SARJANA

MATERNITY BENEFITS: OVERLOOKED GENDER RIGHTS IN THE FEMINIZED WORKPLACE OF BANGLADESH’S READY-MADE GARMENT SECTOR

Shamali Shill — 2025-12-15

ABSTRACT

This article explores maternity rights and needs in the women-intensive ready-made garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh through qualitative research involving 20 female workers, seven factory staff, and three labour rights activists. While some compliant factories follow maternity policies, many violate labour laws regarding employment duration that needs to be fulfilled to be entitled to maternity leave and the value of monetary benefits. Subcontract factories lack maternity provisions, leaving women vulnerable. Even in compliant settings, pregnant workers face health neglect, denial of sick leave, and rejection of options for lighter duties, pressuring some to resign. Mistreatment and forced resignations are common. For those who remain, returning to work eight weeks after childbirth is challenging due to the absence of day-care facilities. These issues heighten stress and hinder the possibility of balancing work and motherhood. The study reveals the exploitation of cheap female labour alongside a disregard for their reproductive roles in this highly feminized RMG industry. It calls for stricter enforcement of existing maternity laws, improved protections, alongside reforms to maternity laws.

EMBRACING HALLYU: YOUNG INDONESIAN MUSLIMS NAVIGATING CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY

Euiyoung Kyung — 2025-12-15

ABSTRACT

This study examines how young Indonesian Muslims engage with Hallyu (the Korean Wave) and its impact on their religious and cultural identities. Through qualitative fieldwork in Yogyakarta, this research reveals that participants frequently employ the term ‘modern’ to describe their engagement with Hallyu, reflecting a nuanced embrace of modernity that transcends conventional secularization paradigms. Rather than undermining religious identity, this cultural engagement is perceived as integral to their modern Muslim identity, fostering self-determination and self-realization. The findings demonstrate that Hallyu engagement facilitates dialogue between individual and collective identities within global cultural flows, illuminating the complex interplay between cultural globalization, local identities, and the modernization of Indonesian Islam. This research contributes to scholarly understanding of cultural adaptation and identity negotiation among young Muslims within Indonesia's multicultural and religiously diverse context. Future research should examine diverse manifestations of modernity across various religious and cultural societies, moving beyond Western-centric analytical frameworks.

THE MARGINALISATION OF WATER POLITICS IN MALAYSIA’S POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Mohd Firdaus Abdullah — 2025-12-15

ABSTRACT

This article argues that the persistent sidelining of water in Malaysia’s political discourse is not accidental mismanagement but a systemic project of depoliticisation that protects entrenched interests. Combining a critical reading of federal and state law and policy, longitudinal analysis of party manifestos and discourse analysis of political debates and mainstream media, it shows how a technocratic lexicon such as “capacity,” “leakages,” “NRW,” and “mitigation works” strips water of rights-based claims and relocates it to the domain of engineering. The article extends the hydro-hegemony framework to the domestic arena, demonstrating how elite narrative control, concessionary regimes, and opaque bureaucracies reproduce postcolonial hierarchies while rendering affected communities data points rather than political subjects. It identifies “water populism” as a distinctive affective politics in which state elites mobilise territorial grievance, for example interstate river disputes, to deflect accountability without instituting structural reform. Failures of federalism, including legal ambiguities, fiscal asymmetries, and the absence of inter-state conflict resolution, compound these dynamics, while education, religion, and media normalise crisis and mute collective anger, amounting to sovereign neglect. The article contributes a normative and institutional agenda for hydro-democracy in Malaysia: recognising water as a political right, legislating a rights anchored National Water Act, mandating transparency over concessions and performance data, and institutionalising participatory governance across planning, tariff setting, and oversight. It concludes that without reclaiming water from technocracy and populism, Malaysia’s democracy remains hollowed out at its most elemental threshold, namely the guarantee of dignified and equitable access to clean water.

EDUCATION, CLASS, AND FEMALE BODILY AUTONOMY IN AHDAF SOUEIF’S "IN THE EYE OF THE SUN" AND FADIA FAQIR’S "MY NAME IS SALMA"

Galal Al-Mohammedi — 2025-12-15

This article examines how education and class intersect to shape female bodily autonomy in two novels by Arab diasporic authors, Ahdaf Soueif’s In the Eye of the Sun and Fadia Faqir’s My Name is Salma. Through comparative feminist analysis, it explores how the protagonists’ bodies are inscribed with cultural meaning and regulated by social hierarchies. Rather than portraying education or social mobility as inherently liberatory, the novels reveal their limitations in the absence of critical agency and emotional resilience. Asya’s intellectual privilege contrasts with Salma’s restricted access to formal learning, yet both narratives show how class mediates bodily control and access to selfhood. The article argues that female bodily autonomy in these texts is not achieved through structural advantages alone, but through the protagonists’ capacity to narrate, reflect, and contest imposed roles. Drawing on feminist literary and cultural frameworks, the analysis of the two novels challenges reductive views of empowerment, presenting bodily autonomy instead as a process of reclamation forged in tension with patriarchal and class-based constraints.

EXPLORING ETHNIC DIVERSITY AS A CATALYST FOR INNOVATION IN MALAYSIA’S PUBLIC HEALTHCARE

Jayagowri Pindaya — 2025-12-31

ABSTRACT

This research delves into the influence of ethnic diversity on innovation within Malaysian public healthcare facilities. It explores how ethnic diversity within healthcare teams influence innovation. Employing a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative data, this study first conducted multiple regression analysis on survey data collected from healthcare professionals across diverse facilities, followed by in-depth key informant interviews for qualitative exploration and validation of the quantitative findings, to evaluate the influence of ethnic diversity on levels of innovation at various Malaysian healthcare facilities. The results showed a positive correlation between ethnic diversity within healthcare teams and innovation levels. Teams comprising diverse ethnic backgrounds demonstrate a propensity for generating inventive solutions to healthcare challenges and exhibit heightened problem-solving capabilities. The study underscores the significant positive influence of minority ethnic category within teams as a pivotal driver of innovation in Malaysian public healthcare facilities at Ministry, State Health Department, Hospitals, Clinics and Health Institutions.

Keywords: Innovation; ethnic diversity; public healthcare sector

KOORDINASI UMNO DALAM POLITIK DAN PILIHAN RAYA DI SINGAPURA: FAKTOR, STRATEGI DAN PRESTASI, 1954-1959

Muhammad Naim Fakhirin Rezani — 2025-12-31

Kajian ini membincangkan perkembangan politik Singapura pada awal 1950-an dengan memberi tumpuan terhadap penglibatan parti politik utama dari Tanah Melayu iaitu UMNO. Berdasarkan kepada kajian yang dilakukan, UMNO berjaya mengukuhkan kedudukan dalam politik Singapura melalui sokongan dari pengundi Melayu terhadap parti itu dalam tempoh 1955-1959. Pengukuhan UMNO dilakukan berdasarkan strategi yang direncanakan oleh pemimpin parti tersebut. Pilihan raya 1955 menjadi penentu kepada kedudukan UMNO dalam politik Singapura. Pilihan raya 1959 pula membuktikan kedudukan UMNO sebagai parti yang berjaya mendapat sokongan dalam kalangan pengundi Melayu di Singapura. Kajian ini dihasilkan dengan menggunakan sumber primer dari National Archive, Kew dan National Archive Singapore sebagai sumber utama penulisan. Selain itu, penulisan turut menggunakan akhbar Utusan Melayu, The Straits Times, Singapore Standard dan Berita Harian yang diterbitkan dalam tempoh tersebut bagi mendapatkan kesinambungan dengan dokumen sumber primer tersebut. Dapatan kajian ini menunjukkan penglibatan UMNO dalam politik Singapura merangkumi strategi yang disusun oleh parti itu seperti strategi pemilihan calon, kempen dan kawasan yang ditandingi. Selain itu, dapatan kajian ini turut menunjukkan prestasi UMNO merupakan hasil kesinambungan strategi kepimpinan parti yang berjaya memanfaatkan sentimen masyarakat Melayu sehingga mempengaruhi perubahan pola pengundian dalam pilihan raya Singapura antara 1955 hingga 1959.

HEALTH BELIEF MODEL PERCEPTIONS OF MALAYSIAN ADULT E-CIGARETTE USERS: A GENDER ANALYSIS

Christina Chin — 2025-12-31

This study uses the Health Belief Model (HBM) as a tool to answer two research questions: 1) Are there differences in HBM perceptions based on the gender of Malaysian adult e-cigarette users? ; 2) Do gender norms influence e-cigarette use in Malaysia? A survey of 280 Malaysian adult e-cigarette users was conducted. Overall, gender did not have a statistically significant effect on 14 of the HBM perception statements analysed. The chi-square test showed that gender had a significant influence on two of the perception statements, while the ordered logit regression analysis revealed statistically significant differences in three of the perception statements. The implication of these findings on future public health policy aiming to reduce smoking prevalence in Malaysia must take into account the narrowing gender gap in relation to the use of e-cigarettes and the rising popularity of these nicotine delivery devices, particularly among youth.

PERANAN AGEN KAWALAN SOSIAL TIDAK FORMAL DALAM MENGEKALKAN PEMULIHAN DARIPADA PENYALAHGUNAAN BAHAN

Julie Tay Gek Hsia — 2025-12-31

Proses pencapaian pemulihan kekal daripada penyalahgunaan bahan merupakan satu perjalanan yang kompleks dan sering kali memerlukan sistem sokongan yang kuat daripada agen-agen kawalan sosial tidak formal. Kajian ini memberi tumpuan kepada penerokaan peranan agen kawalan sosial tidak formal, terutamanya ahli keluarga, agama, dan rakan sebaya, dalam membantu seseorang individu sepanjang perjalanan pemulihan. Objektif kajian ini adalah untuk mengenal pasti agen-agen yang terlibat dan memahami jenis sokongan khusus yang diberikan dalam menyumbang kepada pemulihan yang berjaya. Penyelidikan ini menggunakan reka bentuk kualitatif dan melibatkan temu bual secara mendalam dengan individu yang telah pulih daripada penyalahgunaan bahan selama lebih daripada tiga tahun. Informan dipilih melalui pensampelan bertujuan dan bola salji untuk mendapatkan pengalaman individu yang pelbagai. Penemuan kajian ini membuktikan agen kawalan sosial tidak formal seperti ahli keluarga, agama, dan rakan sebaya memainkan peranan penting dalam menyokong dan membantu pemulihan bekas pengguna bahan. Keluarga merupakan salah satu sumber sokongan emosi dan rohani yang penting dalam meningkatkan kesedaran tentang bahaya penyalahgunaan bahan serta memberikan motivasi terbaik untuk berubah. Kepercayaan agama seterusnya memberikan ketenangan dan kestabilan terutamanya semasa menghadapi proses transformasi, dengan memudahkan perkembangan peribadi dan evolusi kepercayaan individu. Sementara itu, rakan juga merupakan sumber penting yang berperanan dalam menawarkan khidmat sokongan emosi dan dorongan untuk menjalankan aktiviti-aktiviti yang lebih produktif. Sokongan ini adalah penting untuk membentuk tingkah laku positif, yang seterusnya mendorong pemulihan yang berterusan. Oleh itu, dengan mengenal pasti jenis sokongan yang boleh diberikan oleh keluarga, rakan, dan agama, kajian ini dapat menyumbang kepada pembentukan strategi pemulihan yang lebih komprehensif serta meningkatkan hasil pemulihan kekal dalam kalangan pengguna bahan.