Finally, an official study “to determine the reasons for the low number of applications by non-Malays to join the civil service.”. We’ll worry about the validity and biasness (I don’t EPU should be doing the study) of the study later.

As the PSC secretary points out, its all still based on perception, but I’m not sure what a scientific study means. He also said the applications from non-Malays has been increasing if compared to last year. I guess its due to the pay revision last July.

Public Services Commission (PSC) Lamien Sawiyo secretary said that the scientific study was important as the issue was currently only assessed based on perception.

“We want to know what causes non-Malays to be disinterested to be in government. Is it because of salary, culture or do they rather do business?,” he said.

Lamien said that the PSC has commissioned the Economic Planning Unit to conduct a “psychological perception study” on the matter.

Meanwhile, Lamien said that non-Malay applications to join the civil service had shown signs of an increase.

He said that Chinese applicants had rose from 12,875 last year to 15,415 from January this year to September.

During the same period this year, the number of applicants from Indians stand at 24,491, as compared to 18,533 last year.

Lamien also noted an increase in the applications from Sabahans from 49,079 last year to 57,177 so far this year.

As a whole, Lamien said that the PSC has received a total of 917,111 applications this year compared to 760,840 for the whole of last year.

I would like to add some points:

In those days, we find many Indians working in civil service – KTM, TNB (old LLN), Water Dept, JKR etc – but most of the job were on the lower end of the civil service. I still can see people approaching their retirement age working as office boys, general laborers, drivers etc. But their kids – having a bit more of education – will start think if that’s the life they want – career in civil service – after seeing their parents suffer.

But for the Malays, even such low-paying and  jobs offer another advantage – ability to build network and do side-business. The non-Malays are less brave in doing this due to worry that they may lose their jobs.

The non-Malay civil servants in better-paying positions that I met always advise younger generation to skip civil service and go into private sector or own business. They cite lack of promotion opportunity and  the overall “malay” environment that stifles non-Malays. One simple example is the serving of beef during meals – let it be a simple lunch during meetings or elaborate dinners at hotels. There will be beef most of time, and the Malay expect us to eat as well. What kind of planets are these people living in? From where does their ignorance come from? Nope, this doesn’t happen in Kelantan or Kedah, but in Klang Valley itself! So, this kinds of small (some may say irrelevant or insignificant) things that add up to the total discomfort.

At times, the non-Malay will be “invisible” to the others in the office. Being a very minority (at times only 1 out of 20 staff is a non-Malay), you “special needs” won’t be crossing the minds of the others. This is unfortunately unavoidable since it justn’t cross their mind that there’s someone who is different in their office.  To undo this is hard, perhaps need to have a 40% non-Malay population wherever possible.

Government departments are also in danger of becoming islamized like schools. Prayers over PA system in the morning, Religious talks on Friday mornings. Sometime reminds us of school. Little wonder you want to work in such an environment.

There are more benefits – like leave for Haji, maternity leave for up to 5 children, – that suits the Malays (nowadays I don’t see Indians having even 3 children).

Another thing that is a common “perception” is that the Malays get some things “free” or “cheaper”, thus they can make do with the civil service salary. But for the non-Malays, they have to earn more to compensate for the unsubsidised things. One example is house price. Another is the loans to buy ASN/ASB. Yet another is help/support from JAKIM and other Islamic agencies for the Muslims. The non-Malays don’t have all this.

A non-Muslim must be able to withstand or adapt to the environment if want to sustain in civil service. Must have thick skin to face the culture, able to ignore the discriminatory policies and decisions, and generally don’t get involved in office politics.

By the way, I would suggest that graduates (degree holders) to apply, especially if they are aged 27 and below. The salary is OK (at least slightly above RM2000 for fresh graduate), and with the long years of service ahead, the chance of getting promoted is a bit better. Don’t join government after age of 30, you’ll be demotivated with younger generation getting promoted faster.