Steven Sim

The action of Bayan Baru UMNO Youth to lodge a report against Penang State Deputy Chief Minister II Prof. P. Ramasamy is both unnecessary and malicious.

Prof. Ramasamy speech did not criticize the affirmative action concerning the Malay community, but merely critized, substantiated with statistics, how UMNO has maneuvered a communal monopoly of the public sector resulting in a divide and conquer situation in our country with the different races participating in different sectors of the economy.

For the last 50 years of their rule, the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional government has failed to overturn the divide and conquer policy of the colonial British. Instead, it was seen to be reinforcing such communalist policy which has caused racial disintegration in our Country. The fact is, in Penang itself, only less than 20% of non-Malays (about 12% of Indians and 5% of Chinese) are employed in the public sector. It is a wonder if the only reason for such huge disparity is that non-Malays are not interested to go into the public sector. Instead, the lack of political will to hire non-Malays into the public sector and difficulty of non-Malays to get into the service must be taken into consideration, investigated and reviewed.

In terms of a boast to the participation of Malays in the private sector, Prof. Ramasamy has in his statement reiterated the Penang Pakatan State Government’s commitment to eliminate any racial and gender discrimination in both the public and private sectors.

I trust that our Malay community is matured enough to judge for themselves the truth in Prof. Ramasamy’s statement and they are not a group of easily angered people as portrayed by Bayan Baru UMNO Youth leader Norman Zahalan in his statement in the press.

I call upon Bayan Baru UMNO Youth to retract their police report because their action is obviously politically motivated and has a larger tendency to provoke the racial sentiment of our country. Instead of hiding behind the so-called “racial sensitivity”, Bayan Baru UMNO Youth should come forward to debate Prof. Ramasamy’s findings with facts and statistics, failing which they should just focus on joining hand with the Penang Pakatan State Government to ensure an equitable employment opportunities for all races and gender in Penang and Malaysia in both the public and private sectors.

Finally, I also call upon UMNO’s partner in the Barisan Nasional, notably MCA, MIC and Gerakan to state their stance on this issue regarding the disparity of racial composition in the public sectors.

 Press Release by

SIM CHEE KEONG
Secretary
DAP Jalan Tembikai Branch

17 November 2008