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Why are Malays dominating S'wak civil service, asks DAP
Published:  May 30, 2016 8:25 AM
Updated: 1:07 AM
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Sarawak DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen wants answers to the purported lopsided racial representation in the state civil service.

Chong’s demand comes as it was reported by The Borneo Post that Malays constitute 54 percent of the total 1,478 state civil servants while the Dayak constitute to only half of that, at 28 percent, and the Chinese at 17 percent.

“The revelation of the racial composition in the state civil service is shocking,” Chong said in a statement yesterday.

“That explains the reason why, a few years back, when I submitted a question seeking the racial composition of the state civil service in the state assembly, the speaker rejected my question on grounds that it touches on a sensitive issue.”

However, Chong argued, the issue itself was not sensitive. Rather, the fact that it was the policy implemented by the Sarawak BN that had turned it into a sensitive issue.

The Kota Sentosa assemblyperson added that the racial imbalance was even more starkly obvious when it came to the top posts, the Public Service Premier Post (Jusa) grade, in which Malays constitute 65 percent while the Dayak and Chinese each constitute 17 percent.

This, said Chong, is against Sarawak’s racial composition made up of 29.8 percent Malays and Melanau, 45.3 percent Dayak and 24 percent Chinese.

“This lopsided racial representation in the state civil service is surely not the working of one or two years but the result of long-term planning by the state cabinet,” he pointed out.

Calling out the state’s various ministers, Chong asked for them to respond to the lopsided racial representation in the state civil service.

Stressing that many have had enough of race-based policies by Umno in West Malaysia, Chong said such ideology should not be imported into Sarawak by the Sarawak BN or the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB)-led government.

The Bandar Kuching MP also asked whether the state government had any intention to address the lopsided representation issue as well as the state government’s plan to tackle the problem.

“What is the time-frame for the implementation of such a plan, so that the state civil service will have a fair racial representation corresponding to the racial composition of the population of the state?” Chong asked.

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