Multi-racial Civil Service?

Civil Service - Datuk Nazri

Datuk Seri Nazri: "We want a more multi-racial civil Service"

The government will continue to ensure that the country’s civil service is multi-racial besides attracting more non-Malays to join the service, said Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department. He also said that everyone should help in increasing the number of non-Malays in the civil service.

“We do not want a civil service that is from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. This is 2004 and it should be made up of Malaysians. I am more willing to have Malaysian Indians and Chinese than non-Malaysians from Indonesia and the Phillipines. If a Malay comes up to me and says that we should get rid of the Chinese and Indians from the civil service, I will scold him,” says Datuk Nazri Abdul Aziz.

But, why is it that the non-Malays aren't interested to join the civil service?
Perhaps, survey should be conducted to find out the reasons. Apart from the civil service, the non-Malays are also seen to shun the sports events such as football, athletics, except probably, badminton and table-tennis.

As for my personal opinion, I would not want my children to join the civil service primarily of the fact that even if they work hard and sacrifices a lot and stayed loyal for decades in that department, their prospects in career advancement seems remote as can be seen in the current civil service. For example, we have not seen any non-Malays been promoted to serve as JKR Director-general since the last few decades although we find some non-Malays who are much more senior and had been with the government service for decades. Similar circumstances does exist in other government departments such as police force, navy, army, bank negara, etc. Of course, there are also many Malays who had served loyally for decades and they too were not promoted for reasons of partisan corporate politics and nepotism.

Another reason (of my own) is that Chinese will usually not want to compete head-on with Malays to avoid any possible conflict and racial disharmony. It is in the blood of the Chinese that they will choose to strive on their own, seek their own pastures and fortune & strive for their own economic survival in the economic marketplace rather can compete with the Malays in the civil service. In the corporate sector, we have seen the various races forming strategic alliances and partnership, and had been successful in their business. It does seem that the corporate sector has achieve a better racial integration and strategic cooperation as compared with the civil service, GLCs and public sector institutions.

We are happy to see that the New Economic Policy does help the Malays to achieve economic success. We only hope that the NEP will reach out to the middle income and lower income Malays and provide them with the opportunities to achieve economic prosperity. But our observation is that the NEP is been abused by some powerful and well-connected Malays who had enriched themselves and used the NEP to benefit only a small circle of people within their network. At such, the majority of Malays had been deprived of the opportunities made available by the government to help those needy Malays.

As a Malaysian Chinese, we are happy to see the Malays have improve their level of income and many had achieve economic prosperity. What the non Malays wanted is a peaceful place to live (and co-exist) and that the country has a democratic system that ensures that if we (the non-Malays) work hard on our own, we will be not be prejudiced. What we also need is that our childrens will be provided with the necessary education opportunities in the public universities if they meet the necessary qualification. What we do not need is the constant reminder by UMNO that we are non-Bumis and such statements of unsound rights and privileges that intrudes into the path of others' survival. Example of such statement or phrases are - Malay Agenda & Malay Dilemma. If all other races also starts to propagate the rhetoric, we may create another chaotic scenario. As a non-Bumi, I strongly accept the rights of all races, including the rights of the Malays, as enshrined in the constitution and no one should question them. Equally, the non-Bumis should not be deprived of their basic needs such as education, healthcare and their social needs such as liquor, cigarettes, horse-racing, 4-Ds, and karaokes as long as they are decent and within the legal parameters. Personally, I do not encourage those activities but I would not interfere with those who desires them as long as they abide by the law of the country.