Najib must take grouses of Dayak civil servants in Sarawak seriously, urges Kit Siang

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2, 2014: DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has called on Prime Minister Najib Razak to take the occasion to make a ministerial statement in Parliament on Dayak grouses about discrimination in the federal civil service.

The Senate begins its 12-day budget meeting today till Dec. 18.

Picture: Kit Siang says  PM Najib must make full account of the grouses of the Dayaks in Sarawak

"Najib should clarify the current controversy in Sarawak revolving around a list of promotions, purportedly in the Sarawak Road Transport Department, which has sparked outrage among Dayak professionals and civil servants in the state over what they see as proof of discrimination against non-Malay Bumiputeras in the federal civil service," he said in a statement today.

The list, which has been posted on a blog and on Facebook, names eight Malay enforcement officers as “berjaya” (successful) in securing promotions from the N27 scale to N32, while three Dayak officers were listed as “simpanan”, or reserve.

To Dayaks, the list confirms what they have felt all along and what has also been noted in the just-released Malaysia Human Development Report 2013 – that discrimination exists within the Bumiputeras working in the civil service, with Malays given preference over natives.

The Malaysia Human Development Report (MHDR) 2013 was commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) working in partnership with the Economic Planning Unit (EPU).

The Dayak ethnic group make up more than 50% of Sarawak’s population. Chinese are some 25% and Malays 22%.

The Malaysia Human Development Report, however, showed that federal civil service departments had hired Sarawak and Sabah Bumiputeras at “lower than their population share”.

In 2009, 4.9% of bumiputeras from Sarawak, or 1,631, and 6.5% of Bumiputeras from Sabah, or 2,170, were hired in federal departments, the report said, citing statistics from the Implementation and Coordination Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department.

This was lower than their population share at 8.7% for Sarawak and 11% for Sabah.

The MHDR 2013 states:

“Between 1970 and 1985, three quarters of new public service jobs went to Malays.

“Among bureaucrats holding the most senior government posts, 80% were Malays and 6.3% were Chinese.

“While there is no data available for Sarawak and Sabah (for that period), an examination of the list of senior government officers in the state and statutory bodies reveals a similar trend.

“It is only in the police, armed forces and resident/district offices do we see a better representation of other ethnic groups.

“It is safe to say that very little has changed since the NEP period.”

The report acknowledged that steps were being taken to increase the non-Malay Bumiputeras representation in the civil service, and that there had been an increase in recent years.

It warned that emphasis should be given to strengthen representation at the management and professional levels as such imbalances could lead to “increased racial polarisation and perceived discrimination in our civil service”.

Lim said the Prime Minister should take these grouses of Dayaks in Sarawak and the Kadazan-Dusun-Murut communities in Sabah about their inequitable representation in the federal civil service seriously, as this constitutes an important part of the Malaysian Agreement that Sarawak and Sabah bumiputeras take charge of the federal civil service in their states.

"In his Ministerial statement, Najib should not only give a full account of the process of Borneonisation of the federal civil service in Sarawak and Sabah in the past 51 years since the formation of Malaysia in 1963, stating the number of federal departments which are now headed by Sarawakians or Sabahans, but also the representation of Dayaks and Kadazan-Dusun-Murut groups in the overall federal service.

"Najib should also state the highest federal civil service posts ever held by Dayak and Kadazan/Dusun/Murut communities, whether there had ever been Dayak and Kadazan Ketua Setiausaha (KSU), to state how and to name them," Lim, who is also the Gelang Patah Member of Parliament, said.