Screenshots

From now on i will never buy any motorola products again.

Not too big a surprise coming from MMU there, though I have heard of worse scenarios in other (local) universities...

But then again, since when does religion/race became a "Requirement"?

This is so *off*.

er... we're malaysian right? so why RACE issue become a requirement in scholarship programme?

Not surprised at all that it's happening in M'sia. But what's surprising is that Motorola, an MNC, supposedly with HQ in the US-the home of human rights allowed this to happen. It's baffling, honestly. Perhaps we should look to Motorola and ask why they have allowed their scholarship to be presented this way? I'm sure they're after engineers who can do the job, not engineers who are malays or indians, etc. But then again, if they're offering the scholarship to those who only need to get a 3.0CGPA, perhaps grades are not what they're after?

So, voltronking, you probably aren't missing out much if you don't buy motorola products in the future. How can reliability and security be ensured if they're hiring engineers based on race and not merit?

Discrimination in any form is bad, and should not be tolerated. I'm quite surprised that a company like Motorola would do such a thing. That said, we Malaysians are not unused to this are we? I mean, apart from the gazillion bumiputera sahaja requirements in this country, all one needs to do is open the classified section of a newspaper to see many jobs advertised as Chinese preferred. Some choose to hide behind a rather safe requirement of 'must be able to speak Chinese'. So, really, why the hoo hah?

chinese is consider foreigner? or chinese is consider 3rd grade citizen not worth to mention? or chinese is not good enough?

perhaps next time when I meet someone from oversea, should I introduce that "i'm chinese" instead of "i'm malaysian"?

Read this. Stunts like what MMu-Motorola is trying to pull here is totally against efforts to foster national unity.

On a hind note, maybe job adverts that carry lines like 'must be able to speak Chinese' probably are those that deal with businesses with countries like China.

But this is really out of the line.

I spent about 11 years overseas and only had one experiene of being discriminated. I complained to the manager of the restaurant and he got the waiter to apologise, to my face. Now I'm back in the country of my birth and this!!

Yes I know this happens in Malaysia everyday just by looking around but we shouldn't put up with it. Pro malay, pro chinese or whatever. We don't (can't or won't) talk about it, address it and move on to creating this vision (or is it ... oh what's that word where you're really thirsty in desert and you see an oasis but it is not really there...well you know what I'm saying lah...) of a bangsa malaysia.

Wha lau... time to complete those migration papers that have been in the in tray.

First of all I am not shocked that this still happens....secondly, this is the VERY FEW instances where I actually see something to the advantage of the Indian community.....anyway, thats not the reason for me to write this...but whats so new about this jeff?

Haven't you seen the millions of flyers stuck around USJ signboards, overhead bridges, job postings inside shops in Summit Mall that advertise jobs available, X race prefered? or rooms for rent, ONLY X need apply?? Or jobs in newspapers with preference for X race??

So why is this new and shocking? I have grown up reading all this advertisments...and 99% of the time, I am automatically disqualified for jobs or room rentals etc..

Flood them with emails at:
mkt@mmu.edu.my

Mine is already out!

So, Jeff?
What's the problem here? I can pick out at least 10 ads in the Star every day that points out they want someone who can write and converse in chinese... discrimination? Forget about bangsa Malaysia if we the rakyat still wants to be known as melayu, cina, india or lain-lain. Worse, when we feel envious our "brethren" of other races get better priveleges... Forget it as long as we still bring up issues like this.

this is normal in mmu buletin board, alot of buletin post like that in the past also...

It might be worth clarifying with Motorola first whether or not they are aware of the racial requirements set out in the scholarship advertisements.

For all we know, it may have been MMU who implemented the racial requirement on their own, without Motorola's prior knowledge (in which case, I certainly hope Motorola boycotts MMU).

If the requirement was indeed set out by Motorola, it'd be very surprising.

pro_moorthy

Obviously you can't even differentiate a skill and race.
Does mandarin speaking or writing skills necessary mean must be Chinese? Then what about job ads specified the candidate must be well verse in Bahasa Malaysia or English or even Tamil? Don;t tell me you never see such job ads before.

Nevermindlah, if they want to provide finance assistance to Indian, Indian-lah, Malay, Malay-lah.

This is what I think-lah but may not be true okay. Maybe the chinese who study in MMU are all rich fellows lah. So, motorola thinks no need to give them any assistance lah.

To add salt to the wound.
Does it mean race discrimination if job placements are advertised in the language of the respective language papers?

Question is why is the Education and Labour Ministries (or maybe other ministries/ngo) not say something on this?

pro_moorthy

Have u watched Astro channel 34 and 37? Gwai-los who are fluent in Mandarin are commonplace!

Don't tell me that only Chinese have the capability of conversing and writing in Mandarin.

In the US this would have been Discrimination…
In Malaysia, anything goes. Do note that a lot of ‘MNC’ are very much ‘Localised’, haven’t you heard of the Phrase “When in Rome, do what the Romans Do”
On the other hand, perhaps they were not given a choice to select which Scholarship they can support and it was a general decision they made to ‘support’ MMU in some way or another.

pro_moorthy,

actually many indians and malays can write and converse in mandarin and contonese... those are not discrimination. but when you specificallly specify a particular race, that's discrimination!

Compare the difference,

"I want chinese only"
"I want a malaysian who can speak chinese."

streetz

But as Jeff pointed out, the advertisement also excludes the Dayaks/Ibans and Kadazandusuns.

Besides, who's to say that Indians and Malays are not rich?

Likewise, not all Chinese are well-off. It's based purely on assumption.

well, duh! what did you expect...the moment I start walking into malls and the walls are plastered with "Chinese male/female wanted" I kinda got a clue...

we live in a racist country. everyone is selfish. the chinese hire chinese, the malays hire malays and the indians hire indians...and the only reason some companies tolerate other races is because there's government policy...

harsh, sad, and true....

malaysians are a lucky lot as we get to learn each other's languages from our neighbours. i envy our indian friends because it is them who are willing to learn chinese dialects from their chinese brethren. race-religion and language issues do not mix together especially in this country.

i'm sure MMU has a very very good explanation for this. Hopefully its just referring to languages and not the race issue. if what they have put up is really true to the point, then all i can say is bye-bye bangsa malaysia and welcome nazi-style rethorics in our country.

I thought that only pointy-head politicians are irresponsible for this ugliness. Don't let it infect us as ordinary citizens of Malaysia.

My 2 sens worth...

kacang_inc

I am VP of an American In ternational Business consulting firm, with a representative office here in Malaysia, We have been using Motorola telephones for our company world wide for the last 7 years. We purcahse on average around 650 phones a year. I just had a teleconference with or marketing department and President of our company. In so which, we have contact the VP of Motorola in Penang and have made a recorded complaint against Motorola and told them we are extremely disappointed with Motorola associating themself with a program that would discriminate so openly. Thus we are seriously considering no longer using any motorola product for our company, posting a company wide memo highlighting why with a copy of the website information and also poiting this out to out to various newspapers as well in the US. We have also contacted the HJQ office in SCHAUMBURG Illinois, USA. We are waiting for their official responce to us on this matter. We find this to be unbecoming of an international company that offers scholarships worldwide.

ks,

good point mmmm.... either motorola or mmu got some explaination to do....

I have to concur with Aput83 that Malaysia is indeed a racist country. Things have not gotten better since independence. All this govt. propanganda we hear from the govt. claiming that Malaysians are more united than during colonial rule is crap.

As a matter of fact, we Malaysians are much more divided than before. During the colonial days and Tunku era which is the 60's , Malaysians were actually more united then. The best of schools were the missionary schools whereby you see a fair mix of races. The same applies to govt. departments when non-Malays do make a sizeable portion of the total staff force. In 1960's, Chinese made up almost 70% of the pilots in RAF and the Admiral of the Navy was an Indian.

Today, the civil service is predominantly Malays. Chinese do not go to National schools and simply not attracted to join the civil service, police and the military. Things have definitely not improved for the group of Indians who still live in the estates which status quo has not changed since.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the variey of food and cultures we have here. I do somewhat agree with Kacang postings that we Malaysians are exposed to a lot of other languages.

I guess the best things we Malaysian can be proud of is the ability to swear and curse the four letter words in more than four languages; malay, english, indian, hokkien, cantonese hakka etc.

My office jsut recieved a telephone call from a Ms Khoo, Admin to the VP of Malaysian Motorola. In which she stated that they are aware of the posting and it is wrong and it should have been opened to "all" students in Malaysia and they have instructed MMU to remove the posting and correct it with the next day or two. We will wait and see if this is the case or not. She stated that it was wrongly published and Motorola does not make it a practice to offer programs based on race and they would never support such a move.

even now if they change and open to ALL, u think the REST of the ALL will get a scholarship? It will still go to the THEIR ppl and now that they are smarter, they will use this OPEN to ALL gimmick next time when in actual fact it is only meant for ONE RACE.

"My office jsut recieved a telephone call from a Ms Khoo, Admin to the VP of Malaysian Motorola. In which she stated that they are aware of the posting and it is wrong and it should have been opened to "all" students in Malaysia and they have instructed MMU to remove the posting and correct it with the next day or two. We will wait and see if this is the case or not. She stated that it was wrongly published and Motorola does not make it a practice to offer programs based on race and they would never support such a move."

great...so now from being honest about being racist, you get them to lie and be racist too....

i think the honest version was enough, don't you...?

Jeff,

You and many of the other bloggers may be viewing this Motorola/MMU advert as being racist because of the explicit mention of "Indian" in one of them. I doubt you would have winked an eye-lid if the second advert applicable to only Malays had appeared. You have seen thousands of similar ones and this would have been "normal" to you.

Kene

Good Job! rmo!

maybe the reason for this ad is that they have given the scholarship to chinese students already..now trying to fill the quota for indians and malays? possible rite...far fetched but possible...

most of us are actually in the same boat as jigsawpuzzle...no way that this situation is gonna change anytime soon....gov talk all...tak boleh pakai la...no matter how much they talk abt all gonna be done according to merit...the ppl who do the selection still look out for race...sad....:(

Jeff,

My apologies - there was a typo error in my earlier posting. The correct one is shown below:

You and many of the other bloggers may be viewing this Motorola/MMU advert as being racist because of the explicit mention of "Indian" in one of them. I doubt you would have winked an eye-lid if ONLY the second advert applicable to Malays had appeared. You have seen thousands of similar ones and this would have been "normal" to you.

Kene

Hold your horses folks ...i worked for this company for almost 5 yrs ...if there is any company that is NOT racist ...Motorola is such a company! If you are looking at racist company, look at the one situated opposite of Motorola penang! Motorola was always afari employer to my knowledge, manager even have goals to make sure the work environment is balanced gender wise to make sure both male's & female have equal opportunity to work @ Mot!

The is most probably an error of MMU and NOT motorola, if Motorola actually did this, someone high up there in Penang or Mot KL would have lost their JOB! When it comes to Ethics ..i have seen any company as strict as Motorola!

So for all of you who have been posting hate posts, i understand yoru anger, i am as mad as you, but having experianced the Motorola way of life, i know for sure this isnt their way of working! Not here in Malaysia, nor in Motorla global!

So, please do not jump into conclusion and blame Motorola for this untill one gets a clarification on this matter!

rmo,

can you sahre with me, who's the VP you contacted in Penang, if you missed thr right person, i can probably point you to the correct person, though i dont work for them anymore!

Thanks

As a MMU graduate myself, I am pretty sure that the race requirement was added by the MMU staff, and not from motorola.

The race requirements have been removed, but this line has been added instead.

- Bumiputeras meeting the above requirements are strongly
encouraged to apply.

Perhaps we should wait and see who in the end get the scholarships.

aput83

"they are aware of the posting and it is wrong and it should have been opened to "all" students in Malaysia... it was wrongly published."

Motorola is thus not to blame in this incident. Somewhere along the line, SOMEONE from MMU probably decided to alter the advertisement without first consulting with Motorola, the company PROVIDING the scholarship in the first place.

What right did they have to do such a thing?

In my opinion, the responsible party should be held accountable as this is quite a serious matter. Motorola has been unfairly cast in a negative light because of this incident.

it seems like the page has been removed!

rmo, firstly allow me to give you a cyber pat on the back to you and your company's rapid response to this issue. We need more people like you in this world to make that little difference, albeit a tiny step towards some form of equality. So, kudos!

Although the page has disappeared, the damage has already been done. It is now immortalised on Jeff's blog (unless he chooses to remove it) and Motorola is seen to be racists in its policies. To me, I don't really believe that this is a mere oversight by Motorola or the doings of some overzealous MMU administrator. Where there is smoke, there is fire and Motorola's preferences could have been communicated verbally to those concerned in MMU, although they do not expect it to be so blatantly advertised on their bulletin board.

Even if Motorola says in the ad that it is open to all, what is most important are they truly practising what they preach? Or are they merely paying lip service to the word 'equality'?

Write to MOtorola and ask their corporate communication to respond!

If Motorola did or did not know, that is left to be seen, however, given the rapid responce, it is probable that they did not realize that the webpage had said that. I am sure we were not the only company or person to call and make a complaint, however that fact that we did call them and within an hour the page was removed and or changed tells me that perhaps they were not aware of it at the time and had taken the issue up with the univeristy. As for the line: "Bumiputeras meeting the above requirements are strongly
encouraged to apply." This is a normal line in a lot of job adds in the USA, African Americans, Women, Minorities strongly encouraged to apply. However in the US even though that is there, they do usually base their acceptance based on ability. However here I am afraid that will not be the case, that of course even those whom fall into the above group may have much lower abilities they will be given better treatment as in the past. The quotas in the states are usually set very low and also if you have two people with equal quliafications then the minority will usually recieve the chance.

As to the comment that if we had not contacted them they then at least it would have been out in the opena nd honest, well again, my fault was with Motorola and American company that we do business with, the website was not on their website and thus I am giving them the benefit of the doubt that they did not intend for that to be there, nor did they intend it to be a racial issue. I believe that was the school who had done that. After all this would be extremely bad for their brand marketing and they are not the leaders in handphones anymore and I would think they would not want to offend a sizable market population. But then again I could be wrong on that.

The person I spoke to was the Admin to the VP: her name is Ms. Kho or Khoo, we will be recieving a letter from them at my office in the next few days

But what logical motive would Motorola have to discriminate in this instance?

Employers don't often discriminate for the sake of discriminating. They are usually forced to do so because it is the customers who discriminate (eg. if you are doing business with a company from China, a Chinese-speaking employee would have an upperhand in sealing a deal).

In this case, we are talking about future mechanical/software engineers - people who more often than not work from behind the scenes. So why would Motorola discriminate in terms of race?

Hiya all you politically correct people, when the advert only mentions Malay only or bumi only need apply you keep quiet. Just because got mention Indian you make so much noise. LAst year also the same thing happened. whats your problem anyway? You think you got the balls to identfy yourself and make all the same noise when you see all those other advertisements int he papers and so on? Sure no la. You just accept it.

On the other hand, as many of you have pointed out, discrimination for positions (be it for academic places, scholarships, jobs, etc.) is relatively commonplace in the Malaysian society.

That's probably why I'm still convinced that Motorola had nothing to do with the racial discrimination in the advertisement.

this thing has happenned last year,when students responded why only certain races can apply,they respond that they have some quota system that means they want to fill up the quota for this race.this feedback come from motorola itself.

anyway,why are you so angry? chinese companies also practice double standard who want chinese people only. i can see also malay companies want malay people only..indian companies want indian people only..so I'm not surprised by this

I for one am upset becuase it is an American company that was listed, a company that premotes non-discriminiation. I to have seen ads in the paper for either only Chinese, etc, and I do think it is disgusting, in fact I believe that not only should race not be an issue but when applying for a job or university, you should not be asked what your religion is, you should never be asked to submit a photo of yourself and if you are married or not. I do not see how any of the above should have anything to do with a person's ability to perform his/her job or fulfill their education.

But as I said I work for an American company and we practice the same principles worldwide as we do in the US.

rmo,

Also as a former Motorola employee, I would say Motorola do business adhere to strict Ethics.

But due to the pressure from the government, the local branch needs to follow some unwritten rule - quota. Managers are "advised" to have a team which can reveal the racial composition of Malaysia beside practising a true meritocracy. This is especially true in a department which the boss is a bumi + umno putra.

Joejak, xweird, streetz...

I wrote: "What's the problem here? I can pick out at least 10 ads in the Star every day that points out they want someone who can write and converse in chinese... discrimination?"

What did I say wrong? Do you know how to read? I meant: Of course people advertise the skills they that they are looking for. Is that discrimination? I asked Jeff a question. And if you had read correctly, you wouldn't have jumped to conclusion that i meant it in a racist way. Pick up some reading skill, will you?

Aput83, I agree with you. this is not IDEALAND. This is Malaysia. As long as we regard each other as Chinese, Malay, Indian, Kadazan, Iban and whatever, we will remain divided.

I personally feel that the Chinese asking for the continuous existence of chinese schools also contribute to this non-Malaysian-spirit. If the Chinese indeed want to be known as an equal Malaysian (ie, no Malays, Chinese, Indian and whatever crap), are they willing to forgo that kind of privilege, and settle for Bahasa Cina being taught as a subject, rather than using the chinese language (Mandarin, I believe) as the medium of teaching? I know the chinese will criticise me for saying that, and I say so without fear or favour. That is merely my opinion, and one which the chinese community must look into, before they claim for equality. Are the Chinese, Malays, Indians and what have you, willing to be known collectively as MALAYSIAN, rather than by ethnicity? Answer that, and you will see how far we are from the existence of a Bangsa MALAYSIA. Don't get me wrong: I am all for the Bangsa MALAYSIA, and I am willing to discard my ethnic identity to be truely identifiable as a MALAYSIAN. Anyone feels like joining me?

My present company/department also followed Malaysian racial composition. This is because my company aim is to build a good relationship with the government, hoping to get a government project in return.

Chaps, I apologise, but I do have to agree with Keene on this one. Secondly, 'ability to speak ...' is merely a racial preference disguised. Last, we are pointy-headed Nazis - we are an anti-semitic nation, and we have UMNO Youth's 'Belia 4B' (FYI: the team tasked with making the annihilation of Europe's Jews, Gypsies, Socialists, gays, et al, was called 'Department IV B'.

Colour me silly, but what's the big fuss about the racist tendencies espoused and practised by us 'Malaysians'?

even if we call oursleves msian and willing to cast away our identity, we will still be stereotype as chinese, malay, indian by our skin color.

If an Indian company/boss wants to hire only Indians, that's his own matters. If a Chinese company/boss wants to hire only Chinese, that's his own matters too. Same goes to Malays.

But we are talking about a Malaysian University now, which is supposed to provide equal opportunity to all malaysians students.

Groo,

The change will not happen overnight. It will take time to firm up. If we all agree to discard our identity in favour of a Malaysian identity, it may take up to 20 - 30 years to see the effect...

BTW, I was graduated from MMU too. I'm grateful to be a graduate there, as comparatively, it is the only local university (during my time) to practise the least discrimination policy (after talking to my friends from local uni)

For example, a local uni located in the north, forces all its undergraduate to wear long sleeves to the class. There are many more examples... but I think it is off topic to continue.

Bravo rmo, Bravo Jeff.

Samarium, again, you came too quick to the conclusion. I guess it's better to wait for updates rather than pointing your rifle to motorola...

Anyway, nice cyber pat you have there...

Steve has a point. MMU is a private university set up and paid for by TM, a privatised MalaySIAN entity. TM, of course, is now owned by its shareholders, Singapore being one of the bigger ones. Ergo, TM is no longer a Malaysian company. So why does it still insist on racist practises?

i dont think there is anything wrong to build a compant with good racial composition! Since someone highlighted Motorola as an example, i will fill in some news regarding to them.

As a company, Motorola does not care abotu race & religion when hiring, though like in any company, personal preference sometimes superceeds reality. Some years back, the management decided that they must find a way to balance the racial composition, not for political reason, but to make sure no one is left out because of racial preference of the hirer! The Sr. mgmt. often does not get to vet the resume's, nor is HR in a position to decide, so it's solely left to the hiring manager, which is where race based preference comes from!

Motorola & other companies that preech balanced workforce does NOT loose out on talent at all, they fact is u have very capable malays, indians & chinese but not everyone is lucky!

You can still hire & have a racially balanced workforce without sacrificing quality. You just need to look carefully, and have more qualified hirer's to make sure u get a good team. in 2002, there was a need to hire a complete group to form a project startup ..approx 1600 CV's received, 70 shortlisted purely by qualification ..and 12 hired! The 12 were from a balanced racial & gender composition (which we made sure was a requirement) and till i left the company, i've never worked with such a competent group of ppl!

I dont think this was racial biasness, since everyone has the qualification & met the qality of hiring! I rather work in company that has a balance racial composition then a company like Altera (no offence intended)

I am glad that our kids are brought up in NZ where for education and scholarship you do not require "kulitfication"! Every year you can read about the TOP STUDENTS consists of different race... guess what, majority are ASIANS! Call yourself "multi cultural, multi racial"? Think again....

pro_moorthy, I guess we all can't stop the RM150 ad on our dailies newspaper and of course we hope and strive for all the segregation to end.

When ad looks for specialize skills such as language skill, it's different as they are looking for suitable people to the role. But this is university, they looking for suitable race too?

We really have big problem here. So we need ppl like rmo to stand up, speak up.

Don't just speak, as speak is cheap here.

(I'm calling my 'over-looked' vendor now and seek for explanation... brb)

goks,

Altera is practising merit. There don't hire people base on race, but on their ability. This can judge on the compensation and benefit they offer (almost 40% more than other MNCs in Penang, for fresh graduate). And also their turnover is relatively low in the industry. Please think again, why would they offer such a high R&B package? FYI, I'm never work for Altera before.

We should respect this type of management which put investor $$$ into right pot for greater return.

jeffdaman, I don't know who is quick to jump to conclusions. I'm not imposing my views on anyone nor do I expect anyone to accept them. The opinions which I espouse are personal and what I perceive the situation to be.I could be dead wrong or I could be right. It doesn't matter. So I suggest that you get off that high horse and stop singling me out. Stop being so immature and infantile.

remember,this scholarship offered by motorola not mmu

yxgs,

Just to share with you what i have seen before. In 2001, an MMu Eng. best student graduate, gold medalist with over 3.9CGPA, highly rated student, who was grabbed by Motorola ... went for the Altera Interview. He found the entrace exam quiet easy, a breeze, compared to his friend who went for the same interview. He was never offered a job, and all from that batch came froma single race! Ofcourse, this is debateable!

This guy was brilliant in chip design, and didnt last more then 2 months in Motorola. Intel pinched him and offered him such a package, no one could resist! It's sad he wasnt brilliant enough for Altera!

I have a firend from my Uni who works for Altera, who is their in house Perl expert. He personally agrees that "at times" there are preference ..and he told me...even if you get in..u'll never work comfortably in that environment!

All these are debatable since nothing is open ....Altera is a respectable company worlwide ...but the penang operations is left allot to be desired for! The fact is, Yes they hire the best and the best comes from all colours of life, unfortunately not all colours of life are given equal opportunity to be hired there!!!! This is a well known fact!!

Quote by yxgs "BTW, I was graduated from MMU too. I'm grateful to be a graduate there, as comparatively, it is the only local university (during my time) to practise the least discrimination policy (after talking to my friends from local uni)"

If that's the standard of english from MMU i think MMU has done a really bad job don't u think?

aiya seeker, typo lah ...many ppl type fast ..and dont bother checking their grammer ...so dontlah judge him by the grammer :) i'm guilty of many such mistakes!

pro_moorthy

You are absolutely right. Your statement is totally irrelevant with the issue that Jeff brought up. See the point?

Quote seeker :

"If that's the standard of english from MMU i think MMU has done a really bad job don't u think?"

God! You should see them during the presentations! You can laugh till your stomach and all its content pops out no thanks to their broken English! Though, I swear to god, they take no initiative to improve on it even though they are in the final year. Btw, I'm in final year!

Not only that, we even have some "Ah Bengs" and "Ah Lians" in our uni.. Gold colored hair, some even red/pink/blue and even gays (not sure about lesbians.. they all look alike)! *hahahahahahahahha*

seeker,

I'm not sure of your intention, but the standard of my English have got nothing to do with MMU.

I was there to study field of my interest with one additional subject - Communication English. The aim is to have us ready to communicate in a level where most people understand us. I'm not writing an essay to be submited to English teacher!

MMU is at least one step ahead by implementing English as the sole teaching medium. It is during that time I manage to gain some improvement.

Let's don't deviate from the topic by picking on my grammer.

Silly ppl. MMU is just helping Motorola to post the announcement, blame it on Motorola and stop criticizing our lovely university. Since u have so many things to complaint about our university, why dont u go somewhere tat suits u?

Lorrr, what's the big issue here? It could prob be some unintentional mistake or miscommunication somewhere in there. All of you are very eager to shoot at both parties before seeking clarification. Let's not be emotional and just wait for their explanation. Plus... you wanna have Bangsa Malaysia? Sure, why not we give everyone a Malaysian name, no race based school, have one common language only, etc.

Just my opinion. :P

goks,

Yeah, it seems that the criteria of hiring or scholarship awarding is subject to personal preference, and this is open to discrimination! This can happen on any company.

I just hope that at least a company, as a whole, can have similiar practice as Altera. This will make sure the bounty reward goes to the right person who rightfully deserve it!

Motorola is a great company as I've worked in the company before. Discrimation if there's any will make almost all the local companies here practise apartheid.

The advertisement can be an overzealous person trying to make as fair distribution as he can think of but he should know there're many lain-lain types. Maybe 'all races besides Chinese' will simplify his aim.

There will never be a pure bangsa Malaysia as Malays want their Nusantara, Chinese celebrates when taikonaut came back and Indians identify with their growing economic power of their motherland.

At best is we let each draw strength from their own culture (imagine all these cultures span thousand of years) and no policy will able to 'blend' them successfully.

The advertisement should be recalled and if MMU wants to help certain races, then do it tactfully and with much discretion. This is the practise in all the companies I've worked in before and currently EXCEPT .... Motorola

Yeah, I agree with malcontent. It's not a big issue, if we truly want to be "Bangsa Malaysia," we first need to change all the basic things, i.e. names, schools, etc. We can't have a guy with a Malay name, the other with Indian name and another with Chinese name can we? (Remember our school textbooks? Ahmad, Muthu & Chong).

We can't have so many languages either!! It's just sooo not "Bangsa Malaysia." If we like to have so many languages, it should only be a personal preference. All the signboards, billboards and everything else should be set to a single language only.

Then, there should also be no schools that has the (J) sign there. Everyone must only learn a single language in school! (English! Hands up if you support!)

If you need to learn Malay, Mandarin, Tamil or any other language, do it at your own personal time.

How's that for a start? Other than that, leave my university from anymore racial issues. We already have enough. :)

yxgs,

R u kidding me? Did you read my second post? I dont share nor like Altera practise! I beleive, when you have a situation where u have 2 smart candidates, both deserving the job, there is nothing wrong in choosing to have racial balance! This is not the practise in Altera, where at times u r caught in meetings being run in a language u dont understand!

y everyone seems to be so eager to blame vernacular schools as a culprit of national "DISUNITY"?

isn't the government policies implemented since independence suppose to held resposible?

o i get it, those who are pointing fingers are UMNO members!

because it's too easy for chinese to get 3.0, motorola cannot get enough money to support bundle of chinese professional.

I wonder, what is the racial composition in MMU?

I wonder, what is the racial composition at MMU?

just to make correction, it's easier for chinese to get over 3.0

anyone who studies the bear minimum can and should get over 3.0 ...if you cant get a minimum 3.0, i think u're either fooling around or damn lazy and need 2 kicks to buck up! Nothing to do with race :D hehe

Hmmm... obviously a hot topic.

I think many are missing the woods for the trees.

The issue here is not about the defacto, or how everybody is a racist and discriminates. It is about whether on principle, discrimination should be allowed.

First of all, discrimination based on gender, race, creed, etc is WRONG. Anyone disagree with that? No? Good, we can move on.

In that case, a nation, especially where there are many ethnicity like Malaysia need to enact laws to PROTECT its people from discrimination of any kind. Many countries have such law. I believe there is something like that in the Malaysian Constitution, but never enforced.

Along the way, affirmative action got in the way. Affirmative action is defined as special considerations accorded to disadvantaged MINORITIES, by the MAJORITY. Malaysia is the ONLY country in the world where "affirmative action Malaysia style" is accorded by the MAJORITY to themselves!!!!

Discrimination is WRONG. Just because someone else practise discrimination does not give you the moral right to do the same.

Hence arguements like, "what's the big deal, Chinaman companies will only employ Chinese, so there" is flawed. The state and the law should make sure that do not happen. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Finally, language skills requirements, like Mandarin skills, like ANY other skills, is a SKILL, and NOT discrimination. Does that mean a MNC requiring a good command of English, is a racist employers, only looking for Englishman????

People must move away from thinking in myopic scope, where languages are concerned in the globalised world. The more languages you know, the better off you are. Wanna get a job in a Chinaman company dealiing with China? Learn Mandarin. You don't have to be Chinese, you will be surprised how many non-ethnic Chinese can communicate in Mandarin worldwide.

Foolish is one who refused to learn language skills, and then cry they cannot find jobs.

Could agree more with you limeuu..

Don't you guys know that there are alot of Chinese that do not know how to write and read Mandirin.

So you would expect me to believe that if an advert says "preferably those who can speak Mandarin", they would equally consider other races besides Malaysian-Chinese? Can anyone confirm if there has been cases like this? I just wish it would be true...

Yes, I can testify there are non-Chinese who are conversant in Mandarin, and working in Chinese companies. Interestingly, often in Sarawak, where there is a sizeable non-Chinese population who went to Chinese Schools.

Think about it, are there not many non-English people who are conversant in English working in English/American companies all over the world?

Why can't it work for Mandarin too?

Just as you are handicapped if you do not have English language skills now (we are all aware of a sizable portion of Malaysia's population in this pedicament), it is possible in the next 50 years, the same handicap will apply you if you do not have Mandarin skills.

The choice is yours. Just as the choice of learning English now is yours.

Luckily they have already mentioned it publicly - that they're such racists. I wouldn't want to end up working in a place where your colleagues can't accept you because you're a Chinese.

"Bangsa Malaysia" will never realize. Total BS.

Hi everyone,

MMU is currently in the 3rd semester of the academic year. Not the 1st or 2nd semester. So this means ... :P no one can apply.

Hahahaha.

:)

I wonder what was going through the heads of those Motorola execs when they implemented this. What were they possibly high on? Beats me. But I do know I won't want to use their products, or even work for them. What a disastrous work culture! So much for their public relations - going down the drain!

Well viking, no thanks to religious zealots and fanatic bigots running national schools, the number of Chinese not reading nor writing mandarin have dramatically reduced over the past 35 years.

pro_moorthy,
Asking the chinese schools to give up their existence? It will probably never happen. The people running those schools mistrust the govt so much that they won't ever do that. Would you let someone you view as incompetent try to have total control of what your children learn? Besides, in some towns, these schools are probably the only place to get quality education. Just my opinion. I went to a Malay school but will most likely send my kids to a Chinese medium school. In this globalised world, you do not want to be linguistically handicapped.

OK, back to the topic at hand. I don't believe Motorola intended that ad to be so blatantly racist. Probably some lower level moron trying to be smart. This is the first time too that I am hearing that Altera is racist. However, don't just accuse-lah goks. Show some proof ... like the MMU-Motorola ad. As for the many ads in the Star stating Chinese only or xxx preferred, does it really matter? I know I don't qualify for those jobs even though I am Chinese because those statements usually mean that I need to be proficient in Chinese. It is just a matter of wording. These Chinaman don't mince their words. Straight to the point. Can't blame them. At least they are not hypocrites and not wasting applicants time. Want to phone up or mail resume also cost time and money. Better to know up front, eh?

And now that I've looked at the non-existent announcement a 2nd time, it is a horrible announcement with lots of grammatical errors and no additional info for those who are interested.

Being an MMU student, all I can say is ... at least MMU made it to Jeffooi.com again! W00T! More publicity for us!

While we're at this, you guys should also know that MMU prohibits the registration of Christian clubs ie :
`Christian Fellowship clubs` that you will normally see in other private colleges.

Cheers people!

What the HELL? Why Malay and Indian student only?

hmm.... dont want to sound like a racist here but what the hell, can a malay even get a 3.0 cgpa?? hahaha. Anyway no use squabbling over this matter over the forum and internet. Things are gonna be like this as long as "bumi's " run the "cunt"ry...

*shrugs* Motorola is American, so? Affirmative action to the majority is a well patented Malaysian invention, and "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" especially since it probably means that you will be detained under the ISA for not helping bumiputra's.

The second advertisment is more deserving, since it is an unadmitted truth (these are the strongest truths) that there are Indians who are very poor but don't qualify for aid due to RACIAL BIAS.

Next up is the claim that "ability to converse in Chinese" is a hidden racial bias. Well, my Muslim (semi-Malay) friend landed a part-time job working for a company that put up such an advertisment. And she speaks Chinese, yes.

Pro_moorthy, the government, well, they are throwing up a yellow smokescreen to hide the brown wall.

Jeff; Poor you. I am sure you must be flabbergasted reading this piece of information? Oh my god, how on earth can we ever provide scholarships to Indians? I mean, in every 2nd Job ad, which says "Chinese Speaking", in every Private Firm which are mostly run by the chinese, and 70% of Government Jobs for the Malays, it truly must be out of this world to provide financial assitance to Indian Students. Shocking. Please la Jeff. For a community which has been at the short end of the stick for every god damn socio-economic sector in this country, dont even attempt to go there. I am sure if there was no indian written there , there would not have been any noise. Id like you to reply Jeff, if possible

When chinese politician cross the "race" line to help the people, you have UMNO youth marching all the to your office to make a "complaint" (Don't it just sound like gangster, yet the police keep quiet too?).

When the real racist like this happen, the whole UMNO just keep quiet.

That remind me why after so many years and the chinese teacher shortage still remain. Why year after year we have chinese/India 6A+ student who can not get into local Uni.

govt should pass a law that put people in jail for discriminating at employment or ads

fabian, that would put the entire bolehland government in jail. Not going to happen.

fabian

They can't, otherwise they'd be breaking the law themselves.

Kinda ironic huh?

Such anti-discrimination laws are, however, practised in the US, Australia and the UK.

I find this ad disturbing but whats even more disturbing are those who criticize this advert because of discrimination but at the same time defend the "those who can speak Mandarin only" adverts.

The latter is disguised discrimination which is even more dangerous as they have a 'defence' in case there is an outcry. Sure there are other races who can speak Mandarin but that is an exception to the rule and in all probability it will be a Chinese who is most fluent in Mandarin having used the language in conversations with friends as opposed to the other races who might only learn it in class.

If your argument is that the job might require the 'skill' of speaking Mandarin, then Motorola can also argue that this engineer that they need will be sent to work in kampung projects where the majority population are Malays or housing areas where majority are Indians and the folks there are more comfortable dealing with people of their own race.

If you want to cry against discrimination, then oppose all forms of discrimination and not only those that hurt your race but endorse those that predominantly benefit your race as...."oh its a skill you know". Hypocrisy at its worst