Twenty-four hours after a minister announces plans to formulate a racial harmony index, a social scientist dismissed it as being plain 'silly'.

Dr Collin Abraham said the index was another project by an ill-advised Department of National Unity and Integration.

According to him, the department was using its resources on questionable ventures when there are long-standing issues that require urgent attention such as the March 2001 'Kampung Medan' clashes.

Abraham, the pro-tem president of the Malaysian Association of Social Impact Assessors, said the viability of quantifying racial harmony as a dimension of human interaction was not just suspect but plain "silly."

He was commenting on the index announced by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Maximus Ongkili, who also heads the Department of National Unity and Integration.

The index, he said, reinforced the suspicion that the advisory board of the department, was not composed of properly qualified or experienced experts.

This was among the main points raised by Abraham in his presentation at a two-day forum on national unity held at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Kuala Lumpur today.

At least six people died and scores of people were injured during clashes popularly known as the Kampung Medan clashes three years ago. The authorities have yet to determine the origins or perpetrators of the incident.

Credibility and composition

Contacted later, Abraham said the index showed that the national unity advisory board may not be composed of people with the right calibre or experience in studying poverty and rural communities.

"I wonder about the credibility and composition of the advisory board in terms of being staffed with people with the expertise and experience," he added.

Abraham also noted that such an index, which Maximus said was to measure the level of racial harmony as part of efforts to boost integration among its multicultural population and identify possible trouble spots in racial tension, would also be open to abuse.

"The inherent dangers of identifying 'problem' areas for possible closer police surveillance cannot be underestimated," he said, adding that though it may not be the motivation behind the planned index, "the danger is still there."

In his paper, Abraham said the advisory board has been unable to give the minister the needed advice and guidance particularly in the area of theoretically guided research for problem-solving.

"Because the board itself is not able to guide or supervise research this had resulted in having to 'farm out' research to the local universities. Unfortunately this has resulted in some serious misgivings.

"Two rather extensive projects, one involving awareness or the cognition of race and the other to assess the level of tolerance towards race both ended in failure because the universities themselves did not have the necessary expertise," read his paper.