Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has come out to assert that the “race” column in official government forms will not be phased out, a day after a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department announced that the Cabinet had decided to do away with it.
“The statement is inaccurate. We did discuss it in the cabinet but our decision was to let it remain,” he was quoted in a report by Berita Harian.
Yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun said the government had decided to do away with the “race” column in stages.
He said that for now, the column would be omitted wherever it is found to not add value, such as in application forms for the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) scheme and for low-income housing loans.
Najib said the column for race was needed to ensure “every community is given fair consideration” and not left out from government policies.
