“I fear that our force could end up with 95% Bumiputera personnel, including those from Sabah and Sarawak. This is not something very nice to hear and if this happens, we won’t be able to have much hope of moving forward as a dynamic unit,” he said in a media interview today.

“Maybe 20% or 30% according to composition. I welcome (non-Bumiputera recruitment) as the faster we do this the faster we will be able to move forward without communication barriers.”

Hamid said currently, Chinese made up 1.9% of the 123,000 officers and personnel in the force, with 3% being Indian. He said the number of Orang Asli recruits had dwindled.

He said the force had faced difficulty in recruiting non-Bumiputera since 2010.

Hamid said members of every community were needed in efforts to uphold the law and maintain national security.

He said the police had also held discussions with the Public Services Department over the recruitment of non-Bumiputera members.

“We are already facing a lack of non-Bumiputera participation, and then those who do want to join have problems with (the) Bahasa Melayu (credit) requirement. This has been happening since 2010 and we are increasingly facing a dearth of officers, be it from the Chinese, Indian or Orang Asli communities.

“We had several discussions with the PSD and submitted several proposals, and the PSD finally agreed to relax the requirements but added some others as well, such as making it compulsory to pass certain examinations,” he said.

Last week the police said a special recruitment intake would be conducted for non-Bumiputeras and Orang Asli to be constables. Anyone without an SPM credit in Bahasa Melayu would be eligible but they must pass language tests within six years.