Back to Square One

The equation starts with two problems. First, there are 45,000 vacancies in the civil service. Second, only 1.78% and 2.5% of Chinese and Indian are currently in the civil service, whereas, these two ethnic groups accounted for almost 40% of Malaysian population.

After these problems were reported in the media, representatives from MCA and MIC, two leading political parties representing Chinese and Indians respectively, made an appeal for more Chinese and Indians to join the civil service. Next, it was reported by the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department saying that there were high level meetings among senior civil servants and ministers to determine the best racial composition of their respective agencies.

The discussion surrounding the issue reflect the superficial way of dealing with the problems without understanding the underlying factors. First, one need to ask why Chinese and Indian do not want to join the civil service. I can safely bet that the most frequently reported answer would be "discrimination". Compared to working in the public and private sector, there isn't much different in terms of the benefit and wage. However, the career prospect and development in the civil service is very much associated with discrimination. I could clearly recalled my boss telling me this when I was in the civil service, "Why you join the civil service? You know, as a non-Malay, you will never be the Secretary General of this ministry. The best you could achieved is probably the Deputy Secretary General II". I do not blame my boss for being straight-forward, but in fact, I appreciate his frankness to point out the reality. Four months later, I left with my boss' blessings.

If the perceived discrimination is hindering people from joining the civil service, why is the issue about racial quota continues to be discussed. This simply will reflect that the best people will not be placed in the position or ministries according to their ability, but according to the racial quota.

How do you expect the Chinese and Indian to respond?

Therefore, a safe prediction is more than 95% of the vacancies will again be filled by the Malays and the racial composition in the civil service will continue to be skewed.

It's back to square one again!

As a way forward, I am indifferent of using the racial quota for intake to the civil service. After, all, the ethnic composition in the civil service should reflect the country's ethnic proportion. However, within the civil service, racial quota should never be used as it contradicts the very important principles of meritocracy. For the sake of the country, the best people should be placed in position that best utilised their expertise and rewarded accordingly, regardless of background, ethnicity or political affliation. Even if we can't practice this entirely, at least, the system must begin to re-structure towards the direction meritocracy, in order for the civil service to be considered an interesting career choice for all Malaysians.