An official study is underway to determine the reasons for the low number of applications by non-Malays to join the civil service.

Public Services Commission (PSC) secretary Lamien Sawiyo said that the scientific study was important as the issue was currently only assessed based on perception.

"We want to know what causes non-Malays to be disinterested to be in government. Is it because of salary, culture or do they rather do business?," he said.

Lamien said that the PSC has commissioned the Economic Planning Unit to conduct a "psychological perception study" on the matter.

Applications increasing

Meanwhile, Lamien said that non-Malay applications to join the civil service had shown signs of an increase.

He said that Chinese applicants had rose from 12,875 last year to 15,415 from January this year to September.

During the same period this year, the number of applicants from Indians stand at 24,491, as compared to 18,533 last year.

Lamien also noted an increase in the applications from Sabahans from 49,079 last year to 57,177 so far this year.

As a whole, Lamien said that the PSC has received a total of 917,111 applications this year compared to 760,840 for the whole of last year.