By Vinoothene Chandrasekaran
Pix Ikhwan Hashim

BANGI, 24 MARCH 2016 –  Social scientists of The National University of Malaysia (UKM) and other institutions must play a bigger  part in promoting social inclusion, says Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Dato’ Sri Rohani Abdul Karim.

Rohani said anthropologists and sociologists should seek the opinions of the excluded groups in setting the agenda, before anyone thinks about effective and innovative solutions.

“For a policy that promotes social inclusion to be responsive to real social and economic challenges, it must be based on participatory and inclusive processes developed in the social science fields of knowledge,” she said in her keynote address at the National Dialogue on Enhancing Social Inclusion in Public Policies in Malaysia, here today.

Speaking at the dialogue co-organised by UKM, The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the University of Dublin, she stressed  the importance of researchers cooperating with the interested parties to help the people as well as reaffirming the public policies in Malaysia.

The minister stressed that the cooperation must reflect anthropological, geographic, political, and sociological considerations of the various regions of the country.

She pointed out that policies that promote social inclusion in one setting may not be effective for addressing the problems experienced in another locality.

The dialogue is a follow up from last year’s National Working Group that was set up in June where policy makers and researchers came together to discuss the kind of research that needed to be done.

Also present at the dialogue was UKM Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali.