November 2, 2012
Reminder: Super Tuesday (November 6, 2012), that is US Presidential Election, is coming up. My Money is on Barack H.Obama as President for a Second Term. He will be good for the Asia-Pacific region.–Din Merican
Race Matters in securing a Job Interview
by Teoh El Sen@http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com
Does race matter in securing an interview?Apparently so, according to a new study which found that a Malay fresh graduate was 16.7% less likely to be called up for a job interview in the private sector compared to their Chinese counterparts.
The study, funded by the University Malaya Research Grant, was jointly conducted by Lee Hwok Aun (left), a senior lecturer from the Department of Development Studies at Universiti Malaya (UM) and Muhammed Abdul Khalid, a Research Fellow at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaya (UKM).
The academic paper was presented at a public seminar in UM this morning.Both researches said they aim to “empirically and objectively” investigate racial discrimination in the private sector labour market in the Peninsular Malaysia, which was talked about but its prevalence not studied.However, they stressed that the focus was on incidences of discrimination and not on the reasons behind it, including racism, prejudice or bigotry.
The “first of its kind” study was based on a field experiment where fictitious resumes of Malay and Chinese applicants were sent to job advertisements in Peninsular Malaysia.
A total of 3,012 resumes were sent to 753 engineering and accounting jobs advertised on Jobstreet.com and JobsDB.com between August and December 2011.
For each job, the researchers sent out four fake resumes according to race and their academic qualifications. All the “applicants” were male with no prior working experience but have a basic qualification in the field being applied for.
The number of responses from employers, which have been divided into “Chinese-controlled, Malay-controlled or foreign-controlled”, are then recorded for each category.
One of the main findings of the study was that the total resumes sent, only 13.1%(396) received callbacks, of those, 4.2%(63) were Malay and 22.1%(222) were Chinese. The study also found that the quality of applicants appeared to matter more for Malays than for the Chinese.
There was also a difference between industries, where engineering companies were responding to 25% of resumes by Chinese applicants and only 3% of resumes by Malay applicants while in accountancy, a lesser 19% Chinese applicants received callbacks compared to 6% of Malay applicants.
It was also found that discrimination against Malay applicants is highest among foreign-controlled companies, followed by Malay-controlled companies, then Chinese-controlled companies.
Malay firms discriminating Malays?
Interestingly, Malay applicants applying to Chinese-controlled engineering firms are more likely to be called back than if they applied to Malay-controlled firms. A Chinese applying to a Malay company also has about the same chances as a Malay candidate.
Employers that stipulate Chinese language proficiency as a job requirement also favour Chinese applicants. Chinese-controlled and foreign-controlled companies are significantly inclined toward Chinese resumes.
“The data do not directly inform the motivation of the observed 
discrimination. Nonetheless, our findings suggest that employers are generally predisposed favourably toward Chinese, substantially due to compatibility factors and unobservable qualities not revealed in job applications, and are more selective toward Malays, which results in fewer but considerably qualified applicants getting callbacks. This study underscores the complexity of labour market discrimination and its policy implications.”
“So are opportunity being denied to quality Malays? Surely to some extent, but we do not how how prevalent it is. Some companies may discriminate at pre-employment stage but it is likely to be lesser after one is employed,” asked Lee.
During the briefing, Lee admitted that further studies should be conducted on the matter as it was a complex issue.
“Chinese and Malays are the frontier and while we did consider also including Indians, we regrettably could not due to budget and other constraints,” he said.
He also said that the team had wanted to study the public sector but were unable to due to the application process in the civil service.
In the presentation, Lee and Muhammed Abdul (right) also suggested that the 
government could look into having a Equal Opportunity Act & Equal Opportunity Commission but warned that a legislation of that nature must cover both private and public sector and should not impose a quota system.
“We are also calling for a critical examination of ourselves… trying to get people to think of the greater good.
While I believe that employers are making informed decisions, suppose basing their choices on experience, and not just assumptions and ignorance, we cannot say for certain if racism is one of the factors, we cannot be quick to condemn.”
Din Merican: the Malaysian DJ Blogger 
I do agree with the writer,as for me running my company,I made it a point to always get the best for the job regardless of race, bottom line ,maaa.Oouch!!!
Private companies tend to look for long-term staff retention wherever possible, after their investment on staff training. However, in many instances, employing fresh Malay graduates, they tend to move on to greener pastures, especially into the public sector not long thereafter.
it would be appropriate to use the word ‘preference’ instead of ‘discrimination’. a company seeks competent and reliable candidates, what is wrong with it? it does not seek to discriminate anyone.
the public sector has an unwritten quota system thats why it is in shambles now. leave the private sector alone, which is the backbone of the country. if you destroy them how are all the politicians and cronies going to get paid?
Much Ado about Nothing!
The study only empirically confirmed what was talked about of the private sector job market. More research is needed to go beyond determination of incidences of discrimination and study possible reasons causing it. In the meantime, agree with the writer “….we cannot be quick to condemn”.
hussin….reasons causing it are pretty obvious isn’t it???!
the private sector wants competent people not seat warmers. that is your answer.
Talkng from experience as a retiree, i dare say theres a vast difference in the working attitudes of malays and the chinese..which should be the main reason for the “unfair” callups for interviews between these 2 races.
Furthermore,malays seem to have more supremacy than the chinese as far as the government is concerned,thus should any problem arises,the threat of seeking government backing may always be in the minds of the malays employees.
Thus employers may have to be selective before takng in more malays than chinese employees.
I attended the seminar this morning, and I’ve got a copy of the slides. Some of the findings are fascinating – like graduates of major public universities are preferred irrespective of race or grades, and UiTM graduates are generally discrimnated against but less so for engineering jobs. More surprising, English proficiency isn’t really a factor, but Chinese proficiency (specifically Mandarin) is a big factor, even bigger than CGPA.
@hussin
The researchers discussed looking at motives as a possible extension of the current research, but they wanted to start off with something doable because despite Malaysia’s muticultural background and race history, this research actually breaks new ground – no studies on race preference in Malaysia have used this particular methodology and further, looking at motives is fraught with problems of bias. We really need to look at employers perspectives, but how to control for bias in any survey results? NO employer will come out and outright say they filter job applicants based on race, and that makes empirical investigation rather difficult. What employers say and what they actually do, may be two different things.
I find it odd that Malay controlled companies have a ‘reverse’ discrimination, or in reeper’s view, ‘preferences’. The foreign owned companies would want ‘bang-for-buck, while the Chinese controlled ones would like to see improved Bumi participation especially in dealing with government contracts. Perhaps, there is something in the Malay psyche that needs to be ‘tweaked’.
It is said that the modern Malays have this sense of envy, dfistrust and beggar-thy-neighbor attitude. It is possible that they have been UMNOfied for too long. Correct me, if i heard wrongly.
The Malays are not being well prepared for the job market. Their education is actually political indoctrination so that they remain docile and subservient to an increasingly mediocre and in-bred Malay leadership in UMNO.
It is sickening to note that an intelligent, gifted and creative Malay community is being humiliated. I feel insulted when foreign friends think that the Malays are academically backward and dependent on a nanny state led by corrupt leaders. Will this change? A big question and no easy answers.–Din Merican
@hishamh
did the study provide any data segmentised into years of experience?
quotas and racial background is never in my mind when i hire a staff. performance, attitude and ability to value-add counts. communication skills primarily in english counts.
results?
i have had hired good, average and poor performers from different races.
given equal amount of coaching and guidance their progression is dependent on their attitude. there is not much difference with the gen-y.
Din Merican has been of great help when we approached him.
Being business owners ourselves, and in Shah Alam we have tried to hire Mostly Malay in the past (It is a massively predominantly Malay area after all), the recurring problems are that they all expect too much money to begin, are generally difficult to motivate, and will move on to a government position if they can.
Now, we pay very good wages to our staff and provide an engaging, happy environment but because we have had to train so many Malays that then move on to government jobs we are now mainly hiring Sarawakians.
Our experience with them has been great and they are all subjected to having to live a long way from their families, yet they stay more readily than most Peninsular Malaysians.
We have hired other races before but they don’t stick around for long either, and have never had a Chinese Malaysian applicant for those positions. I guess they don’t want to work in a Malay dominated area/industry or is it they don’t want to have a Malay boss?
The problem with Malaysians, which include many views expressed above, is that we equate private sector in racial terms, what a load of bull! Now, may I ask if NESTLE not a private company?
I was recruited by NESTLE in 1982 with 2 Malay graduates in my batch of 5. Both left within a year of the intensive traineeship program (of 2 years). I left after serving 10 years and the other 2 are still in the company 30 years later!
The batch after me, all Malays, all left within a year! How do we explain this?
It is difficult to generalize, when it comes to employers perspectives. Being self-employed and an employer, i’d basically prefer a loyal, trainable and motivated employee irregardless of race. That is not to be.
For my professional services, i would employ a Malay (in fact all my staff here are Bumis); while for other businesses and trade i’d rather employ a Chinese or Indian. Why? By experience. But then, i’m a small timer.
The Malays are much kinder and polite souls, if a bit difficult to train initially, prone to emotionalism and gossip. The Chinese need to understand who is the Taikor (i.e pecking order), overcome materialistic hubris (like comparing salaries, perks and bonuses) and to look beyond their immediate self-interest. The Indians need to be taught how to do more and talk less, and not to promise without delivering.
I think in the long term, loyalty can overcome ambition, if the environment is conducive and a meritocratic and emphatic employer-employee culture is practiced.
As for Farid query – yes the average Chinese has a problem with both. Probably as a reaction to the NEP. They would rather be self-employed or work in MNC’s, Chinese/Indian dominated companies, then GLC’s in descending order of preference. And as a last resort the Public Sector. I would venture their priorities are the exact
opposite of the Malays.
I won’t be surprised if subsequent research confirms that discrimination along ethnic lines is widespread in the private sector. It is already entrenched in the public sector.
If so, institutionalised racism and discrimination has resulted in the poisoning of Malaysian society and brought about an increase in inter-personal racism and discrimination.
yes, Greenbug why equate private sector in racial terms? b’cos we are already a racially divided nation. just like the ruling party which is divided according to race.
Indonesia adopted a couple of changes in the 70s, one of which was to force all indonesians to adopt an indonesianised name to become 1indonesians. they have already left us behind; just watch their advertisements and reports in BBC CNN etc. we malaysians should be ashamed of ourselves.
throw this racist government out as soon as possible. the government is reaching the level of decadence like that of the romans who set fire to Rome and thereby Najib..oops sorry, Nero played the fiddle.
the present government ministers are mirroring the decadent romans of that time.
just imagine a minister saying repeatedly to journalists that he doesn’t sleep with his son, he doesn’t screw his son and doesn’t live with his son!! is he implying that it is normal for fathers to sleep with their sons in Malaysia????
it is already the end of the rope for UMNOs dominion of Malaysia
lets sing the Auld Lang Syne for them
instead of conducting a study on chances of employment in the private sector these buggers are poisoning the minds further with racially oriented criticism.
@robertcslim,
The issue was sidestepped – all the resumes sent were from fresh graduates. Bear in mind we’re looking at here is just the very first step in the hiring process, even before interviews.