current efforts by the community
educational achievement of
in partnership with the government, to
Malay students, are critical
improve the educational achievement of
for bolstering Malays access
Malay students, are critical for bolstering
to social capital.
Malays access to social capital. For its part,
the Malay/Muslim self-help group Yayasan MENDAKI whose raison dtre is to uplift
the socio-economic status of the community through educational intervention announced
in August 2015 that it would set up a division to help Malay families take advantage of
SkillsFuture. As Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Dr Yaacob Ibrahim presciently pointed
out, SkillsFuture is set to be a game changer for the community. Together with ongoing
work by MENDAKI to strengthen the learning foundations of Malay children in the crucial
preschool years, this augurs well for the future social capital of Malays.
Building upon Mr Masagos recommendation, young Malays would do well if their networking
efforts result in them landing a sponsor someone who will advocate for them and propel
their career forward. This is especially useful for ethnic minorities: research conducted by
the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) in the US has indicated that sponsored minority
employees are 65% more likely than their unsponsored peers to be satisfied with their rate of
career advancement. Hence, in striving to unlock the potential of social capital, networking
strategies need to be well-targeted. While much attention has been paid to strategies that
narrow the income gap (and the education gap) among ethnic groups, we say that more needs
to be done to narrow the network gap still segregating them.

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