I have been reading with amusement the statements made by ministers downwards about the reluctance of nonMalay Malaysians to join the civil service, including the teaching profession, the police, armed forces etc.

Except for a little reluctance o­n the part of the Chinese community to join as rank and file in the police and armed forces, they generally have no problems joining these services at officer ranks and any level at other civil services.

It is not that they do not and did not join but the byproduct of the government's recruitment policy from the time of 'Operasi Isi Penuh' when thousands and thousands of civil servants were recruited, and subsequent recruitment exercises were delegated to heads of departments, by-passing the various Service Commissions.

It was not due to lack of interest o­n the part of the non-Malays but those jobs, deliberately or not, political or otherwise, went to Malays and the entire scenario of the civil service changed teaching, public service, police force, nursing, etc. It is there for everybody to see.

What was deliberately overlooked was that nearly 50 percent of our population, who the civil service is meant to serve, is non-Malay, and the bumiputera quota policy we are publicly told is 30 percent.

Granted that our overenthusiastic recruitment agencies and heads of departments took in say 50-60 percent Malays and had they given the remaining 40 percent to non-Malays, say 20 percent Chinese Malaysians, 10 percent Indian Malaysians and 10 percent others, we will not be in our current scenario.

The government as a whole, and Umno, MCA and MIC, are all equally guilty that an issue of this importance to the nation was allowed to be implemented with absolutely no control, flying in the face of declared policy, which is unimaginable and unpardonable. To correct the present imbalance will take more than a generation.

The other question to be asked is, o­nce a non-Malay is in, how far he or she can go up the hierarchy in the civil service. They can o­nly move up to a certain level and then they have to resign themselves to the fact that they have reached the end of the rope, with another 20 years before retirement! Even to reach that middle order, are the Malays and non-Malays competing o­n merit for promotions?

I have just touched the main reasons for the "so-called" problem of lack of interest o­n the part of the non-Malays for the civil service. The notion should be emphatically rejected, as the seeming intention is to shift the blame.

Set up a commission to study the reasons and recommend solutions.

As a nation and as a matter of state policy, we should never forget that we are a multiracial nation and that fact should clearly be reflected in each and every sphere of our lives, not the civil service alone. Large establishments in the private sector, like banks, should follow suit.

In other words, social justice and fair representation for all everywhere.