‘SUDDENLY BRAVE’ MCA NOW ASKS THE QUESTION IT NEVER DARED TO ASK WHEN IN POWER: ‘IF RACE IS A FACTOR, WHY NOT INCREASE NON-BUMI INTAKES INTO CIVIL SERVICE’

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has finally admitted that Bersatu and Pakatan Harapan (PH) play the racial card when he defended Education Minister Dr Mazlee Malik’s announcement on the increased intake of matriculation students from 25,000 to 40,000 out of 42,000 public universities places available. 

The excuse given for this was apparently because of the Mandarin language requirement for certain jobs in the private sector. I cannot resist such a cachinnate guffaw here.

Dr Mahathir has never been an advocate of meritocracy and his book, The Malay Dilemma, tells all about his political mission towards uplifting Malays.

There is nothing wrong with this if such assistance was facilitated through needs based rather than race-based. Granted Bumiputeras need help, it cannot be at the expense of those poor Chinese or Indians, while rich Bumiputeras – those children of highly paid civil servants – enjoy scholarship and patronage. 

That is so wrong and not in line with the spirit and intent of Article 153 of the Constitution. 

Dr Maszlee wants to link the matriculation quota revision to take into account the existence of unfair employment for Bumiputeras in the private sector, but the private sector has never been discriminatory based on race. If there was a language requirement, it was because of the job scope and the private sector has always looked out for the best and the brightest to stay ahead of the competition.

Dr Maszlee should instead look at why the Malaysian education system cannot produce enough Malay entrepreneurs to enhance success stories in the SME sector, hence, facilitating a virtuous circle for employment of more Bumiputera graduates. If Maszlee wants to compare race-based employment in the private sector, allow me to highlight that as of December 2014, the ethnic composition of the civil service workforce of 1.6 million was 90% Bumiputera, 5.2% Chinese, 4.1% Indians, and others at 0.7%. 

According to the Department of Statistics, in 2017, there were 8.438 million Bumiputeras, 3.206 million Chinese, 929,700 Indians and 104,200 other races in Malaysia’s total workforce of 12.678 million. This means, in the private sector, the employment ratio was 66.56% Bumiputeras, 25.29% Chinese, 7.33% Indian and 0.82 others. How can Dr Maszlee state that the private sector is discriminatory? 

Now, I wish to ask Dr Maszlee, is the PH government prepared to increase the intake of Non-Bumiputeras in the civil service, based on this data?

Senator Dato Sri Ti Lian Ker 
MCA Vice President