Cabinet agreed to reduce, not drop, 'race' criteria in forms

The Cabinet did not decide to entirely drop the ‘race’ column in all official forms but to phase out unnecessary ones where practical.

During their weekly Wednesday meeting, most Ministers, including Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself, did not object to the idea that there should be less emphasis on race, according to a Cabinet source.

“It was generally agreed that in the spirit of unity, we try to reduce, as much as possible in areas where that information is not necessary,” the source told Astro AWANI.

“As we move along, there should be more instances where you base your decisions on needs, rather than race. That should be the general trend, and that’s what was talked about,” said the source.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun had proposed the discussion, he said, which led to an active dialogue between government leaders.

“For example, the BR1M cash aid is given out based on income level. But there are bound to be people who ask how many people from each race got it, for the purpose of statistics.

“The issue was whether it is necessary or not.

“We need to come to a stage when if someone asks how much money was given to the Malays, or Chinese, or Indians. I hope that, one day, we would say we don’t really know because we decided on basis of income,” he said.

Earlier today, the media quoted Joseph as saying that the Cabinet had decided to drop the 'race' column in government official forms that had no value added.

His remarks drew the ire of Malay rights group Perkasa, which said it was prepared to take Putrajaya to court if the government drops the "race" column in official forms.

However, Najib later clarified that it would remain in government official forms as it was needed for the purpose of statistics to monitor the progress of every community in the country. Joseph also said later issued a statement saying that no decision was actually made on the matter.

In February, Tan Sri Joseph Kurup said that Malaysia should take a major step towards creating a single national identity by removing the "race" category from all official forms in the country.

Kurup, who is the minister in charge of national unity, said the issue was when Malaysians would start seeing themselves as Malaysians, instead of basing their identities on race and religion.