No Malaysian Chinese as Federal Court judge - first time in 50 years

Taken from the blog of Lim Kit Siang - 30th September 2007

The 50th Merdeka anniversary should be a celebration of the success of Malaysian nation-building after 50 years. Unfortunately, Malaysians are being given proof of of many things that have gone wrong with the nation – whether national unity, civil service efficiency, independence of the judiciary, the police, crime, anti-corruption, education, economic development and quality of education.

I will just give one instance of Malaysian nation-building which has gone wrong highlighted on the occasion of the 50th Merdeka anniversary.

In the 2008 Budget presentation, the Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that as part of the effort to inculcate corporate social responsibility (CSR), all public-listed companies will be required from the financial year 2008 to disclose their employment composition by race and gender.

But has the government set a good example of responsibility with regard to ensuring a civil service which reflects the multi-racial composition of the country?

One of the objectives of the New Economic Policy when it was launched in 1970 as a 20-year programme was to ensure that there will be no identification of race with vocation and the government had specifically promised that it would set a good example with regard to the racial composition in the public service.

In 1970, the public service comprised some 60 per cent Malays and 40 per cent non-Malays. Today, the identification of race with the public sector has become more rather than less pronounced, with Malaysian Chinese and Indians falling from some 40 per cent over 35 years ago to less than 20 per cent at present.

Why more and more Malays are going for public sector for career? Believe it or not, its not an easy task for a Malay fresh grads to get a job in private sector, big portion of them are not even gave a chance to come for an interview just because they are not favoured. But frankly, let say you in a small and medium company of developing software, as a boss you can’t afford to hire a candidate who will be having communication problems within the team. As a private owned company which is driven by profit making, all my decision which is not going to be profitable is likely not to be chosen. And majority of business owner in Malaysia are not Malays. I am saying this from my own experience working in number of companies before, owned by multi racial owners and also feedbacks from my fellow colleagues.

Any particular reason Malaysian Chinese & Indian interested to go for private sector? I’m not pretty sure about Indian but majority of the Chinese; they tend to see everything in Ringgit Sense. Just take a look on those Chinese and Indian who is still working in private sector; most of them are able to live a modest life, driving an average cars, sending their children to daily public schools and go to public university, converse and mix up very well with the rest. But not forgetting those high ranking non Malays in public service, they are also recognized and able to contribute within the organization and they also live quite well like the rest of the senior rank public service officers. Those who opt for private sectors are expecting higher salary than their counterpart in public service.

For the first time in half a century, there is not a single Malaysian Chinese judge in the highest court of the land, the Federal Court – another sign that Malaysian nation-building has gone wrong.

For the first time aye? What about "the every time" the pigs settlers spent for the past 50 years polluting the waters in Melaka? given a hard time for others to live in the vicinity of illegal pigs farming area? Not only resisting the effort of the Authority to enforce the law but also tried to sue them. Been thinking why Singapore prohibited pig farming on their own soil while they are sponsoring it over our land? Seems like all these while the Government`s policy towards racial tolerance has not been worthy enough for some of our fellow Malaysian. They just do what they want to do in the name of money, by exploiting the resources available even on some cases it is illegal.

Malaysians are entitled to know what is being done by the relevant authorities, including the Chief Justice, Tan Sri Ahmad Fairuz Shaikh Abdul Halim to rectify such a serious anomaly.

And i`m wondering why Bar Council make so much noise while VK Lingam is actually their own senior members, doesn’t this also reflect their own credibility and reliability?