BANGSA IBAN ( IBANS ) in the Federal Civil Services in MALAYSIA

KUCHING: There are only 13,882 Ibans and 7,108 Bidayuhs in the Federal departments and ministries out of 601,862 Malays and 57,578 Chinese. 
These figures were released by the Prime Minister Department in reply to a question raised by the MP for Bandar Kuching Chong Chieng Jen. 

During the recent sitting of Parliament, Chong had asked the Prime Minister to give the total number of civil servants in all the ministries and the racial breakdown of Malays, Chinese, Iban and Bidayuh up to 31 March 2011. 

“Based on the reply given to my question in Parliament there is a big discrepancy between the Malays and Chinese, Iban and Bidayuh civil servants,” he said. 

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak should improve the racial composition of the civil service if he is really serious about implementing 1Malaysia concept. 

“He has been shouting about the concept for the past two years, and yet the racial composition between the Malays and Chinese in government departments has not improved,” said Chong who is Sarawak DASP Secretary and state assemblyman for Kota Sentosa. 

Quoting the reply, Chong who is the MP for Bandar Kuching said: “In the Prime Minister Department, there are about 31,297 Malays to 797 Chinese or 39.27:1. This is about two percent. 

“And there are only 412 Ibans and 279 Bidayuhs in the PM department. 

“The worst is in the Rural and Regional Development Ministry where there are 2,442 Malays to 18 Chinese or 135.67:1 or less than one percent of the Chinese, and 26 Ibans and 18 Bidayuhs,” he said. 

Among the ministries mentioned by Chong included the following: 

~ Ministry of Youth and Sports 2,980 Malays to 32 Chinese, 27 Ibans and 21 Bidayuhs; 

  

~ Ministry of Home Affairs 40,263 (Malays) to 614 (Chinese), 823 (Iban) and 476 (Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Works 6,221 (Malays) to 156 (Chinese), 21(Iban), and 9(Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Health 130,106 (Malays) to 9,500 (Chinese), 3,657(Iban) and 1,894 (Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Finance 15,835 (Malays) to 508 (Chinese), 247 (Iban) and 155 (Bidayuh); 

  

~ Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1,215 (Malays) to 53 (Chinese), 7 (Iban) and 6 (Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Education 273,791(Malays) to 43,669 (Chinese), 7,379 (Iban) and 3,434 (Bidayuh); 

  

~ Ministry of Tourism 455 (Malays) to 19 (Chinese), 6 (Iban) and 6 (Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development 5,461 (Malays) to 75 (Chinese), 75 (Iban) and 42(Bidayuh);

~ Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture 8,839 (Malays) to 402 (Chinese), 231 (Iban) and 134 (Bidayuh);

~ Ministry of Higher Education 15,012 (Malays) to 334 (Chinese), 84(Iban) and 54 (Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Transport 9,028 (Malays)  to 205 (Chinese), 198(Iban) and 168 (Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Defence 12,078 (Malays) to 113 (Chinese), 123 (Iban) and 76 (Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Housing and Local Government 11,363 (Malays)  to 173 (Chinese), 201 (Iban) and 88 (Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of International Trade and Industry 785(Malays) to 29 (Chinese), 7(Iban) and 4(Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Domestic Trade, and Consumer Affairs 2,645 (Malays) to 47 (Chinese), 43 (Iban) and 23 (Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry 8,826 (Malays) to 206 (Chinese), 54 (Iban) and 45(Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Entrepreneur and Commodity 195 (Malays) to 5 (Chinese), 0 (Iban) and 0 (Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation 3,596 (Malays) to 240 (Chinese), 48 (Iban) and 48(Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment 11,849 (Malays) to 227(Chinese), 108(Iban) and 67(Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Human Resources 6,457 (Malays) to 129(Chinese), 98 (Iban) and 60 (Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water 553 (Malays) to 19(Chinese), 5(Iban) and 0(Bidayuh);  

 

~ Ministry of Federal Territory 570 (Malays) to 8 (Chinese), 2(Iban) and 1(Bidayuh). 

Total 601,862 (Malays) to 57,578 (Chinese), 13,882(Ibans) and 7,108(Bidayuh). 
Pointing out that these are some of the examples, Chong said: “This clearly shows such unbalanced racial composition in the various government departments and ministries. 

“It also clearly shows Najib’s 1Malaysia slogan is a mere slogan. There is no concrete policy to implement the concept,” he said, adding that he had been shouting about it for the last two years. 

He said: “There is no improvement in the racial composition based on the racial breakdown in the government departments. Even in his department it is worse than the average. 

“It shows that Najib is not the prime minister for all, but the prime minister for one single race,” Chong said. 

It should be interesting to know how many Ibans and Bidayuhs in the State Civil Service. Can any Dayak state assemblyman ask such a question?

7 Things That Would Happen If The USA Is Downgraded

With less than 100 hours (Aug 2) before the world’s largest economic powerhouse, United States of America, is set to default on its debt obligations or otherwise, the global stock markets are trembling with fear. It’s very unlikely but should it happens, the U.S. economy may tumble by 5% and the stock market may drop by 30%, according to Credit Suisse. But even if U.S. lawmakers strike a deal to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling on time, the U.S. government would still lose its rating from one of the three major rating agencies – Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s Financial Services and Fitch Ratings.


Standard & Poor’s has warned that anything less than $4 trillion in budget cuts will likely mean the U.S. loses its top AAA rating. So the lawmakers better do something good about this long overdue debt problem, not only in preventing a default but also how to rescue the forever escalating debt. Let’s see what could happen if U.S. is downgraded.

1) A Downgrade

Currently, the long-term debt of the U.S. is rated triple-A (AAA) by Moody’s and S&P (Standard & Poor). In the event of a default, the U.S. rating will be downgraded by a notch or even up to three notch, still far from “junk” status (*Phew*). Still, the baseline expectation from many analysts and economists is that the Congress will strike a last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling. Even if this happens, it does not take a downgrade away simply because U.S. debt stays and will continue to skyrocket.

2) Interestingly, Investors Will Not Dump Treasury Securities

Will financial markets rush to sell U.S. Treasuries in the wake of a downgrade? Not likely although economists have been debating on this issue for many moons. It’s quite simple – this Treasury Monster is “Too Big to Fail”, not to mention the fact that foreign holdings make up the largest share of outstanding Treasury security holdings. Of all foreign Treasury holdings, more than three quarters is held by foreign official institutions which include foreign sovereign wealth funds and central banks.



These institutions hold U.S. Treasury bonds because they are the most stable and the most liquid financial asset in the world so even if they would dump it after a downgrade, they would have difficulties finding replacement(s). One option would be for these institutions to park their money in European debt but the Eurozone itself has been rocked by its own credit worthiness from the sovereign debt crisis. Another option would be Asian debt as a replacement. But Asian countries’ capital markets are still developing and not yet mature, not to mention it’s too small to replace the giant U.S. Treasury market. The foreign funds holding about 46% of U.S. Treasury will have no where to go but to stay put.

3) Money Market Funds will Stay As It Is

Besides putting their money into savings accounts at commercial banks, Americans put their money into money market accounts namely money market funds. A money market fund is a type of mutual fund that is required by U.S. law to invest in low-risk securities such as government securities, certificates of deposit, commercial paper of companies, or other highly liquid and low-risk securities. Thus, these funds have relatively low risks compared to other mutual funds and pay dividends that generally reflect short-term interest rates.





U.S. regulations allow for the securities held in money market funds to include a broad band of ratings – from triple-A (AAA) to single-A (A). The U.S. would have to be downgraded several notches, far beyond what either S&P or Moody’s were expected to do before money market funds are affected in a serious way. Nevertheless as the Aug 2 deadline approaches, the Investment Company Institute just revealed that total U.S. money market mutual fund assets fell $37.53 billion to $2.634 trillion for the week that ended Wednesday.

4) Pension Funds, Too Small to Create Impact

A downgrade of U.S. debt will not automatically trigger a fire sale by pension funds because the federal, state and local retirement funds hold only 3% of the outstanding U.S. government debt. A study by Wells Fargo concluded in the event of forced selling, the impact would be minimal. Furthermore, pension funds specialists argued that the pension funds will not necessary sell if prices are pushed too low due to panic selling.

5) Germany Bonds Rally

German 10-year bonds rose a fifth day before an Italian debt sale and after Standard & Poor’s said Greece risks further defaults after the restructuring agreed upon at a summit last week. Also, triple-A rated paper like German Bunds and UK Gilts outperformed U.S. Treasuries, with the U.S./German 10-year yield spread 13 bps wider on the day at 35 bps. Using the same analogy, the German bonds would rally in the event of a downgrade.



Investors seeking diversification and shelter will most likely park some of their money in Germany. Sure, the Germany bonds are still small relatively to U.S. but this also means a possible squeeze, pushing German bonds further north.

6) Some Banks Get Downgraded

Banks that currently enjoy higher ratings because they’re backed by the government and should there be problem they would get bailed. But now their “guarantor”, the U.S. government, is downgraded so naturally these banks would get downgraded as well simply because the U.S. debt is riskier. These banks may need to raise their borrowing costs. Debt of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the ‘AAA’ rated Federal Home Loan Banks and the ‘AAA’ rated Federal Farm Credit System Banks may be affected.



Heck, these banks may need to raise hundreds of billions in new capital should things get ugly as they aren’t required to hold any capital at all against U.S. Treasurys at this moment but a downgrade means their assets are now not risk-free.

7) Junk Stocks Sell Off, Quality Stocks Bargain

Investors would need to rebalance their portfolio in the event of a U.S. debt downgrade and the most feasible thing to do is to sell off junk stocks, if they have any. A decline of 2% – 5% (some say 10%) in the S&P 500 across the board is also anticipated with stocks such as Coca-Cola to Apple Inc. to be affected, one way or another. Already, many are chasing out just in case as can be seen when the Dow is down by 441 points this week alone.



When rating agencies downgrade countries — as we’ve seen with Spain, Greece and Japan – their stocks tumble. Having said that, FinanceTwitter still think this is a golden opportunity to scope the quality stocks during the sell-off. Reason – 80% of the 190 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported second-quarter results have beaten Wall Street’s estimates. Earnings from Microsoft Corp., Coca-Cola Co. and IBM Corp. had the Dow above 12,700 just a week ago.



Like it or not, a downgrade in the U.S. wouldn’t have the same effect on its stock market as downgrades do in other countries. The companies in the Dow are giant-multinationals that rely less on the U.S. for profits as compared to companies from Spain or Greece. For example, Apple’s iPhone sales actually quadrupled from a year ago in the Asia market particularly China. Therefore, assuming investors already take into consideration of a one-notch credit downgrade of U.S. debt, the stock market may celebrate upon an agreement to lift the debt ceiling, and you won’t want to miss this chance, would you?



Interestingly, according to U.S. Treasury, U.S. Government had an operating cash balance of only $73.8 billion at the end of the day yesterday. On the other hand, Apple’s last earnings report showed that the company had $76.2 billion in cash and marketable securities at the end of June. This is amazing but it’s a joke the world’s largest and (perhaps) the most admired technology company has more cash than the world’s largest sovereign government – United States of America. Maybe Steve Jobs can organize a short course on how Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL, stock) earns more money than it spends to the U.S. government, which does the opposite.