PETALING JAYA: The Sarawak government has denied it is "anti-Malaya" or "anti-Semenanjung" (Peninsular Malaysia) in requesting for Sarawakians to fill vacancies for teachers.
Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg said he merely wanted to avoid a scenario where non-Sarawakian teachers who accepted a post in the state would ask for a transfer out after a few years, it has been reported.
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He said having non-Sarawakians transferred out after a few years would not help in resolving the shortage of teachers in the state.
“(It’s) not that we are ‘anti-Semenanjung’, we just want local teachers so that they will not request for a transfer. If the teachers are Sarawakians, it’s very likely they would not ask to be transferred," he was quoted as saying.
On Monday, it was revealed that 300 applicants from outside Sarawak were among the 1,700 shortlisted candidates under the special teachers’ recruitment drive for the state.
The state’s education, innovation and talent development minister Roland Sagah Wee Inn said only applicants from Sarawak should be accepted under this initiative.
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Abang Johari also said he was disappointed with the way in which the recruitment drive was conducted.
The Education Service Commission (SPP), he said, had promised the state government that the newly-recruited trainee teachers would be from Sarawak.
Suddenly, they changed their minds and opened (it up) to (applicants from) ‘Semenanjung’.
Abang Johari said for now, he would leave it to Sagah to renegotiate with SPP regarding the teachers’ recruitment programme.
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