YOURSAY | ‘Expect racial discrimination to foster as we even refuse to ratify Icerd.’

Study: Private sector favours Chinese job applicants over Indians, Malays

Xenobio: I have two points to make.

Firstly, on the purpose of the study (by Centre for Governance and Political Studies): Everybody should stop saying, "There's no point in the study, we all know that the private sector is biased toward Chinese."

Sometimes, social science studies do turn up unexpected results contrary to common sense or common knowledge, we don't know for sure until it's done. For example, the researchers themselves said they thought Malays would be the most discriminated against.

Secondly, on the study’s design: the big problem with this is that the fictitious Chinese candidates had English names, and the fictitious Indian candidates had Tamil names. That would definitely bias the subjects as to assumptions about their English fluency.

This was not an apple-to-apple comparison. The least biased design would have been to put the same first names with different Chinese and Tamil surnames so that they all sound like they're from English-speaking backgrounds.

David Dass: Indians have always known this. I was once asked to help out an Indian boy who was getting depressed. He had written 300 applications over a period of three years, but he did not even receive a single acknowledgement.

Few people acknowledge an obligation or duty to be non-racial in their approach to employment. Many complain about bias and racism when they are victims, but do not recognise their own prejudices.

There is a saying in the Bible: “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” There is much hypocrisy in many of us.

Anonymous_2e7168df: I worked in the private sector for over 40 years. If there is smoke, there is a fire somewhere.

Please correct the flaws within the education system if other races want to be employed in the private sector. It is not the race, but the attitude, aptitude and ability of the person which matters.

Anonymous 2465861491622056: A study should also be done on public sector jobs. It will be interesting to see the results and compare the discrimination in both private and public sectors.

Furthermore, you can expect racial discrimination to foster as we even refuse to ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd).

Speechless: This survey is incomplete without a proper analysis. If the results are indeed true, the logical next step is to find out why the private sector prefers to hire Chinese.

My2cen: Indeed, Centre for Governance and Political Studies director Zaidel Baharuddin should follow up with another survey to ask what are the attributes employers look for and why they prefer certain people over others.

Employers and hiring managers will share their experience if it's anonymous.

PM: M'sia will favour 'rich' China over 'unpredictable' US if it has to take sides

The Wakandan: Just know that when a country becomes powerful, it will dominate to sustain the prevailing situation.

If we look at history, there has been conquering of other states and expansionism. They were not interested in staying where they were. Malaysia is a small country by their standards and therefore has to play smart in term of diplomacy

Lately, and alarmingly, China is considering the South China Sea as its territorial right and has installed military bases on those islands near East Malaysia and Philippines, which are far away from their country.

China's authoritarian communism is as cruel as can be. They did not hesitate to exterminate their own people to achieve their goal, and hundreds of millions died in the communist upheaval from the 30s to the late 70s.

So what can stop them if they are powerful enough to implement their strategies? We need superpowers to do the balancing act.

Anonymous 2475091498015598: My take on this would be to be non-aligned to these powers. China may be rich now, but the same fate that befell the US is what will happen to China as well.

The US was the unmatched superpower for so long, but insidiously, China has grown to be near equal to the US.

What is bad for the Southeast Asian nations is China being aggressive in building military bases and claiming islands left and right. It is a bully, I would say.

Malaysia must innovate in diplomatic skills rather than take sides easily, as a superpower today may not be one forever.

True Malaysian: I totally agree with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The US under the Donald Trump presidency is unpredictable, inconsistent, dishonest, intimidating, untruthful, you name it. China has proven to be a better friend in time of need than the US now.

Frank: There are so very many risks having China involved in the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) in the long run. What happened in the middle of the previous century to the Uighur people should be a cautionary tale.

That said, the ECRL has to be considered in relation to other Malaysia-China interactions in the bigger economic context. That is easy to understand.

All in all, as long as Malaysia know what they are getting into today and in the future, and all the measures are put in place, we Malaysians can try to reduce (but not annihilate) the huge military risks and other risks that come with the ECRL, ports and other similar projects which the ‘dragon’ northerners are salivating over in their quest for dominance in the Malay Archipelago.

Malaysia has been warned.

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