KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 — The National Unity Ministry is targeting a National Unity Index (Ipnas) score of 0.7 by 2025.
Its minister, Datuk Aaron Aro Dagang, said a third Ipnas study, which will be more comprehensive, will start next year and be carried out by the Institute of Ethnic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
“This study is aimed at the four Ipnas, namely the peninsula, Sabah, Sarawak and the whole country because many people are saying how unity in Sarawak can be a model for the peninsular.
“To draw up the framework, we need statistics. If Ipnas says good about unity in Sarawak, we (will) try to assimilate all the factors to the peninsula,” he said when appearing as a guest on Bernama TV programme Realising Budget 2024: Strengthening the National Unity Agenda V last night.
He said the basis of Ipnas development is to study and identify social deficits involving ethnicity, religion, social class, education, language, generation gap, gender, federalism politics, urban-rural space and the media.
The first Ipnas study was conducted in 2018, with an index of 0.567. The score increased to 0.629 in 2022.
Based on the Ipnas measurement scale, 0.0 to 0.24 is considered weak, 0.25 to 0.49 (low), 0.50 to 0.74 (moderate) and 0.75 to 1.00 (high).
— Bernama
