A DAP lawmaker has expressed his dissatisfaction with the way Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has presented the newly-released National Census 2020 data on Monday (Feb 14).
“He has not presented [the national census data] as it is but skewed it for a racial political agenda,” the Beruas MP Ngeh Koo Ham said.
“The word ‘Bumiputera’ does not appear in any of our laws. Our laws have references to the Malay race, the natives of Sabah and Sarawak, the Orang Asli, the Chinese, the Indians and others.
“The ethnic groups’ statistics should be presented according to ethnic races as provided by our laws. The detailed numbers for each ethnic group should be disclosed. This is important for the implementation of our government policies.
“The various native groups in Sabah and Sarawak should be classified separately as their needs are different from the Malays in Peninsular Malaysia.
“The Malays in the peninsula would like to see sufficient funds allocated for matters related to Islam as they are Muslims.
“However, the majority of the natives of Sabah and Sarawak are non-Muslims and they would like a fair and proportionate amount of funds to be allocated to matters related to their religious faiths.”
Ismail Sabri, while unveiling the national census report yesterday, said the Bumiputera make up the highest percentage with 69.4%, followed by the Chinese (23.2%), the Indians (6.7%), and others (0.7%).
The 2020 census also showed that there are 2.6 million non-Malaysians in the country, which make up 8.3% of the population.
Ngeh went on to question if the 2.6 million non-Malaysians as stated in the national census report, are being considered as Bumiputera.
“Does this composition (of racial and ethnic) include only Malaysian citizens or the whole population of 32.4 million in Malaysia?
“If the ethnic group’s composition stated by the premier includes the whole 32.4 million people, then almost all the 2.7 million foreigners are classified as Bumiputera, which is clearly unacceptable,” he said. – Feb 15, 2022
