Fahmi said no satisfactory conclusion was reached as Facebook's format was less suited for real discussion and deliberation towards a true understanding of the views aired. ― Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — Curious to find out what Malays think of a prime minister who is neither a Malay nor Muslim, social activist Fahmi Reza recently conducted a one-day poll on his Twitter account asking exactly that.

He discovered that the poll result reflected the polarised stance that Malaysians have become accustomed to.

Out of 1,344 votes, only 39 per cent said they could accept such a situation, while 31 per cent said the candidate would be acceptable as long as he is a Muslim and 30 per cent rejected such an idea outright.

Berapa ramai orang Melayu yang boleh terima seorang bukan Melayu & bukan Islam sebagai Perdana Menteri Malaysia? — Fahmi Reza (@kuasasiswa) May 25, 2016

"The survey results show that there is still a high level of mistrust among the Malay community towards the non-Malay community, which actually reveals our failure as society.

“Our education system that is increasingly polarised based on race and our political system that still has racial politics with race-based political parties at its core does not improve matters.

"But at the same time, this problem exists because there is a lack of interaction and sharing across races and in-depth understanding among ourselves in society," Fahmi told Malay Mail Online in an email response.

Fahmi confirmed that the survey was directed at only those from the Malay community, saying: "The question I asked was only to the Malays because I was truly interested to hear the answers that they will give. And I feel many of my non-Malay friends are also interested to know the views of the Malays on this."

Fahmi, who is also a graphic designer, acknowledged that the survey results could be flawed as anyone, including non-Malays could respond to it, but felt it was fine as the poll’s main purpose was to get people to talk about the issue.

Knowing that there is no constitutional requirement for Malaysia's prime minister to be a Malay, Fahmi said he had posted the same question on his Facebook account and 378 users of the social media site left their comments.

Despite that, he said no satisfactory conclusion was reached there as Facebook's format was less suited for real discussion and deliberation towards a true understanding of the views aired.

He also said his survey was a follow-up to a previous post on Facebook where he had asked if Malaysians are ready to seriously talk and openly exchange opinions about racial discrimination and racism with someone from a different ethnicity.

"I posted this question because I wished there are more spaces and opportunities where these exchanges can really happen in real life, and not just on social media.”

Fahmi sees his survey as just a starting point for more engagement that cuts across racial lines on the topic of racism, which he said was seldom discussed in Malaysia.

"I am actually planning to hold a few series of workshops about the issue of racial discrimination and racism that is intended to create a space and opportunity for this issue to be discussed openly by workshop participants from different ethnic backgrounds," he said, adding that he plans to use the survey results as a discussion topic in the workshops.

On March 17, public policy advocacy group Centre for a Better Tomorrow released the findings of a 2015 poll it had commissioned, where 60 per cent of the 1,056 respondents in Peninsular Malaysia said they were not racist.

In the same pool of respondents, 28 per cent admitted that they have a shade of racism, nine per cent openly declared themselves racists while three per cent said they did not know.

Out of the 60 per cent who felt they were not racists, 30 per cent said they would not vote for a candidate who is of a different race from them, while 34 per cent of them also said they felt that race-based politics was still relevant.

The Asia Foundation’s report titled “The Youth Factor: 2012 Survey of Malaysian Youth Opinion” on a nationwide survey of 2,105 youths showed that the idea of a female prime minister in Malaysia was the most well-accepted alternative at 50 per cent.

Compared to that, 44 per cent and 37 per cent respondents felt having a non-Malay Muslim and a non-Malay, non-Muslim prime minister was acceptable.