Non Malays Prefer Private Sector?

Private Sector Preferred

New Straits Times report:

The dearth of non-Malay civil servants may be attributed to many preferring private sector jobs instead of a career in the public service. While Chinese accounted for 29.7 per cent and Indians 9.8 per cent of civil servants in the 1980s, their numbers fell to 8.2 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively in 2003. The numbers have, however, been encouraging since 2001, said Public Services Commission secretary Luey Puteh.

"If the numbers of non-Malays applying is small, what can we do? The PSC is an appointing authority and we can’t woo certain racial groups or we’d appear biased."

The PSC, she said, could not conduct recruitment drives among non-Malays alone for the sake of neutrality. She said the drastic drop in the number of non-Malay civil servants since the 1980s was due to the retirement of the post-Merdeka batch of civil servants, who were not being replaced. Luey said efforts to encourage non-Malays to join the civil service were best left to political parties or government agencies.

She added that the PSC functioned as a recruiter, but approval was in the hands of the heads of department in the federal service. There had been a slight increase in the number of non-Malays applying of late for professional and managerial (Grade A) posts. More were also applying to be support staff, but the numbers have fluctuated in recent years.

While few non-Malays look at civil service for jobs, many however succeeded. For instance, 5,668 Chinese applied for Group A federal posts last year, of whom 1,042 made the cut for interviews, with 564 or 54.13 per cent offered jobs. A similar pattern has emerged for other non-Malay applicants.

One reason few applicants turn up for interviews is that it can take up to three years before an applicant is called for an interview. "We have to wait for ministries or agencies to make a request," Luey explained. "Until then, we don’t process the job applications. If one is lucky, there may be a post available sooner."

Luey said the number of vacancies fell short of candidates because there were no new posts being created or applicants did not meet the stringent requirements. "If there are many applicants for few posts, we raise the bar in our vetting process. This can be difficult for applicants to understand. They think they are qualified and get upset when they find we have made vetting more stringent without telling them."

The PSC only handled recruitment for about 30 per cent of all public sector jobs, but is the largest appointing body, Luey said. The rest are under the respective service commissions of the police, armed forces, Education, Legal and Judicial, state and local authorities. Luey said there were generally more applicants than vacancies in public service. Last year, 418,000 applied for vacancies but only 19,000 were hired. She cited an example where 18,000 applications were received for 10 vacancies for Customs officers.

COMMENTS:

Non Malays preferred private sector instead of civil service?

Oh No! Please, please,.... everyone one in Malaysia are interested in civil service. As there are so many who had applied, and the clear preferences based on ethnicity, the non-Malays understand the reality and the onerousness. We accept reality and instead of competing with the privileged and later cause some uproar in UMNO, we prefer to adapt and seek the competitive world of employment - the private sector. In the private sector, excluding the government linked companies, employment is based absolutely on meritocracy, the ability to perform and the commitment to work long hours, beyond normal working time.

Furthermore, in the private sector, if you are a high performer, you will be given the opportunity to rise in the ranks plus the benefits will commensurate with your effort and dedication. In civil service, it is accepted that even if you are more senior, more years of service, and deserving, some positions are sacred and are reserved under the rule of convention. Otherwise, UMNO Youth will be shouting biases and uneven playing field.

To Cik Luey Puteh, thank you very much for your openness and fair comments. We are happy that there are millions of Malays who are fair and reasonable headed, unlike those from UMNO. On behalf of the non-malays, we sincerely appreciate your fairness and competency. We are happy to continue our dog-fight in the private sector. Tho it is tough and stressful, but we have learn to live with the environment and to compete based on meritocracy. Many of us have not been successful but there are many too that had succeed. To those who have not been successful, they are still struggling and will continue to survive; but they are happy tho' poor.

UMNO can have what they want and we will not object as long as they don't try to rob us of what we had achieved thru our hardwork, blood and sweat. We don't need APs, we don't need NEP, we don't need the post of D-G, PM, DPM. We don't need rent-seeking. What we need is basic education and university education for our children and medical benefits offered by the government hospitals to help the poor who could not afford private hospital services. We need social life, self esteem and we need peace of mind.

Thank you to those who understand, including all those from PAS and KeAdilan, and those deprived UMNO members. The problem is only the eunuchs from the inner circle of the dynasty.