Living Together as One Nation for Social Cohesion: Fostering Active Citizenship Skill to Indigenous Youth Community through the Eyes of Teacher and Authority

The multicultural society in Malaysia needs to cultivate active citizenship skills to ensure togetherness and national solidarity. The minority group of the indigenous community bears a similarly essential role in building the national identity, affinity, and compassion as a nation. UNICEF empowered this active citizenship aspect in their life skills framework to shape the individuals’ ability, attitudes, and social-emotional competencies, enabling their participation in communities, engaging in continuous learning, safeguarding themselves, and promoting healthy and positive social relationships. Nevertheless, some indigenous youths are reluctant to embrace the active citizenship spirit with most of society and prefer living in the comfort of their community boundaries. This has resulted in a lack of social cohesion among Malaysians as a multiracial society. From the viewpoint of four teachers and two authorities, this qualitative research aims to construe the current situation of active citizenship skill acquisition among the indigenous youth population in Malaysia. Two semi-structured interview sessions were conducted based on four fundamental subject matters: 1) participation and empathy; 2) social communication; 3) respect and support; and 4) talent contribution to elucidating the meaning of active citizenship skills. The findings deduced that the indigenous youth community gradually developed active citizenship skills. However, more effective approaches, access, and encouragement are required for a sustainable life skill-building programme and long-lasting solutions fostering social cohesion.