The Role Of Government And Voluntary Welfare Sector In Malaysia

Abstract

This paper explores dynamics of the welfare services in Malaysia. The co-existence of the voluntary sector and government welfare services have been an issue of research in many countries. In Malaysia, however, the interaction between these two sectors has been ignored by most scholars. The paper explored the historical perspective and some current conditions to shed light for better understanding of the current actors, structures and institutions related to social welfare in Malaysia. While trying to understand the relationship between the government and the voluntary sector through historical background and existing structures, it was found that the government has been taking a more residual approach in welfare services, especially in care services and institutional services which have long been overshadowed by the services from the voluntary sector.