8 April 2010 (Thursday)The Star (Nation) Page N34
By NELSON BENJAMIN
JOHOR BARU: Local business groups are pressing the state government for more programmes to recruit non-Malays into the state's civil service.
Johor Chinese Chambers of Commerce president Loh Liam Hiang said he was shocked that there were only 10 Chinese and 116 Indians in the 8,372-strong civil service.
“This is not healthy and political parties must bring this matter up to the Government,” he said.
He also hoped that the Government's promotion scheme could be improved “to ensure promotions are based on merit and not on who-you-know.”
Furthermore, he said job vacancies should be advertised in the vernacular newspapers.
Johor Indian Business Association president P. Sivakumar said low number of non-Malays is not in line with the Prime Minister's 1 Malaysia concept.
“Shortly after independence, there were about 40% Indians in the civil service. Now after all these years, it has come down to 1.39% and 0.12% for the Chinese in Johor,” he said.
He claimed that the problem was prevalent throughout the country.
Sivakumar commended Bank Negara for its recruitment policies and urged other government departments to emulate it.
“I went there recently to high-light some problems and you can see that this agency practises the 1 Malaysia concept with people from all races serving the public,” he said.
Sivakumar suggested that the Government introduce a quota system to ensure non-Malays were allocated jobs in the civil service.
He claimed that many Indians had applied to join the civil service only to be rejected.
“Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman should play a bigger role by personally monitoring the recruitment of non-Malays into the civil service,” he said, adding that there was an urgent need for more non-Malays in clerical and administrative positions.
The Star had earlier reported Bentayan assemblyman Gwee Tong Hiang's posting in his blog that there were only 10 Chinese and 116 Indians in the civil service in Johor.
The statistics was revealed by Abdul Ghani Othman in a written reply to Gwee.
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