Mapping the Malaysian Third Sector
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Mapping the Malaysian Third Sector Using Organisational Data to Obtain an Improved Account of its Scope and Size A thesis submitted for the degree of: Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology and Social Policy) Faculty of Social Sciences University of Stirling Nur Azam Anuarul Perai September 2019 1 Declaration In accordance with the Regulations for Higher Degrees by Research, I hereby declare that the whole thesis now submitted for the candidature of Doctor of Philosophy is a result of my own research and independent work except where reference is made to published literature. I also hereby certify that the work embodied in this thesis has not already been submitted in any substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree from any other institute of higher learning. I am responsible for any errors and omission present in the thesis. Candidate: __________________________________ Nur Azam Anuarul Perai 2 Acknowledgements This PhD has been an enlightening and exciting journey which would not have been possible without the help of many individuals. I would like to thank first and foremost my supervision team, my principal supervisor Professor Alasdair Rutherford and second supervisor, Professor Paul Lambert. The completion of this doctoral thesis and my development as a researcher would not have been possible without their guidance and support. I would also like to thank Dr David Griffiths for his insightful feedback during the APR and to my personal tutor, Dr Louise McCabe for her advice and encouragement. Thank you also to Tom Collins, Tom Wallace and Azam Abdul Wahab for their advice on the thesis, and to Sami Gunasinghe and Greg Igbinomwanhia for their support during moments of panic. To my viva panel, Professor John Mohan and Dr Richard Simmons, thank you for your thorough examination of this thesis and for the constructive comments which greatly improved many aspects of the study. To my parents and parents-in-law, thank you for your encouragement and prayers. To my children, I hope I have inspired you to strive hard in the pursuit of knowledge. Finally, special thanks to my wife, Azrin, for her patience and belief and for giving me the strength to complete this project. Above all and everything, Alhamdulillah 3 Abstract Reviews of the literature found that the Malaysian Third Sector lacks basic descriptive information. Not being adequately described could make the sector’s impact and contribution to the economy difficult to quantify and may give the impression that its functions and contributions are less significant. It could also be difficult to develop policies that effectively address the needs of the stakeholders without sufficient knowledge of what the sector entails. An in-depth understanding of the sector could also make resource allocation more efficient. This research asks: who are the constituents of the Malaysian Third Sector, how are they regulated, what are their activities and who are their beneficiaries? What are the motivations for their existence? The study employed a convergent parallel mixed method to address these questions and conducted the qualitative and quantitative strands concurrently but independently. Interviews with Third Sector actors and Regulators were undertaken to obtain a deeper understanding of the sector. The respondents, apart from the Regulators, were selected via a nonprobability purposive sampling method and was selected from the stratified population of Malaysian Third Sector organisations. Theories explaining the Malaysian Third Sector were identified based on data obtained from the interviews. The quantitative exercise involves merging the organisational databases of seven different Regulators to come up with a unified Malaysian Third Sector Dataset and classified according to the categories of the International Classification for Non-Profit Organisations (ICNPO). The statistical software ‘Stata’ was employed to classify Malaysian Third Sector organisations into the relevant ICNPO categories and was done based on keywords in their names that describe their activities and/or beneficiaries. This research contributes to the body of knowledge in the form of an improved account of the Malaysian Third Sector including theories applicable to the sector. It concludes with suggestions of potential areas for further research to enhance these findings. 4 Table of Contents Declaration .................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 3 Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... 5 List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... 9 List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ 9 List of Charts ............................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 1: The Malaysian Third Sector ...................................................................................... 12 1.1 The Third Sector ............................................................................................................... 12 1.2 The Third Sector in Malaysia ............................................................................................ 12 1.3 Research objectives and questions .................................................................................... 15 1.4 Scope of research .............................................................................................................. 15 1.4.1 Cooperative societies ................................................................................................. 16 1.4.2 Social enterprises ....................................................................................................... 18 1.5 Structure of thesis .............................................................................................................. 19 Chapter 2: Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 21 2.1 The Third Sector defined .................................................................................................. 21 2.1.1 Non-Governmental Organisations.............................................................................. 26 2.1.2 Summary .................................................................................................................... 27 2.2 Theories on the Third Sector ............................................................................................. 29 2.2.1 Government Failure Theory ....................................................................................... 29 2.2.2 Market/Contract Failure Theory................................................................................. 31 2.2.3 Stakeholder Theory .................................................................................................... 32 2.2.4 Social Origins Theory ................................................................................................ 33 2.2.5 Summary .................................................................................................................... 35 2.3 Mapping the Third Sector ................................................................................................. 35 2.3.1 Mapping the Malaysian Third Sector ......................................................................... 37 2.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 39 Chapter 3: Origins of the Malaysian Third Sector: An Investigation from the Socio-economic and Socio-political Perspective ................................................................................................... 41 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 41 3.2 Historical background of Malaysia ................................................................................... 41 3.2.1 Policies of the British colonial government ............................................................... 43 3.2.2 Post Second World War period .................................................................................. 45 3.2.3 Post-independence government policies .................................................................... 46 3.3 Religion, ethnicity and culture .......................................................................................... 49 3.4 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 53 5 Chapter 4: Regulating the Malaysian Third Sector ..................................................................... 55 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 55 4.2 Malaysian Third Sector Regulators ..................................................................................