KUALA LUMPUR: The backlash has continued over a DAP leader’s statement about the civil service being dominated by Malays, prompting the party to say that it will deal with P. Ramasamy (pic) in its own way.
Acknowledging calls from its allies for action against Ramasamy, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke, however, said that the DAP had its own ways of approaching the issue.
He said the matter would be dealt with through the party’s internal channels.
“We have our way of doing things in our party,” he said yesterday after launching a DAP convention.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, when asked by reporters about Ramasamy’s comments, said: “He is known as a loose cannon. Let his party leadership address the problem.”
Ramasamy, who is Penang Deputy Chief Minister, said that his Facebook post on the issue had been misinterpreted by some Pakatan Harapan politicians.
“Publicity-seeking politicians in some Pakatan component parties have sought to reinterpret the second-hand news in the media to give a racial slant to my argument for reform in the civil service.
“My post has been twisted and re-twisted, allowing cheap publicity seeking politicians to engage in race-baiting,” he added.
He maintained that his intention was to call for reforms in the public service.
“My post on the need for reforms in the civil service is something that I have talked about in the past,” he said in a statement yesterday, adding that his view on the civil service was his own opinion and did not reflect the stand of the DAP or its leaders.
When contacted by The Star later, Ramasamy said that he had never mentioned the civil service being a “monopoly” of ethnic Malays.
“I never used the words ‘breaking a monopoly’. I called for reforms in the public service sector. It is not wrong to ask for reforms,” he said.
The controversy emerged last Friday when Ramasamy posted on Facebook that the Malaysian civil service was “bloated” and that “it consists of one ethnic group, predominantly the Malays”.
“The domination of the civil service by one ethnic group should be addressed by the unity government of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim,” he wrote.
He said the oft-repeated reasoning that non-Malays shy away from the civil service because of a lack of promotional prospects “cannot be sustained in view of the overt and covert forms of racial discrimination”.
The current leadership which emphasises Malaysia Madani “cannot merely provide a lip service to the one-sided nature of the civil service”, he added.
Anwar had said on Saturday that the government would not take into consideration the call for reform in the civil service as it was not an issue now.
He said the call by Ramasamy was only his personal opinion and did not reflect that of the DAP or the government.
Ramasamy’s post led to Amanah MP Mohd Sany Hamzan asking the DAP to sack him, saying that this was not the first time that his statement had put Pakatan in hot water.
PKR’s Dr Maszlee Malik said Ramasamy had become the unity government’s “biggest liability”.
“The DAP should do something to discipline him before it’s too late,” he said.
Perikatan Nasional Youth chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari claimed yesterday that there were “double standards” in responding to racism in Malaysia.
He cited the case of hockey player Hanis Nadiah Onn, who was suspended from representing the country at the Cambodia SEA Games in May after she made offensive remarks about the Jan 29 concert in Bukit Jalil by award-winning Indian musician AR Rahman.
“An athlete made a joking remark was stamped as being a racist and was suspended,” he said in a Facebook post, adding that another person, who made a statement about Malay dominance in the civil service, could stay on in his role as deputy chief minister.
