Skin Colour As A Job Criterion

I saw red again yesterday. It was an old issue that resurfaced.

Some time in November last year, the Selangor Chief Minister appointed a 35-year veteran to head the Selangor State Development Corporation, the government-linked group that manages the state's funds for development projects.

The person in question is a capable woman who has retired after serving 35 years within the organization and is well-qualified for the job. At 59 years of age, she was plucked from her retirement to come back to the organization. By all accounts, the woman was a respected figure, both within and outside the organization.

Her appointment raised a fracas within certain groups in the public. Why? Her skin colour was deemed not suitable for the job. Some people insisted that the top job must be held by a Malay. You see, the woman is a Chinese.

I should not be surprised. Come on...., this policy has been in existence for decades. The top jobs are always held by Malays, it is not a level playing field.

But a policy that has been in existent for decades does NOT make it right. And once again, when smacked in the face AGAIN, the injustice of it all makes me choke.

Yesterday, the woman said her final farewell to the organization. Over the past 3 months, she has helped to train a new CEO whose skin colour matched the job criterion. She is rising above...

But I am not. The cry for Equality is a very basic human instinct.

NEP, my foot. After 4 decades of affirmative action, this is all that we have to show? That skin colour remains the most relevant job criterion? When is it ever going to end?

Stop fooling ourselves by calling it affirmative action. It is a racialist policy. That's more polite than calling it a racist policy.