Remove all racial tendencies in business -- Hafidz Baharom

The recent issue with Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaacob asking for a boycott of Chinese traders highlights the need for us to start taking the employment and awarding of contracts by businesses seriously.

We can deny all we want, but there are racial tendencies in hiring employers, choosing contractors and even among consumers. In terms of employment, the UM study by Mohamed Khaled and Lee Hwok Aun showed that there was a tendency to hire Chinese Malaysians rather than Malays not only among Chinese businesses, but also government link agencies (GLCs).

Plus, we have all at one time seen the random emails telling us not to buy Gardenia and opt for Massimo, not to buy sugar because it benefits a certain Malay businessman or even not to go out and dine at certain eateries because it somehow benefits the Prime Minister’s wife.

Some even go so far as to accuse eateries of being non-halal via emails, and saying they were just spreading knowledge for consumers regardless if true or false. We have also heard and read of discrimination against religion in offices as well.

And of course, there are those who say they never benefited from cronyism.

Say what you want, consumers are a speculative bunch. As one columnist in Free Malaysia Today says, we are all actually racists. And I tend to agree. While Umno makes it plainly clear that the Malays should help the Malays, it is not as if the Chinese Malaysians don’t have the same saying for themselves.

To put such rumours to rest, it is time for businesses to put all their cards on the table. Listed companies should have diversity reports which detail out the ethnic and gender breakdown within their staff for each level.

Such reports should also detail the companies that are awarded contracts of all kinds, to show that there is no favouritism in the company for certain contractors.

In addition to this, government contracts require even more scrutiny and transparency. An audit to show why the same contractors are hired and why certain contractors are still stuck in “Class F” for such a long period of years should be mentioned as well.

For this, the Competitions Act needs amendment to disallow any government contract above a certain threshold to be awarded without an open tender process.

And for the Malays who continually preach that the Chinese hold 60 percent of the economy through listed companies, who benefits from it by holding shares in the company? If anything, one look at the shareholders of such companies.

Chances are, you will find a government based sovereign wealth fund behind every one of them. As such, it is clear that we do indirectly benefit.

While we can say that there are no racial tendencies in setting prices, there is still a racial divide in the way we do business, and this is not acceptable for a nation that says it is promoting an end to racial segregation or wishes for national unity.

If we truly wish to be a Malaysia without racial barriers, then much more needs to be done in the business sphere, drilling down all the way to non-discrimination laws involving renting out property or even buying a product at Low Yat. Until all sides actually agree to be transparent in all dealings, the mindset of speculating race being a factor of getting better prices in haggling will not go away at all levels of business, either the lowly trader or government level procurement.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.