Avenues to interact.

(From New Straits Times (Malaysia))

Byline: Suzieana Uda Nagu

SOCIAL anthropologist Professor Wan Zawawi Ibrahim believes that pop culture is a powerful tool to promote national integration. SUZIEANA UDA NAGU finds out why.

WHEN reality television show Malaysian Idol came under attack last year, Dr Wan Zawawi Ibrahim, a professor of social anthropology, was one of the few academics who came to its defence.

Critics had called the show - which culminated with 26-year-old Jaclyn Victor winning the coveted title last October - "morally decadent", saying it might influence local youths to forget their Asian values.

Wan Zawawi, principal research fellow at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation (or Atma, its Malay acronym), considers the singing competition not only entertaining but a powerful tool to promote the muhibbah spirit among Malaysian youths.

"Malaysian Idol is an example of pop culture which has created social spaces for youngsters of different ethnic groups to come together," says the 57-yearold researcher, who is known for his work on pop culture, multiculturalism, indigenous groups, the marginalised society and the environment.

Wan Zawawi, a native of Kijal, Terengganu, is optimistic of pop culture's positive effect on national integration and the creation of new identities among the young.

The notion of pop culture as a social binding tool is not …