The Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) today questioned the sincerity of the federal public service commission to recruit Dayaks to work in the federal public service following a series of roadshows to register 10,000 of them in 2012.
 
“Before the GE13, Zaki Azmi, chairperson of the special committee on the transformation of the federal civil service visited Kuching for discussions with local officials.
 
“Apparently there was some concern over the small number of posts held by Dayaks, because not many of them were interested in government service or they were not aware what jobs were available or they did not know how to apply for them in a manner acceptable to the Public Service Commission or they were not qualified enough for the service,” said Sadia president Sidi Munan in his Sunday column in The Borneo Post today.
 
Zaki told reporters that out of 1.4 million civil servants in the country, 80 percent of the posts were held by Malays.
 
Chinese and the Indians shared the rest, with two percent apportioned to the natives of Sabah and Sarawak.
 
Sidi said: “As the problem of under-representation of the civil service among the largely rural communities could become an election issue and to forestall its exploitation by the opposition, a campaign was organised to register 10,000 Dayak boys and girls who would like to join the federal service.
 
“Fifteen Dayak intellectuals were immediately appointed to coordinate the exercise which had to be completed before December 2012. What a marvelous idea,” Sidi said.
 
“Needless to say, roadshows were conducted quickly in several centres in the state before the end of that year. Since then, however, we have been waiting for the outcome of the shows – how many people registered their interest in the various departments, how many have actually been recruited into the service?
 
“Does anybody know?
 
“Out of the 1.4 million government servants, how many are the posts of various grades and categories held by the Dayaks of Sarawak now?
 
“Can someone enlighten us on this matter, please?” pleaded Sidi, pointing out that up to this point, those roadshows seeking the jobseekers among the Dayak youth have little to show.
 
Sidi’s comment came in the wake of another show by the federal Public Services Commission to fill 60,000 vacancies nationwide this year.
 
Several thousand Sarawakian youths took advantage of the on-line registration in the types of jobs they preferred.
 
Word also circulated that 4,235 Sarawakians have been accepted into the various departments last year.
 
“Ethnic breakdown, please. Just numbers won’t satisfy the readers’ curiosity. State secret? Nothing touching it,” he said.
 
Sidi said that before the next roadshows are to be carried out, the Public Service commission should show more seriousness in the recruitment of Dayaks youth into the civil service beginning with this year’s intake so as not to disappoint the civil service transformation committee.
 
“Hopefully the trouble of ‘headhunting’ for the 10,000 Dayaks to work in the federal department will not be in vain,” he added.