Bias against Orang Asal in civil service

Kit Siang demands a full account of the process of Borneonisation of the federal civil service in Sabah and Sarawak.

KUCHING: DAP elder statesman Lim Kit Siang has called on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to make a ministerial statement in the Senate, in session from today until December 18, on why the Orang Asal in Sabah and Sarawak were being left out from the government sector or grossly under-represented.

“The Prime Minister should take grouses about discrimination in the federal civil service seriously,” said Lim who is also DAP Parliamentary Leader and Gelang Patah MP.

“The Prime Minister should look into the grouses of Dayaks in Sarawak and the Kadazan-Dusun-Murut communities in Sabah about their inequitable representation in the federal civil service.”

Lim referred to postings in social media about a list of recent promotions in the Sarawak Road Transport Department that had caused outrage in the state. According to the posting, eight Malay enforcement officers have been promoted while three Dayak officers are in the “reserve” list.

“To Dayaks, the list confirms what they have felt all along and what has also been noted in the just-released Malaysia Human Development Report (MHDR) 2013 – that discrimination exists within the Bumiputeras working in the civil service, with Malays given preference over natives,” he said.

The MHDR was commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme working in partnership with the Economic Planning Unit. It showed that federal civil service departments had hired Sarawak and Sabah Bumiputeras at “lower than their population share”.

Dayaks make up more than 50% of Sarawak’s population.

In 2009, 4.9% of bumiputeras from Sarawak, or 1,631, and 6.5% of Bumiputeras from Sabah, or 2,170, were hired in federal departments, the report said, citing statistics from the Implementation and Coordination Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department.

This was lower than their population share at 8.7% for Sarawak and 11% for Sabah.

The MHDR 2013 states:

“Between 1970 and 1985, three quarters of new public service jobs went to Malays.

“Among bureaucrats holding the most senior government posts, 80% were Malays and 6.3% were Chinese.

“While there is no data available for Sarawak and Sabah (for that period), an examination of the list of senior government officers in the state and statutory bodies reveals a similar trend.

“It is only in the police, armed forces and resident/district offices do we see a better representation of other ethnic groups.

“It is safe to say that very little has changed since the NEP period.”

The Malaysia Agreement 1963, Lim pointed out, states that the Orang Asal in Sabah and Sarawak should be in charge of the federal civil service in their states.

Lim called on Najib to give a full account, in the ministerial statement, of the process of Borneonisation of the federal civil service in Sabah and Sarawak in the past 51 years, disclose the number of federal departments now headed by Sarawakians and Sabahans, and the representation of Dayaks and Kadazan-Dusun-Murut groups in the overall federal service.

“Najib should also state the highest federal civil service posts ever held by Dayak and Kadazan-Dusun-Murut communities, whether there had ever been Dayak and Kadazan-Dusun-Murut Ketua Setiausaha (KSU), state how many and name them,” he said.