Wednesday, March 31, 2010

INDIANS SHOULD EMULATE THE JEWS AND CHINESE.
According to the Hindu Sangam president S. Ganesan, 48% of prisoners in the 24 prison nationwide are Indians, while the Director General of Home Ministry, Datuk Seri Mahmood Adam is on record saying that 36,000 prisoners in jails across the country. This would mean that some 17,280 of the prison inmates are Indians. In fact, it becomes even more disturbing, when N.V Subbarow, the education officer of Consumer Association of Penang education officer recently revealed that Indian girls are now involved in murder and robbery cases.

All these must be alarming statistics, for a community which forms 7% of the total Malaysian population. It has now become all too common to read in the newspapers of Indian youths being charged or being sentenced for heavy crimes like murder, hijacking and gang fights. Even, the law journals are now enriched and replete with case laws involving Indians, something unheard of in the decades of old.

Many have blamed the high incidence of Indians being involved in crime is due to the marginalization of Indians as a direct consequence of discriminatory national policies, inappropriate distribution of opportunities and wealth and other social causes. To a certain extent it is true. But, that is no excuse for Indians to become a dysfunctional community.

My observation as a lawyer, makes me conclude that many Indians take to crime because most of them do not have or lack the necessary education and qualifications which in turn precludes them from possible opportunities.

In truth, Indians do have a choice. Instead, Indians wallow in self pity blaming the society, the system, political parties and the government for their predicament. That is similar to African Americans lamenting and blaming their social ills and backwardness because of their 400 years of slavery.

What Indians ought to do is to emulate the Jews who despite all the suffering, persecution and discrimination could rise above all and be successful. Closer home, we have the Chinese as a shining example, who despite all the obstacles, hardships and adversities could in a generation or two progress and uplift themselves. For both these races, they recognized that education was their redemption. Jewish and Chinese parents recognized that if they wanted to improve and progress there were no other alternative but education and were prepared to make enormous personal sacrifices and often without seeking help or handouts just to educate their children.

Here we have Indian fathers throwing away good money sitting and drinking alcohol in the coffee shop while complaining about inequality and injustice, without realizing he is actually sacrificing his children’s education by indirectly financing the future education of the coffee shop owners’ children. At home, at night, while the Chinese school children are doing their homework and studying, in many Indian homes, mothers’ and their children are happily glued for hours on Astro. What hope then for Indians? Perhaps, it is the parents who are preparing the children on a road to crime.

Indians must realize that Indians world over be it in Africa, Middle East, United Kingdom, United States and Australia are doing well. Many Indians, could do well especially in these countries is because of education, which opened the window of opportunities which was not available to them in their home country. With education and appropriate qualification, you are a citizen of the world and armed with education and the appropriate qualification, somewhere elsewhere you may find the opportunity.

Unless Indians are not prepared to recognize that key to change is education and they are not prepared to make the paradigm shift, they will be stuck in a quagmire of their own making. Then, they have no one to blame but only themselves.
Shocking Imbalance In Johor Civil Service

There are only 126 non-Malays out of the 8,372 workforce in the Johor civil service. This startling statistic was revealed by the Johor Menteri Besar Ghani Othman when replying to the written question by Gwee Tong Hian (DAP-Bentayan) during the recent sitting of the Johor state assembly.

According to the menteri besar the racial breakdown of the Johor civil service is as follows:
Malays : 8,244 or 98.47%
Chinese : 10 or 0.12%
Indians : 116 or 1.39%
Others : 2 or 0.02.%

According to the population statistics of Johor from the data of the Johor State Investment Centre, the racial composition of the population of Johor is as follows:

Total population of Johor: 3.17 million ( as at 2006)
Malays/bumiputera : 54 %
Chinese : 33 %
Indians : 6 %

Clearly, judging from the percentages of the Chinese and Indian populations of Johor, the non- Malays are grossly under-represented in the Johor civil service.

The menteri besar in his reply said that the Johor government and the Public Services Commission were committed in their effort towards ensuring that only those who were of quality
and with integrity are recruited into the service.

chosen. With a mere 126 non-Malays out of a 8,372 total, the Johor government must be finding it near impossible to find Chinese and Indians with 'quality and integrity' to serve in the Johor civil service. Or is it because of the extraneous and over-stringent prerequisites imposed on Chinese and Indian applicants and thus the 'difficulty'?

In order to attract non-Malays into the Johor civil service, the menteri besar said that the Public Services Commission would take steps to advertise in the Chinese and Tamil-language newspapers.

Rightfully and logically, the Public Services Commission ought to have advertised in the Chinese and Tamil-language papers in the first place if they were genuinely interested in attracting and giving non Malays an opportunity. Further, the Johor government and the Public Services Commission could have worked closely with the MCA, MIC and NGOs in finding suitably qualified Chinese and Indians.

In fact, it would be good to hear from Johor MCA and Johor MIC of what role and what steps they had taken in addressing this gross imbalance in the Johor civil service. May I also propose that if the Johor government and the Public Services Commission are having difficulty in finding Indians to serve in the Johor civil service, they can seek the assistance of the pro-active president of Johor Indian Business Association (Jiba).

I am confident he can easily assist the Johor government and the Public Services Commission. If all efforts fail, I am sure Johor Pakatan Rakyat would be ever willing to assist.
Admittedly, the proximity of Singapore is a lure for many Johoreans to seek employment across the causeway. But I am nevertheless confident that given the opportunity many Chinese and particularly the Indians would want and be willing to work and serve proudly in the Johor civil service.

It is high time the Johor government and the Public Services Commission take proactive and concrete steps to remedy the racial imbalance in the Johor civil service.