Our government has introduced the policy to provide at least 1% of the job opportunity in public sector to people with disabilities since 1998. This policy has been reaffirmed by Pekeliling Perkhidmatan Bilangan 3 Tahun 2008 and Pekeliling perkihdmatan Bilangan 16 Tahun 2010.
With the one per cent quota policy, we expect at least 14,000 jobs to be provided to the disabled people amongst the 1.4 million civil servants. However, despite the fact that the policy has existed for more than 17 years, as at December 2014, there are only 3,741 disabled people working in the government, that is only 0.27%.
Under the 11th Malaysian Plan, Government now says it is determined to provide another 16,000 job opportunities to OKU. In other words, our government needs to recruit 3,200 OKU each year. If through the effort of 17 years there are only 3,741 disabled people in the civil service, how sure we are that the government is able to achieve the noble target of 16,000 OKU in public service?
According to United Nations, around 10 per cent of the population live with a disability. In other words, there are roughly 3 million people with disabilities in our nation. They must not be left out when Malaysia continues to develop as a nation.
1% quota in public sector is a good starting point but we should move beyond that when this target is achieved. Take for examples, United Kingdom had in 1944 legislated the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944, whereby employers who employ more than 20 employees must have 3% of disabled persons. The same goes to Brazil in which employers who employ less than 200 employees to have 2% of disabled people and companies more than 1,000 people need to reach even 5%.
The Government must play its role and fulfill its obligation to implement the 1% quota policy so that the disabled persons can overcome the prejudice and discrimination and be fully employed on their own merits to compete with non-disabled workers.
In the absence of a detailed action plan, unequal access to employment opportunities will remain a reality for OKU.