Same old story, yet again. I think if we analyse the issues discussed by MIC for last two decades, it centers around the same topics only. Sign of stagnation, inaction, inability, or continuous improvement? Which is it?

Samy:

You can hardly find an Indian employee in the state civil sector.

Anyway, this time Samy says that “Indians are grossly underrepresented even at the district and municipal council levels”. At least, those days we can find drivers, office boys, gardeners, etc in these places. But with changing times, the community may not be interested in these kind of menial jobs which lack career prospect. Having said that, even those who apply for these low-salary positions face stiff competition from the majority race.

Samy wants to meet the menteri besar and chief ministers from BN-held states to solve this problem. if I can offer a solution – force 50% of position to be given to other races (let MIC champion other communities too) for the next 5 years. this positions (ranging from all levels of jobs) cannot be filled by the privileged community under any circumstances. this will force the states to find innovative ways to promote the vacancies. No point MIC or other NGOs waste money doing more surveys and roadshow to try promot career in public sector. Let the state departments do it. End of the day, XX number of people must be hired. Make it part of the KPI of the directors.

He says that he won’t approach Pakatan-held states and says that it will be easier to work with BN states. Well, we have seen how “easy” it is to work with BN states for last few years. I think it will be easier to work with Pakatan states. Maybe Samy should give it a try indirectly, using his connections.

Meanwhile, CWC member Murugesan highlighted in his blog that:

On 8th June, 2008, the Road Transport Department or Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan (JPJ) published the list of successful candidates for ‘Jawatan Pembantu Penguatkuasa Gred N17′ in Mingguan Malaysia.

It is alarming to note that out of 751 successful candidates, only 15 were non-Bumiputras. It constitutes less then 2% of successful candidates. Out of this, only 10 candidates or 1.3% were Indians.

Grade N17 is for support staff and it is open for applicants with SPM or equivalent qualification. Most applicants for this grade are from lower and lower middle income group families. More often then not, they discontinue their studies after Form Five to find a suitable job to support their families.

Interestingly, 10 out 15 successful candidates were Indians. Meaning, less Chinese applications. Now, I can follow the path often taken, and I shall do so. How aware are our youths on such vacancies? If MIC claims to be representing the community, with its network of branches and affiliated NGOs, it should have disseminated vacancy information throughout the country. Being part of ruling coalition, MIC should be having excellent relationship with all the government department. So, what went wrong? Are our youth unqualified to apply for the jobs? Did they fail the interview?

The other path less travelled, but increasingly being mentioned is lack of interest. We can assume that government departments and MIC played their roles, but maybe our youths are not interested in SPM-level and below jobs. Perhaps they realise that there’s very little career prospect in such jobs? If that’s the case then, innovative ways are needed to attract them. Let us allocate quota and make sure that only Indians/Chinese/Others can fill these positions. This will force the departments to do something about it. However, my stand is that regardless of the skin color, the officer must serve all Malaysians equally. Then, we won’t be having this problem.

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