“I witnessed the level of Chinese chauvinism that existed in a large number of industries in the Bayan Lepas and Kulim High Tech regions, including the multinationals, and got first hand input from employees themselves on how discriminative their workplaces tended to be. It is common knowledge to the vast majority of Muslim Penangites, Kedahans and Perakians that the majority of employers in the northern region emphasise on the need for one to either be Chinese or be conversant in the language when seeking employment. It’s even in newspaper and online adverts”
Raggie Jessy Rithaudeen
Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Mahfuz Omar said today that his ministry found no cases of employers in the country who have either selected or hired workers of a particular race to the extent of sidelining other ethnicities.
Does that mean Lim Kti Siang lied?
Prior to the 14thgeneral election, the DAP promised the non-Bumiputras, particularly the non-Muslim Chinese, that it would bring an end to the “decades long” pro-Bumiputra policy that the previous Barisan Nasional government adopted throughout its administration.
Lim Kit Siang was a fierce critic of this policy.
On the 26thof March 1968, the senior Lim told the Pudu DAP Branch Protem Committee that Barisan Nasional (then the Alliance) created “a new and dangerous source of friction, conflict and disunity for the people of Malaysia” which he referred to as “Bumiputeraism.”
His speech read:
“A non-Malay citizen of Malaysia, born, bred and educated in this country, with unswerving loyalty to Malaysia, is ‘a non-bumiputera’. On the other hand, an immigrant from the Indonesian islands, whether he has been there for a week or a month, becomes a ‘bumiputera’?
“Is this the way to build a nation of Malaysians? Is this the formula to instill a Malaysian consciousness and identity among the various racial groups in this country?
Fourty two years later, on the 7th of April 2010, he wrote in his blog that as of the end of 2009, Chinese and Indian representation in the civil service was at its lowest in the nation’s (then) 53-year history – 5.8% Chinese and 4% Indians.
He wrote:
“As of 31st December 2009, the racial breakdown of the Malaysian civil service comprising 1,247,894 employees are:
Malays :78.2%
Other Bumiputras : 7.7%
Chinese : 5.8%
Indians : 4%
Others : 4.2%
“This the worst multi-racial composition of the government service, with the lowest Chinese and Indian representation in the public service in Malaysian history of 53 years.
This is clearly seen from the three sets of comparative figures of the racial breakdown of the civil service in the past four decades:
|
Malay |
Chinese |
Indian |
Others |
|
|
Before NEP 1971 |
60.80% |
20.2% |
17.40% |
1.6% |
|
June 2005 |
77.04% |
9.37% |
5.12% |
8.47% |
|
Dec. 2009 |
78.2% |
5.8% |
4.0% |
4.2% |
Is Mahfuz saying Kit Siang lied?
Is it possible that all these years, not a single Chinaman or Indian voiced discontent if indeed what Kit Siang said is the truth?
And what about the Malay-Muslims? Did they not complain?
I was a senior Lecturer-cum-consultant, and later, consultant, for various High Tech Industries and research centres in the Bayan Lepas and Kulim High Tech regions for quite a number of years.
My consultation and training work was rather diversified, as not only was I a qualified Polymer and Resin Synthesis Scientist and Technologist, I gained tons of experience in the Mechatronics Engineering division and ended up lecturing and consulting in the area.
The years of consulting and training brought me face to face with hundreds upon hundreds of engineers, technicians and operators and required that I spent time socialising with company directors and Human Resource Department heads.
In all those years, I witnessed the level of Chinese chauvinism that existed in a large number of industries in the Bayan Lepas and Kulim High Tech reqions, including the multinationals, and got first hand input from employees on how discriminative their workplaces tended to be.
It is common knowledge to the vast majority of Muslim Penangites, Kedahans and Perakians that the majority of employers in the northern region emphasise on the need for one to either be Chinese or be conversant in the language when seeking employment.
It’s even in newspaper and online adverts.
I personally assisted hundreds of college and university graduates seek employment in the later years by helping them write their CVs and apply for jobs.
In all those years, I witnessed first hand how some very intelligent and hardworking Malay-Muslims lost out to a bunch of lazy and pampered college graduates who came from wealthy Chinese households simply because the people who interviewed the Malays wanted Chinese candidates.
However, in most cases, not only did the workplace not require its employees to deal with Chinese customers, the medium of conversation was English, not Chinese.
There was absolutely no reason whatsoever that justified the employer’s insistence that one needed to be conversant in Chinese to seek employment.
It gradually became apparent to me that there existed a “hidden Chinese quota” in the northern region that was not known to the majority of Malaysians.
Is Mahfuz saying that his minsitry did not receive a single complaint from a single Malay-Muslim over the years?
Can Mahfuz please spend some time combing through the classified sections of newspapers published over a ten-year span and honestly tell me that workplaces in Malaysia are not discriminative?
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