Joint Press Statement by 5
Civil Society Organisations, March 13, 2019
5 civil society organisations
urge the government to comprehensively eliminate employment discrimination in
all economic sectors, rather than selectively eliminating discrimination in
specific areas. This should include discriminatory practice in public services.
We support the statement of
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Waytha moorty, who vowed to
eliminate employment discrimination in the private sector, that "Malaysia
should not have any form of discrimination.... I hope that employers will focus
on uniting all ethnic groups through employment, because this will maximize our
workforce."
But we would like to remind Waytha
Moorthy that the government is the largest Malaysian employer which hires 1.7
million employees, which is 10% of the current 16 million labor force in the
country. Eliminating employment discrimination by excluding the public service
sector will raise doubts about selective justice. The current composition of
public services and top civil servants completely fail to reflect the
demographic of Malaysia.
