Patricia Martinez recently proposed a core thesis in the editorial page of the New Straits Times ( NST ) on Aug 10, based on the results of a Merdeka Centre Study of 1,000 randomly selected Malay Muslims and their views about a variety of issues and concerns.

The startling findings of the study, to me at least, were that 72.7% of the respondents considered their Muslim identity as the primary aspect of their self-concept, even more foundational than their Malay heritage. Assuming good statistical sampling design, and the validity and reliability of the instrument used, this means that the vast majority of the Malays consider themselves first as Muslim Malays and not so much as Malay Muslims.

The study also found that even more see themselves in their second identity as Malaysians rather than as Malays. Compounded and by simple linear extension, this means that the majority of Malays are Muslims first, Malaysians second and Malays third!

I find this quite astounding and therefore would like to hold in doubt some of the conclusions and the generalisations from this study. Nevertheless, it is very interesting that an overwhelming majority of the respondents (97.1%) gave a resounding 'yes' to their willingness to live alongside those of other religions, and races presumably. The NST editorial therefore highlighted and headlined the article - 'Thumbs up to living in Malaysian diversity'. My doubt: is this only skin-deep diversity?