Which part of the constitution states 'race' column mandatory? - Tan Keng Liang

Gerakan Youth Chief Tan Keng Liang said the insertion of the ‘race’ column in all official forms is not stipulated in the Federal Constitution but done at the discretion of the government.

“There is no provision in the Federal Constitution that makes it mandatory for the government to include the ‘race’ column in all official forms,” he said in response to Perkasa’s comment that it is ‘unconstitutional’ to remove the ‘race’ column from official forms.

Perkasa President Ibrahim Ali threatened to take legal action if the government decides to drop the ‘race’ column from official forms.

“We would like to remind Perkasa not to make empty threats if they can’t even state which provision in the Federal Constitution that makes it compulsory to insert ‘race’ column,” Tan added in a statement today.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak reiterated the ‘race’ column will remain in government official forms.

"We (the Cabinet) discussed the matter and the decision was to retain the existing policy and practice,” Najib said today.

The media today reported quoting Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun that the Cabinet had decided to drop the 'race' column in government official forms that had no value added.

Najib said he had been informed that Entulu would issue a statement of apology over the mistake.

"For the sake of statistics, we need it (the race column). Otherwise, we will not have the statistics (by race)," he said.

The prime minister said the statistics by race was necessary to facilitate government monitoring of the progress of every community in the country.