INCLUSIVE SOCIAL PROTECTION IN ASEAN: LITERATURE REVIEW OF POLICY APPROACHES IN MALAYSIA AND THAILAND
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v7i2.1147Keywords:
ASEAN, social protection, inclusivity, marginalized communities, comparative policyAbstract
This article conducts a literature-based comparative review of social protection frameworks in Malaysia and Thailand, with a focus on inclusivity for marginalized communities. Guided by Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach, the study synthesizes academic publications, policy documents and program evaluations published between 2010 and 2025. Malaysia’s centralized universalist model provides broad coverage and fiscal stability but struggles to reach informal workers, indigenous groups and geographically remote populations. Thailand’s community-based and participatory model enhances cultural responsiveness and local engagement but faces challenges of fiscal sustainability, fragmented governance and uneven regional implementation. The comparative analysis highlights that neither model alone achieves full inclusivity. Instead, the study proposes a hybrid ASEAN model that combines Malaysia’s centralized guarantees and financial coherence with Thailand’s participatory mechanisms and cultural adaptability. Such a framework offers a more balanced and sustainable pathway toward inclusive, people-centred social protection systems across ASEAN, particularly in the context of post-pandemic recovery and demographic change.
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