The government is developing an index to measure the level of racial harmony as part of efforts to boost integration among its multicultural population, a minister said today.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Maximus Ongkili, who heads the department of national unity and integration, said the index would enable the government to plan programmes and set targets to promote racial harmony.

"The spirit of unity that has already been established among the people of this country needs to be nurtured and strengthened so that the objective of producing a Malaysian race can be achieved," Ongkili told a forum on national unity here.

Racial polarisation amongst youths especially has been a growing concern in recent years.

"We feel that it is high time now to develop a basket of sub-indices that can be then used to measure the so-called feel-good (factor) or cohesiveness and therefore the national unity of the people," Ongkili later told a news conference.

Draft index ready next March

He said economists and sociologists were working on the index, a draft of which is slated to be ready by March.

Data such as the number of police reports on racial fights and conflicts, participation at inter-racial gatherings and inter-racial marriages will form some of the basic components of the index.

Ongkili acknowledged that placing a numerical value on aspects of human behaviour was difficult.

"Trying to put a value to some of these things is very hard but I would like to try," he said.

"We would like the index to be predictable. We would like the index to be tangible rather than just measuring through the absence of reports from the police station on conflicts and fightings," Ongkili said.