CONCEPTS, PRACTICES AND LEGAL AWARENESS OF ETHICS AND INTEGRITY AMONGST KG. SEBERANG TAKIR’S COASTAL COMMUNITY MEMBERS, KUALA NERUS, MALAYSIA: THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER.

Abstract

Ethics and integrity are important to community development because they influence the success of numerous forms of public and private development assistance programs. However, there is inadequate research on ethics and integrity in the context of coastal community development in Malaysia. Hence, this preliminary research’s main objective is to get an initial picture of the state of understanding of the concepts, practices and legal awareness on ethics and integrity amongst Seberang Takir’s coastal community members; where downward mobility is prevalent among inshore fishermen, labourers and small traders. Intense urbanization and drastic increases in tourism and commercial activities means that the success of community development programs depends on the recipients’ ability not only to uphold ethics and integrity in their daily lives, but also to monitor actions and decisions of other stakeholders as well. This preliminary study uses convenience sampling comprising 23 participants who are government officials, university students and committee members of a mosque at Seberang Takir in the Kuala Nerus district. A Google Form questionnaire comprising seven questions specifically on ethics and integrity, and seven questions on law reveals notable findings, showing that: (i) professing to ethics and integrity does not prevent respondents from ethical misconducts; (ii) 41.1% of respondents are ambivalent, in agreement and strongly in agreement of unqualified people getting various types of government assistance; (iii) 52.2% agree and strongly agree that leaders of organizations/community groups should compromise ethics and integrity if doing so means that the quality of life of their members/subordinates can be improved; and (iv) there is a clear splitting of views amongst respondents on transgressing against ethics and integrity even if no law is broken. This explains why despite the high level of trust that they have in the law, more than 90% agree and strongly agree that the law in Malaysia is still not effective and must be amended. Hence, it is imperative that participants’ levels of understanding on ethics, integrity and law be increased through knowledge transfer so that the concerns identified above can be rectified.