MGG Pillai Commentary View

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The NEP and Malay Dominance is why the non-Malay does not join the government or uniformed services

THE NATIONAL FRONT MPs are in a bind. They have been told to set up blogs, to be with the people. But those who have not done so will have to think twice. The blog is a double-edged weapon. The MPs do not articulate the people's concern, busy making money, rarely visit their constituencies, do what they like, or what they are told to do. They allowed the Muslim women to be disadvantaged, but this aggravates the problem. As the men at the top view it, the law applies to the women at the top. That law was meant only for the Federal Territory, but it is the Islam the National Front prefer for the whole country. When it comes to Islam, no MP dare to speak, the Muslim MPs because they do not know Islam well enough, the non-Muslim MPs do not speak. But UMNO should realise that it was Dato' Sir Onn bin Jaffar who got the Malay women into opposing the British proposal that would have reduced the sultans to ciphers, and Kaum Ibu had a political aim. It is the Kaum Ibu which often pushed UMNO along. But the men are in collision course, in which they can lose.

In the present scandals, the non-Muslim parties in the National Front, should have been in the forefront, but have said nothing. The leaders of the Malaysian Chinese Association, the Malaysian Indian Congress, Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, People's Progressive Party will talk strongly on peripheral matters, but not on issues that affect the people they represent. It is wrong to assume that Malaysians would remain quiet for all time. It is only the Muslim women and the Hindu who continue to articulate the 'injustices' in a Hindu being buried as a Muslim. Similarly, the Muslim women are het up about their denigrtion in Malaysian society. The newspapers and the internet have registered their anger, but the fact remains that the Hindu. Buddhist or Chritisian spouse of a man who has secretly converted to Islam has no legal rights. The courts have declared that she cannot come to the civil courts for justice, and the Sharia courts have said it would only hear cases brought by Muslims. There has been instances were Chinese have been so treated, but that is forgotten now.

But Islam is used to push Dominance. The former Inspector-General of Police, in his column in the Star, has repeated the canard that the non-Malay does not join the government services because of better prospects outside. But the New Economic Polict and Malay Dominance ensured that non-Malays would not, if possible, join the government services. In the early 1970s, when both these policies were implemented. the police only took one Indian inspector and two Chinese inspectors. All lthree have retired, rising to assistant superintendent of police, if he is lucky, and told bluntly they would not go higher. A non-Malay in government services or the uniform branch cannot rise high in his services so they would order Malays around. The non-Malay chief clerks or matrons still in service were appointed before this was in force, and the few that exist would retire soon.

The Malay would make sure of that. I knew an Indian who had been promoted second in charge, but he never acted, for that was given to his junior, who was of course a Malay. In the army, he does not get to be higher than lieutenant colonel, which he is given as a retirement rank, perhaps two years before. A doctor in the ultra-modern Selayang Hospital, who was weaned from the US, went back after he could not work: his Malay assistants, who included doctors, would not take orders from him. He found himself doing all the work himself, arriving at 6.00 am to prepare for his first patient three hours later. And he had excellent references: the then prime minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, and the then health minister, a class mate of his father.

Officials in the government repeat the canard like Tun Haniff Omar. But they are not believed no longer. The non-Malays know they face a glass ceiling if they join the government or the uniformed branch, so early in life their parents tell them to find a career in public service. My sons decided, still in school, not to join the uniformed or government services; and they have not. Not all can reach the top, but like to think they can. But when impediments are put in the way, they would find other avenues. The government and uniformed services are now shortchanged because of the policies three decades ago. What they are seeing now is the after-effects of the policies laid down then. It takes thirty years for a policy to fruition, and the government is caught flat footed.

No government GLCs are not successful any more. None are headed by a non-Malay. They would rather employ a white man than a non-Malay. Some, like Bank Bumiputra, has been revamped four times, each time the government putting in millions or ringgit, if not billions, to keep it afloat. Yet no official has been penalised for running the GLCs to ground. The latest is MAS, but there are others. In one GLC, a Malay is threatening to sue. Rather than face him in court, the GLC would rather give him one of its companies than face him in court. The Malay culture of 'tidak apa' continues to dominate.

This is not to say that Indians and Chinese do not reach the top. They do. But the Chinese and Indian civil servant gets to be secretary-general of the Housing and Local Government, and of the National Unity Ministry. Sometimes, the head of another irrelevant ministry is not a Malay. But these gentlemen are the favoured non-Malays, who will look after Malay interests, and are neutered, as it were, before they reach the top. There will be no change to the system, unless relatively junior Malay civil servants stop questioning why a non-Malay has been promoted. The senior Malays, knowing which way their bread if buttered, follow the majority. In addition, a Malay is promoted for pushing the Malay and Muslim agenda. The rules of the civil service is swept aside. The man in charge when he goes on leave do not tell his stand-in where they are. But this was not who it was like. But a man in the Immigration Department, an Indian, was arrested under the Internal Security Act because he was too efficient. Is it any wonder it is so lethargic?

But who should stop this go along? The non-Malay political parties in government will not lift their arm. Their leaders are more interested in being in the cabinet, and if that means stepping on the people they represent, then so be it. They do not service their constituences – a singular exception is Dato' Seri S, Samy Vellu – but the people vote them in every time. They see nothing, speak nothing, hear nothing. That is their defensive mechanism to stay in the cabinet. The local councils would not be elected, for this gives the National Front jobs for the boys. They much it up as expected, and get shocked when news of their shenanigans make the front pages of newspapers. But politics in this country has reached the stage where the racial groups do not support their leaders, but unite among themselves to oppose them. It will be a while, perhaps 2012, before they are a force. But the policies initated in the early 1970s has brought this about.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com