Indian Malaysians in Perak are being given a raw deal in the civil service as they hold only 3.2% of available posts, of which 95% are low-ranking jobs.

rela civil suit shooting death 130906 a sivanesan This was revealed by DAP Perak vice-chairman and party’s national labour bureau chief A Sivanesan to Malaysiakini today.

“The civil service is a symbol of unity and it should be racially balance to portray a truly Malaysian identity,” said Sivanesan

“Sadly this is not the case in Perak as the racial composition in the civil service should have been 51% Malay while the balance be non-Malay.”

“We see many cases whereby civil service jobs meant for Chinese who are not keen to work in this sector, given to Malays. This practice means that about 95% of the civil service posts in the state are held by Malays.”

“This disparity should be addressed by giving such vacancies to the Indians, who are ever ready to work in the civil service.”

The former executive councillor for human resources had prepared a nine-page ‘Restructuring of the Civil Service in Perak’ working paper and was fine-tuning the report when the Pakatan Rakyat government collapsed in February after the defection of three representatives to rival Barisan Nasional.

“This disparity of job opportunities in the civil service is one of the main reasons for the social ills facing the Indian community in the country. This has been going on for the past 52 years and now (Prime Minister) Najib (Abdul Razak) is talking about the 1Malaysia concept.

“It can only successful if all the races in the country are given equal opportunity to jobs in the civil service sector,” he said.

BN’s Indian affairs advisor powerless

Another contributing factor for the Indian community lagging behind the other races in job opportunities is the lack information reaching the grassroots.

Sivanesan said during Pakatan’s rule, they advertised in all three main Indian-language newspapers about job and study opportunities and were able to reach out to the community.

“But since Barisan’s seizure of power, the Indian sector has been forgotten and the community leaders are not going to the ground to keep them informed about education and jobs in the state.”

He said this was also partly due to no elected Indian representative in the state exco to voice the community’s grievances and problems.

Sivanesan was dismissive of S Verasingam, the man appointed by BN to look after Indian affairs.

“He does not have the power and is only an advisor on Indian affairs to the menteri besar. He cannot be present at exco meetings to voice the concerns of the community .”