Issue on Faith

Everyone is talking about religion today – freedom of religion that is.

Generally, I didn’t see other people through their faith, race or gender. But, I have seen others who have inner core perspectives that are derived from these axis. I am not saying that they are wrong, and I have a moral superiority over them. What I am saying is that there is a serious lack of statutory equality bodies in providing guidance, information and codes of practice among the Malaysians.

Many organizations in Malaysia do not have any equality or diversity policy. So forget about a wider issue – other than ‘race-and-religion’: which is a synonymous (double-whammy) issue in the Malaysian context. Thus, we conveniently overlook other sensitive issues such as age, gender, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, political association, medical records, trade union association, criminal convictions etc. We will not appreciate at the “hate-incident” ratio as critical as we grasp the “near-missed” or “lost-time-injury” in safety & health.

So, let us focus ONLY on ‘race-and-religion’ issue.

Do we capture the information pertaining to our Staff’s race and religion? Most organization will say that they collected sensitive information as part of employment data. The information will be analyzed and used to inform current and future decision-making so that one can contribute to an improved employment environment and service delivery for the Company.

Is it fair to ask Staff’s proficiency in certain languages e.g.: Arabic, Urdu, Hokkien or Mandarin to reflect their ethnicity?

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