There has been some ‘hot air’ being blown by our local politicians about the issue of insufficient non-Malays in the civil service and I thought I’d say my dua sen worth on the issue. This is just another case of political sandiwara being played. One, we have the MIC claiming a major breakthrough in the issue. Two, we have the MCA claiming a similar victory in the issue. My main issue with them is that this is a non-issue.
The fallacy in the thinking is that we need to have more non-Malays in the civil service in order to ‘take care’ of the non-Malay citizens in the country. Otherwise, the Malays will trample all over the rest of us and cause us no end in grief. This is utter nonsense.
This is the same kind of thinking that has gotten us into all kinds of trouble – Malays for Malays, Chinese for Chinese, Indians for Indians. This is a classic divide and conquer scenario. There is no rational reason why a civil servant from a particular race would be better when the civil service is so tightly wound up in rules and procedures. In my experience, everyone is screwed equally.
In addition, I find it foolish that people think that the Malays are out to get the rest of us. Their people are no different from any other people. There are good oranges and bad oranges. However, the vast majority are just interested in getting on with their lives. This irrational fear seems to be born from the events of 1969. Seriously, we need to get over our past and move on.
Personally, I don’t see why we need any non-Malays in the civil service. It’s fine and well that some of us sign up for the civil service but this whole idea of getting 8% Indians and 20% Chinese in the civil service is crazy. I say that the job market should be exactly that, a market ruled by supply and demand. I would think that the civil service is overstaffed enough as it is without having to take on extra baggage just to fulfill some silly quota.
The politicians are once again trying to exploit the situation to solve a problem that does not exist. Classic!
Sybreon Ones Nought 