A special cabinet task force must be established to reverse the decline of non-Malays in the civil service, said DAP acting secretary-general M Kulasegaran today.

He said the government must examine the core reasons behind the dwindling numbers and find effective ways to attract more Chinese and Indians to ensure that the objectives in the Second Outline Perspective Plan (OPP) 1990-2000 could be achieved.

"This should be one of the important subjects of debate of the new Parliament in May," added the Ipoh Barat MP in a statement.

Kulasegaran was reacting to Terengganu Menteri Besar Idris Jusoh's recent statement on wanting to increase the number of non-Malays in the state administration.

While supporting the move, the DAP leader noted that the existence of a racial quota for government positions served as a deterrent to non-Malays who wanted to pursue a career in the civil service.

He said the need for a higher composition of non-Malays in the civil service was a pressing one.

"If in the past, non-Malays made-up a sizable number of the civil servants found in the various government ministries, departments, agencies, police and armed forces, post offices, hospitals and schools, now one can only find a handful," he added.

Sharp drop

According to the statistics released by parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister's Department Kamsiyah Yeop last year, the percentage of non-Malay civil servants dropped from 29.7 percent Chinese and 9.8 percent Indians in 1980 to 8.2 percent and 5.2 percent respectively.

"The present low non-Malay ratio in the civil service was clearly a violation of the Second OPP which targetted 25.3 percent Chinese and 8.2 percent Indians in 1990 and 26.3 percent and nine percent respectively for the year 2000," said Kulasegaran.

He said Kamsiyah had claimed that the drop was because the Chinese and Indians were not interested in government jobs.

"Is this the real reason or could it attributed to the existing unfair civil service requirement policies?" he asked.