PUBLIC Service Department director-general Tan Sri Mohd Zabidi Zainal has announced that 50 civil servants holding "sensitive posts", will be transferred within a week. Why the haste, and how many more will be transferred out?
What is sensitive – the person or the post? If the person is performing badly or dishonestly, he or she could be dealt with under the government's disciplinary rules or General Orders.
If the problem is the sensitive post, then desensitise the post.
The transfer of officers indicates that something is badly wrong with the state of civil service. It also shows that we are going for quick fixes. But for serious weaknesses there has to be reform in the civil service.
The following recommendations are proposed:
» Hire the best graduates and retain them.
» Pay more to attract the best recruits but stress on better quality of work, higher productivity, better services and more civility to the public.
» Recruit and retain staff of integrity who are devoted to duty.
» The government should ensure professionalism and independence in the civil service. Political interference of any kind is poisonous to the civil service.
Our national institutions, like the judiciary, the civil service, the police, the armed forces, the Election Commission, and the MACC, can only be effective, if they are staffed by the best intellects in all fields.
» As a multiracial and multi-religious society, our civil service has to reflect that blessing of diversity that we enjoy. But parochial politics and some short-sighted politicians go against the grain in our country, and often ignore this reality – at the peril of national unity, harmony and progress.
Those of the same racial group tend to show more empathy to their own kind. Hence a basically mono-racial civil service tends to alienate other groups, even inadvertently. But the damage and resentment builds up over time, which is inimical to our society.
It is gratifying that the PSD has openly recognised that there are serious problems at the highest levels of the civil service.
The government and the civil service leaders cannot be seen to be merely transferring the problems. Instead the rakyat must be assured that the government will take all the necessary steps, however politically unpopular, to solve the problems.
However, the burning questions and the continuing challenges for government are: Have the federal and state governments the political will to reform the civil service? Is there a strong enough political will to reform the related national institutions to enable our beloved Malaysia to move forward with greater pride and progress?
Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam
Chairman
Asli Centre of Public Policy Studies
What is sensitive – the person or the post? If the person is performing badly or dishonestly, he or she could be dealt with under the government's disciplinary rules or General Orders.
If the problem is the sensitive post, then desensitise the post.
The transfer of officers indicates that something is badly wrong with the state of civil service. It also shows that we are going for quick fixes. But for serious weaknesses there has to be reform in the civil service.
The following recommendations are proposed:
» Hire the best graduates and retain them.
» Pay more to attract the best recruits but stress on better quality of work, higher productivity, better services and more civility to the public.
» Recruit and retain staff of integrity who are devoted to duty.
» The government should ensure professionalism and independence in the civil service. Political interference of any kind is poisonous to the civil service.
Our national institutions, like the judiciary, the civil service, the police, the armed forces, the Election Commission, and the MACC, can only be effective, if they are staffed by the best intellects in all fields.
» As a multiracial and multi-religious society, our civil service has to reflect that blessing of diversity that we enjoy. But parochial politics and some short-sighted politicians go against the grain in our country, and often ignore this reality – at the peril of national unity, harmony and progress.
Those of the same racial group tend to show more empathy to their own kind. Hence a basically mono-racial civil service tends to alienate other groups, even inadvertently. But the damage and resentment builds up over time, which is inimical to our society.
It is gratifying that the PSD has openly recognised that there are serious problems at the highest levels of the civil service.
The government and the civil service leaders cannot be seen to be merely transferring the problems. Instead the rakyat must be assured that the government will take all the necessary steps, however politically unpopular, to solve the problems.
However, the burning questions and the continuing challenges for government are: Have the federal and state governments the political will to reform the civil service? Is there a strong enough political will to reform the related national institutions to enable our beloved Malaysia to move forward with greater pride and progress?
Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam
Chairman
Asli Centre of Public Policy Studies