Malaysia is highly recognized as a developing country and thus progressive in calling the third sector (NGO) to participate in policy making and policy implementation. The idea of good governance practices has become increasingly important not only for the public sector but not for the NGO sector. Good governance aspect is significantly important in discussing the NGO development over leakage factor, abuse of power, corruption, accountability and others in which will be the objective of this paper’s discussion. Therefore, the introduction of five codes of governance for Malaysian NGO is the latest step implemented by the government to assess the performance of NGO to relate to its efficiency and effectiveness. At the same time, Indonesia and Jordan also offer great lessons. By utilizing descriptive and comparative methods, and making a great deal of comparison to Indonesia and Jordan, this article found that Malaysian NGOs’ involvement in governance practice has recently received great attention. Keywords: Malaysia, Indonesia, Jordan, NGO, Governance

Leadership is a key function and process to unlock the effectiveness and enhancement of any organization's development, including Religious-NGOs (RNGOs). This can be attained via three main characteristics, which are charismatic, transformational and servant leadership. Previous research has proved that these characteristics are relevant for NGOs, but little was found for RNGOs. RNGO is a form of NGO that is well-known for its active role in contributing to a harmonious and religious society. This paper focused on the concept of leadership in RNGOs and an introductory to the identity of Malaysian Islamic RNGOs that are diverse by ethnic identities. This study was qualitative in nature and depended heavily on existing literature and official reports. The study found that all three selected Islamic RNGOs that represent the Malay Muslims, Chinese Muslims and Indian Muslims adopt and practice charismatic, transformational and servant leadership in executing their organizations’ objectives, which could possibly be a yardstick to effective RNGO leadership development in the future.

This paper provides insights into Islamic Humanitarianism in Malaysia with the aim of analyzing the impact of Global Peace Mission Malaysia (GPM) as Islamic Humanitarian actor in providing diverse forms of aid. By using qualitative approaches of journal articles and official reports from media and websites, this paper therefore is aimed to address the first theme of this conference. It begins with definitions of Islamic Humanitarian concept with focus on the three types of humanitarian approaches in the form charity which comprises of zakat, sadaqah and waqf. Then, if offers a brief overview in regards of Malaysia and Islamic humanitarianism and how it has been progressing since the time of first’s Prime Minister until the Pakatan Harapan forms a new government of Malaysia recently. Finally, the paper turns to focus on the role of GPM partnering in new initiative work, leading international commission, and leading in impactful and sustainable projects, providing humanitarian aid training to volunteer and advising government. The four criterions (4 criterions) described the visibility of GPM in providing humanitarian assistance for the needy countries that has made GPM a leading Islamic Humanitarian NGO from Malaysia was is further discussed and defined. This paper concluded that the notion of Islam and the Ummah spirit are the driving force of the cause and funds and leadership are the continuous challenges in humanitarianism.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of servant leadership (SL) from Western and Islamic perspectives, and analyse those characteristics in Malaysian Daʿwah NGOs. Currently many Da’wah NGOs in Malaysia are said not to prioritize leadership characteristics in leading and serving the as well as the public interest. Characteristics are important to any organization, and they influence the way a leader leads its organization and staff by exercising specific leadership behaviour in response to a situation. Unlike other leadership styles that are organization-centric, this paper serves to explain the people or follower-centric characteristics of servant leadership through the combination of motivational approaches (MA) and voluntary actions (VA) in Malaysian Daʿwah NGOs – ABIM and IKRAM. The data from this qualitative research are collected from five main resources including media coverage, official reports, official websites, NGOs programs and public opinion. The data are analysed thematically based on the similarities and differences characteristics of SL between Western and Islamic perspectives. The findings revealed that servant leadership from Western and Islamic perspectives share some similar dimensions of characteristics in practice; however, Western SL characteristic does not draw attention to the religious perspective as underlined in Islam.