In denying the allegation, the Centre for Governance and Political Studies (Cent-GPS) said its team had been working on the research for the past few months after it was mooted late last year.

“The primary concern that people have about this study is that it is part of some political agenda, that the findings were meant to fit the racial politics of a few groups,” it said in a statement.

“We can assure you, it is not. There was no way we could have known that the recent by-elections were to happen or would result in the political pacts that it did.”

Earlier today, DAP’s parliamentary research team pointed out what it deemed to be methodological flaws in how the survey was carried out, notably in the way the study presents its seven applicants as being similar in their academic and co-curricular attainment.

Labelling the report as “dangerous”, the team also claimed that it seemed that the basis of the said report was to reinforce “stereotypical views of different ethnic groups and to further a racially-charged political agenda”.

However Cent-GPS said those who read the report would know that its report denied the notion that the Malays were the most marginalised community.

It said while previous studies focused on the Malay and Chinese variables, its study also included Indian candidates.

Cent-GPS said its survey showed that the Indian candidates, for both genders, were worse off.

“Everyone seems so focused on the lack of opportunities given to the fictitious Malay candidates. They forgot that Thivakar (the Indian male in the study) got the worse rate of callbacks (to obtain jobs).”

This morning, the centre denied any motive to stoke tension among the various ethnic groups.

Its senior researcher, Zaidel Baharuddin, said the results published last week were meant to highlight the need to break away from the duopoly narrative of the two largest ethnic groups in the country.

The survey found that Malay and Indian jobseekers are more likely to face discrimination than their Chinese counterparts.