A Budget Of, By, and For Civil Servants
A Budget Of, By, And For Civil Servants
The recently unveiled Federal Budget is a windfall for government employees. It is a budget of, by and for civil servants.
With this budget, the government continues to expand, with the number of civil servants ballooning close to a million. Its domination of the economy and marketplace continues unabated. This budget betrays the government’s incessant rhetoric of reinventing itself. It is business as usual, with more of the same. The government has learned nothing from past mistakes and experiences, in particular the 1997 economic contagion.
The only deference to that crisis was the government’s much-hyped reduction of the deficit, from over 5 percent of the GDP only a few years ago to a projected under 4 this year.
Anytime a government, especially a democratic one, can cut its budget deficit, that is indeed laudatory. America is having problems addressing its gaping deficits because of political realities. Democratic governments risk being voted out should they cut favorite programs or raise taxes. Deficits are nothing more than the government bribing its voters.
Nature of Deficit More Important
Reducing deficits and having balanced budgets may please the fiscally conservative, but this may not necessarily be wise. The nature of the deficits is more crucial.
If the deficits are for funding schools and health facilities, that is money well spent. It represents wise investment in the most precious asset of a nation, its human capital. Healthy and well-educated citizens will pay dividends way in excess of the investments, quite apart from the humanitarian merits of such endeavors. Similarly, those deficits are acceptable if used for funding infrastructures and other productive investments.
On the other hand, if those deficits arose from building grandiose skyscrapers, ornate palaces, and fancy headquarters for civil servants, then we have a major problem. Unfortunately, this is the usual state of affairs in Third World nations. Many also divert their scant public resources to risky commercial ventures.
Many Third World countries that have absolutely no expertise or trained personnel in aviation brashly start their own national airlines. These leaders just cannot get away from such prestige items.
Malaysia is not immune to such temptations. Its national airline, like other Government-linked companies, continues to drain the Treasury. This budget repeats the pattern of spawning new GLCs, including a colossal one with the initial price tag of RM2B to dabble in real estate. Others would engage in equally risky businesses like biotechnology and agro-business. Obviously we have not learned anything from the expensive lessons of Perwaja and Bank Bumiputra.
Generous funding for social investments alone is not enough. If through corruption and political patronage those precious funds were not spent prudently, then its investment value would plummet very quickly. By whatever measure (relative to the economy, overall budget or population) Malaysia expends huge sums on education, yet it has little to show for it. Experts, employers and parents all agree that the products of our schools and universities are wanting.
Through corruption, political patronage and sheer incompetence, considerable leakage occurs with public expenditure s in Malaysia. Yet this budget addresses none of these pressing issues. There is no increased funding for the Anti-Corruption Agency, for example.
Bloated Public Sector
I have no problem with rewarding workers for a job well done. This budget generously rewards civil servants with extra bonuses, increased pensions, better housing, and liberal allowances. There are also new agencies, meaning more civil servants, like the Health Tourism unit and agricultural attaches. We currently have education attaches abroad. It may be coincidental, but the enrollment of foreign students has declined! I would not count on those civil servants to increase health tourism or agricultural exports.
Paying, housing, and pampering civil servants consume a massive chunk of the budget. This will only increase with time; there is no restraint. I am against these allowances and special housings as they isolate civil servants from outside realities. Presently, civil servants know nothing about gyrations of interest rates, housing costs, and living expenses because they are insulated by their subsidized allowances.
Special housing for civil servants and the police are particularly pernicious, as that will physically isolate them from the community. Pay them the market rate and let them find housing like the rest of us. That will inject a dose of reality on them. Besides, having a policeman or someone from the Anti Corruption Agency as your neighbor will have a salutary effect on the community.
The huge size of government presents other problems quite apart from costs. When the government is a massive employer, it deprives the private sector of talent. One reason the Soviet system collapsed is that the party and government sucked up talent, with little left for private sector and society.
It is not so much the size of government that matters rather what it does with the resources and personnel. Scandinavian countries all have big governments and large public sectors, but their citizens are competitive and economies robust. That is because those governments use their resources for productive public services like healthcare, education, childcare, and generous social safety nets. No wonder their citizens are contented with few emigrating, despite their long winters and short summers.
India has an equally large public sector, but its public servants are busy checking and issuing permits, and otherwise making a pest of themselves to producers and entrepreneurs. As a result, unlike the Scandinavians, Indians flock out of their country given a chance.
The public sector in Malaysia is more like India than Scandinavia. We have our share of “Permit Rajs.” A large chunk of the religious establishment (it too, like others, is getting increased allocation with this budget) is devoted to such non-productive pursuits as ensuring Muslims do not hold hands in public.
This being Malaysia, there is the ugly racial element. Governments are always less efficient and less responsive than private enterprises. Unlike businesses, governments are spared the rigorous discipline of the marketplace.
As the public sector in Malaysia is almost exclusively in Malay hands, its inefficiencies and sluggishness are viewed not as inherent deficiencies of governments but as another defect of Malays. Unfortunately, this important facet of public perception is lost on our mostly Malay civil servants.
When an American civil servant like the former FEMA Director Michael Brown fumbled, it was seen as another typical incompetent political appointee, and nothing more. When the Director-General of Customs in Malaysia had a binge of gala retirement parties, that was viewed as a deficiency of the Malay character.
Of course, that is unfair. Given that reality, I would expect Malay civil servants to perform better in order to eradicate this unjust stereotyping. Unfortunately, many them are oblivious of this and bent on living up to this ugly characterization.
This budget also reinforces another Malay stereotype, of being utterly dependent on big government. The rhetoric of “glokal Malays” and “New Malays” notwithstanding, this budget represents business as usual.
October 5th, 2005 at 8:01 pm
Dear Bakri,
I am very disappointed with the Budget. I made my comments known to you via our usual e-mail channel. With appropriate changes to reflect good taste, you can post it on your website. Thanks.
October 5th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
Ooops, Bakri. I pressed the wrong key and I became Anonymous in a flash. You are right about the 2006 Badawi Budget. It is all about BAD-AWI. Cheers.
October 5th, 2005 at 8:26 pm
salam,
heh I just found and started reading your blog. Two words I can say - Great Stuff. The points are clear and concise. I can consider myself as a newbie in this ‘adult’ world. Hence, I am here to learn. I have been reading on articles/blogs on how Malaysia is, but this is the first one written by a Malay. I think it’s good to have a diverse opinion on these matters. Anyway, keep up the good job!
wassalam
Shazlan
Daytona Beach, FL
October 6th, 2005 at 12:06 am
Civil servants are the happiest lot judging from the comments made in the mainstream media. They take home a month’s bonus to be paid in two instalments. A deserving respite in view of the coming festive season and and year’s end expenses.
National tv goes overboard by interviewing laymen and seeking their views. All give the budget a thumbs up. What else can they say as money matters most. FDI, multiplier effect, fisical policy etc are never discussed, since they mean little or nothing to them.
The experts themselves give a rosy picture of GDP breaching the 5 per cent mark and budget defecit being reduced dramatically.
The BN government knows what the rakyat wants so it plays to the gallery Looks like the Malays are the ones who are being hookwinked. For a few ringgit they are prepared to sell their souls.
In Bolehland intellectual discourse is seldom encouraged, as the minders themselves are equally clueless.
October 6th, 2005 at 1:37 am
The 1 million strong civil service is an important element in the political power game. This very contented group has always been the king maker in any general elections and the PM knows that too well!
Fiscal policies are secondary in our budget. What matters is retaining political power with the help of the civil service.
Speak to any civil servant and he will tell you that he is more concerned about material benefits rather than intangible issues like freedom, justice, human rights, meritocracy and social liberties.
A civil servant who is an UMNO member has tremendous clout, rights, privileges, extra perks and even protection from any wrongdoings.
This is also the reason why the government is soft pedalling its so-called fight against corruption!
October 6th, 2005 at 2:36 am
First of all, I consider Budget 2005 a budget for UMNO. The Prime Minister must have been under some pressure for some signs of economic stimulus, and it reacted with soft mobilisation. IMHO, it is a “carefully” drawn up budget, which to me means that there is no real shockwave in terms of inducing change. In other words, the Budget 2005 lacks courage to reform, in a splash.
I am glad that something is finally done for our food production, but overall, the budget is really trying to pacify rather than boldly strike a larger vision of its own. My dissatisfaction is with the lack of real education focus, but I suppose it is hard to please everyone.
Reform and revitalising the civil service will not begin with increasing allowances. The government is still paying peanuts, and therefore it gets monkeys, or it makes monkeys out of civil servants. By increasing allowances, the government avoided increments to the basic salary, which means that there is no change to one’s actual pension (if you are familiar with the calculations). For the current pensioners, they get a RM200 increase, which I felt should be capped for those with a monthly pension under RM1500.
Arguably, the only kind of tangible action to induce change in the civil service is to remove underperforming or nonperforming staff, i.e. those who doesn’t seem to know what they should really be doing. Unproductive civil servants MUST be laid off, and it takes a very determined top to tell the middle-rank and bottom rung that they shall be removed unless they perform up to par. In the gentle and kind Malay custom, it would be hard because that would be to “kacau periuk nasi orang”. However, bad civil servants is like cancer. It spreads. When one doesn’t work, the other will be demoralised because he/she will be overworked. And when the recognition doesn’t come, you see best service awards being given to the less deserved. It is unfortunate, but ultimately the civil service must be more professional in its affairs or it will bear the scorn of the very public it is trying to serve.
At present, the government is simply not the most preferred employer in Malaysia (except to some). It offers poor wages, bad management, ridiculous bureaucracy, know-who rather than know-what and with unbelievable irregularities in the service, it has trouble in attracting and retaining talent. The impression that it offers a secure employment (rather than a career) is spawning a legion of civil servants who wants to work in a happy family environment rather than being an efficient / productive workforce that is able to meet global and local challenges.
There are many good civil servants, I have to admit. I know quite a few and I have worked with some of them. I am aspiring to join the civil service myself because I know for certain that I am not in it for the money. Besides, there is no better place to do social research and affect related national policies than in the public universities (although we all have a hard time trying to make them listen). Unfortunately, this budget offers very little picture as to how the national education system will fare under the current Prime Minister. So, all we can do now is to buck-up and build our own capacity, bottom-up.
We are not doing enough for our human capital, and the government has not been able to reform the civil service. It might be too hasty to expect quick results from Pak Lah, but from the days of Bersih, Cekap dan Amanah, too much time has lapsed.
October 6th, 2005 at 3:34 am
Pensioners will be paid a one-off payment of RM200 and not an increase.
The Malaysian pension scheme is modelled after the British and Indian systems. One has to serve 25 years in order to be paid the maximum amount. This is a source of contention as service after the 25-year bar is not considered towards pension calculation.
Those in the professional and management group enjoy some creature comforts in their twlight years, as they get a larger quantum based on their last-drawn pay. The ones who suffer most are those from the support group. Some cannot make ends meet and have to continue working to eke out a living.
For Chez1978 if you aspire to join the civil service you should aim to be a PTD officer. They are the blue-eyed boys of the public sector. And when you are there try to see things, top-bottom.
Good luck to you.
October 6th, 2005 at 7:22 am
Dear Fathol,
Thanks for pointing out the error. I stand corrected.
I am not interested in the Pegawai Tadbir Diplomatik. No offence to the PTDs and I have friends holding that position. I am aware that they are supposedly the cream of the crop and their career path is bright. However, my interest is in education and social research, not administration.
I concur that the support group (kumpulan sokongan I & II) are really the ones with sustainable income problems. However, with the current pension structure, and the size of the civil service, I think it would be a challenge to pay them market rate (if it will not be the source of another outrage). Let those who perform up to market standards be paid market rate, if that is ever possible in the civil service.
October 6th, 2005 at 7:52 am
I do want to add a bit on the of the government being “Malay”. It is undeniable that the civil service is predominantly (or rather overwhelmingly) Malay in number. The real issue is whether the civil service has been able to maintain its integrity in hiring and promoting without ethnic bias. If there is a huge injustice in deciding who rises along the ranks among the Malay civil servants alone, with politics and know-who meddling in the process, you can imagine how the other forms of discrimination (age, gender and race) will easily prevail.
On the other hand, we should not lump the poor performance of the civil servants with a race-tinted hypothesis. It is illogical and it is a convenient excuse for a real problem. The poorly run civil service needs direction, management and leadership, not more staff from the ethnic minorities. That kind of hiring policy - based on skin colour rather than best available qualifications, has proven to be a recipe for disaster.
Ultimately, the masses must realize that there are differences between political appointees and career civil servants. Unfortunately, the latter group (in particular the ones closer to the top) thinks that their fate and future lies in politics, and imagined that their bread is buttered by the politicians. Thus, there is no sense of accountability and responsibility when a minister is only there on top to make the “most” out of his/her appointed term. Hare-brained ideas are embraced for supposed political favours and mileage, only to be thrown out when the ones who thought them up fall into the wilderness in the jungle of power (or more likely, when the ideas go really bad).
How well are the Smart schools doing? Are they producing statistically better students after controlling for SES? Will the MOE be held responsible for the outcome (good or bad), when its old boss is now the DPM?
October 6th, 2005 at 10:24 am
I have lost hope, at least during our time. The latest budget has all the hallmarks of satisfying and pampering a bloated and lacklustre civil service, not that the perks are ill-conceived but AB’s productivity slogan is meant only as a lip service, as the general perception of the productivity of civil service is hardly anything to shout about.
The Mahatir era had literally destroyed whatever human capital capability that existed prior to his ascension to the “throne”. Sadly, we look around us in grief and helplessness that has changed the landscape into a deep trench. To undo the colossal damage Mahatir had done to the country, we need a true visionary who can make things hapen, not a preacher who revels in Islam Hadhari and a deputy who is so concerned about “hugging” and “holding hands”.
It has been very difficult for me personally to acknolwedge and accept any favourable reviews being heaped on Mahatir, not that I have an axe to grind but for a developing nation, its human capital should have been well developed with the capacity and capability to face and handle the challenges that lie ahead. What is the point of trumpeting to the world of having the tallest building in the world (not anymore I belief) and spending billions on unproductive projects that practically led the country to economic waste. His privatisation ambition ended up in dismal failure with huge bailouts and eventually ended at the govt’s doorsteps again. Take a look at our universities and the education system. We need not look further as wherever or whatever we dig, the result seems to be corruption and economic waste.
I did have some optimism when Badawi took over but this fizzled only too soon. When I shared my optimism with a friend, he was quick to point out that mine was ill-fated as he believed that, in its present state there is nothing much a person from within the ruling party could do to change anything substantial in terms of good governance because of the deeply entrenched culture of political favouritism, patronage and loyalty. If nine out ten are rooted in such behaviour and beliefs, then we have a doomsday prediction. Of course, I allude to the cabinet ministers and those who passionately believe that hope is in the horizon would seemingly end up broken-hearted. Perhaps, philosophically we may write speeches for each other but, by and large, the drama on the ground has assumed a shape and sense far beyond the reach of civil conscience and respectability.
For those of us who believed that Badawi should be given time and space to implement what he proudly announced when he assumed office would now have to contend with the reality - he has neither the will nor desire. The various statutes at his disposal should have been dismantled to enable the unhindered path towards curbing the menace but he would led us to believe that he is doing “everything in his power” to eradicate knowing very well that we are an assuming lot - to the end. From the local councils to anything and everything to do with money, the weakness and shame prevails, and the plunder will go on unabated. A covert operation at best.
I do share my friend’s belief now that it has to be someone from the outside the ruling coalition who may be able to salvage whatever that is left. Well, I do not know for sure whether such a person would be able to do anything good but what I know for sure is that the ruling coalition would go on with their pack of lies and plunder as free as a “barisan politician” if not stopped.
October 6th, 2005 at 10:28 am
The relocation of many MNC away from Malaysia is due to many factors. Amongst others are the deterioration of the standard of its managerial personnel. Due to the pull of the global demand for experienced and entrepreneurial managers, Malaysia is continually losing these private sector personnels to the MNC not only to traditionally Singapore, but also to both relocated and newly located ones to China, India, Thailand and to a certain extent Indonesia and Vietnam. The MNC, being privately funded and hold responsibilities to their share holders for their profits and consequentially the value of their equities. Therefore they are constantly attracting talents who are not only able but committed and willing to delivering the results. That’s meritocracies in substance not in form.
The private sector in Malaysia is slowly and certainly losing its productivity starting from even the nineties. Realising the cost of manufacturing and doing business to be much cheaper than in Malaysia, amongst others, the MNC not only started relocating their operation away from Malaysia but taking along with them their well trained and experienced senior managers. These managers are not only rewarded with much better remuneration but also expatriate perks. We are then left with the second echelon managers. Alas, that’s when Peter principles of levels of incompetencies started to creep into the many executive offices in Malaysia. Middle managers are inevitably promoted to to fill in the senior positions left by the ones that left for greener pastures. And junior ones are naturally shoved up along the executive ladders. Some learned fast and fill in the bigger shoes quickly. But most do not measure up.
The most significant breakdown is in the area of middle management. That’s why you hear of cries of ‘failures of implementation’ in all sectors of the economy. Most if not all middle managers are at the implementation stage. These middle managers lack the mental make-up, thinking abilities and most importantly aptitudes and attitudes that are required for the progressive implementation of the companies’ plans,policies and stategies. These deficiencies in the middle managers are due to a few glaring traits. Thinking and thinking on the job, common sense, responsibilites, accountabilities. The source of such lack of these skills amongst these so called middle managers are not difficulty to trace. Education.
Starting from the seventies, the educational systems have been slowly converted to heavily exam oriented rituals with lopsided emphasis on objective type examinations. And of course the notorious pursuit of national language policies without prior preparation of having sufficient reference material is not exempt from blame. This resulted in the mentality of getting (guessing) the right answers whereby thinking process is shorted. Therefore these students are robbed of the opportunities to hone their thinking and problems solving skills. I do not need to further argue on this for Dr Bakri has in his writing, especially in the ‘Education worthy of Malaysia’ already elaborated in detail.
Although the current budget saw some increases in alocation for education, there seem to be no specific plans to address specific issues of our current education system which continues to miss the target to ‘educated’ and eventully train graduates for the hungry private sector. Note my parenthesis.
The 2006 budget here we find significant increase in allocation for the civil service. The oft private sector complaints of the counter productive civil service are ignored. Increasing allocation in the civil service (with due respect some civil service are necessary and in fact a few are pro business too) and giving bonuses not tied to performance, is a clear signal to the private sector the government is more eager to abandon productivity, performance and efficiencies for popularity and political expediencies. I must not fail to mention that quite a few GLCs’ are no differnt from their civil service counterparts especially the terms of services to their customers - the recent hooha involving TNB in Malacca is not too bad an example.
In short, there seem to be little attention in substance being paid to improving our global competitiveness through Human resource development from the early stage. We are today what we are because of what we did and did not do yesterday. We continue to lambast Singapore for their success at our cost. However, we continue to provide them, at our own free will, with the essence of all economic engine of growth - human resource. Singapore continously benefit from our policies of not appreciating certain segment of our society by sending to them the able, capable and talented young people with the potential to contribute significantly to not only their economic development but their ‘talent nurseries’ - their schools.
I have quite a few universities mates (physics graduates) who took up teaching posiitons in Singapore and since been offered Singapore Citizenship. Physics graduates teachers were as rare as gems in the seventies, yet we allow them to leave Malaysia for Singapore. Hell, they were/are in great demand in Singapore. They were even allowed to offer private tuition to provide a wider students reach and ofcourse improving their income and and hopefully grounding them permenantly on Singapore soil.
I lost the proximities of a nephew and a niece who were straight A’s students and were offered scholarships in Singapore. My siblings are the urban poor who worked very hard to provide education for their children. Their sheer motivation is to get themselves out of poverty. Their parents worked two jobs, parttime and their children offered tuition to others to earn extra income to supplement their family income.
While in Singapore, not only their mandarin were appreciated, my niece, as an undergraduate students, were offered to tutor the Singapore undergraduate and graduate students on mandarin earning herself some nice parttime income. She even led a team of Singaporean students to Shanghai and Beijing for annual debates for the last two years. What an openness and ingenuity of the Singapore Education authorities. They capitalise on what we lost here, and utiilise them to the fullest extent. They singlemindedly educated their young to compete in this global world. I am not very sure that these two youngsters would be allowed to leave Singapore without being squeezed of their contributions in the future. That’s investment!!
Malaysia please invest in our youngsters irrespective of their backgounds, Malaysia tomorrow is the youngster of today.
October 6th, 2005 at 11:07 am
Dear Fathol
Its easy to take pot shots at the Malaysian Government when one is so far away. I presume th eonly contribution to a developing country which has lack of doctors is the monthly sum you send back home to your family. Nevertheless, its still a contribution.
Talking about Civil Servants, one may ask why many professionals such as yourself, refuse or in softer language, would opt to work overseas. At the end of the day however great we try to put icing upon great ideals of good governance, effective and efficient policy planning, human capital building and much more mentioned by you lot… it all comes back to *** kaccchhiiing***.. the money factor… So what is one months bonus in comparison to those whom get annual increment, 3-4 months bonus and better medical benefits.. plus with speacilist doctors charging the way they do… civil servants would only pray for more Patch Adams to afford decent rightful medical attention..
i agree with many points raised, especially in the need to “reform” in some sense the civil service. To make it more dynamic, in shape and more competetive.. Plus, kick out the “bloated”, less effective and lazying civil servants.. Enforce corporate rules that instill fear and bring out the ebst in its workers, rather than transpering a person from one department to another… sending inefficiency on a holiday tour.. On the other hand, i understand the rationalisation of the government of not increasing income, but increasing allowances. One may say that it could work either way, but one of your dear frinds pointed out that at ends day.. if income were to be increased, so would the pension purse….
I guess its back to money.. therefore in some sense i do salute those who open their businesses.. private practices… and most importantly pay their taxes and put in their part back into motherland.. as well as work with the government on means, measures and initiatives to advance development. That may also include supporting the inter-governmental processes as a consultant, adviser or part of an influential NGO… Taking pot shots from a ranch on top af a hill… anyone can do…
The civil service does need the experts, the talents.. and the best of the best.. Seriously, I doubt any graduate from Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, Princeton.. or any ivy league university of the world would join the Civil Service, when corporations line up their best offers in front of their doors. Here again I salute those who left the corporate sectors or hold ivy league papers and joined the civil service with starting salaries of RM1500, with only the dream to change things to be better.. again another salute, as their task is much harder than taking pot shots from a ranch…. which they also could own if they skipped national duty, served overseas or took up the offers of corporations…
well me.. I’m taking pot shots at a doctor on a ranch on a hill… might not effect him much.. but all in all.. i just want to say…. all of us “Malaysians” love our country and wants the best for it.. I dont believe the whole lot of the civil service is “bloated”… such generalisation is camparable to mine of all doctors not wanting to come back to Malaysia, make a buck forthemselves overseas and not help a health sector in dire need of professionals.. (again we pray for more Patch Adams..)..
i believe there are those who sacrifice a luxury living wanting to change things for the better.. its definitely not Khairy and his Ivy League group.. but there are those whom we dont see.. who slog everday… behind desks or cubicles… earning a low pay salary which probably wouldn’t allow him to even buy a decent house… probably with a loan he’d be paying till the day he retires.. nevertheless, because of every inch of soil in our motherland in Malaysia… is something which he/she holds with great love…. he/she strives and strives forward.. with that low salary he/she has.. hoping one day that probably years from now.. the future generation.. who would probably take over his/her place… would have a salary that would beat the Scandanavians.. that my friend is a Patriot… A patriot who is trying his/her level best to give Malaysia the dream which he/she has for her.. beyond the imagination of others… Well, no one is perfect… but people strive… and that to me, ladies and gentlemen, IS CHARACTER… and there are some out there with character… Edmund Burke said ” The necessary thing for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing”… I guess he should have added ” for good men to do nothing and only take pot shots”…
Its true we are troubled and inflicted with all sorts of problems.. its probably true that we have not learnt much through the course of history… but there’s much to be done, rather than said… I guess when you feel all angelic as you save someones life with the knife under your hand.. imagine some old mak cik in the Malaysian rurals, who can’t afford your service.. but would die if she doesn’t get some wretched thing out of her body.. worse she has to wait because there’s not much doctors around…. think of her.. but not when your saving someones life.. you need to concentrate while performing a surgery eyy… so, think of her as you take your next pot shots at Malaysians, who live here in Malaysia, living real life… confronting existing and emerging challenges… Their hopes are within patriots with characters.. not shooters from ranches…
I should go back to my business now.. so i can pay my taxes.. as well as send some money home to my parents… there’s a comfort, because at least I know I’m not paying my taxes to bullets which kill people in Iraq and Afghanistan… Mine.. probably 10 sen goes to a school the govt is building in some remote area in Sabah.. where one bright Iban boy/girl… may one day become a doctor.. and come back home… save lives at his village.. with his/her angelic hands…
food for thot…
October 6th, 2005 at 11:22 am
KgBoy
Kudos for a well written piece. You’ve covered a lot of issues that were inherent in the system that should have been addressed by the government as well as private sector in human capital. It’s still not too late for the government and private sectors to make the changes.
PM Abdullah Badawi faces a humongous task. It’s not that he doesn’t have ideas of how to turn around the government and civil service but it requires tremendous effort and time, just like trying to turn around a 500,000 tonnes oil tanker.
Dr M did not prepare a succession plan and PM Abdullah Badawi was appointed PM by default (he was a VP of UMNO and became the President of UMNO when it became vacant and thus became the Prime Minister. His ascension to the throne was precarious with lots of horse trading done amongst the various constituencies and warlords within UMNO and BN in general. All these deals are now hampering his efforts to clean house. I don’t want to be in his shoes.
October 6th, 2005 at 11:33 pm
Let see things from a civil servant point of view,
I’m not just plain lazy or grant dependent Malay who took the decision to joint government years ago just for the security or extra free time, I’m just a normal guy who do my daily job accordingly and sufficient enough as what was stated on the job description letter or perhaps more than that whenever required.
A material researcher would want to work in a company with big R&D activities and a big possibility of success with large sums grant hoping that one day he’ll be able to submit a pattern that worth the commercialization and one day bring income to the country – ideally.
What do we do? We spent hours every day to do research on the next advance material applications to reach the market; then come a minister who is so desperate to come up with some major achievement to show to the big office… “Show me what you have now,” he said, what will your boss do? Submit the project (with some patch up here and there) and call up the press. Tell stories on how the invention will help the nation and so-on blalala… The PM noticed, bang! So call project become major technology focus… first, second and third page in the science section of local newspapers… that Menteri get the promotion…
The researcher will need to work so hard to live up to that expectation, he’s actually in standard 1 but the head master promoted him to high school and requested him to complete an undergraduate kind of project…the result – pretty much obviouslaa… failure…
Politicians memory are not that good, nobody will ask about the project after a while… fair enough, all the necessary promotion were completed…ok… forget about the researcher, he’ll find some other thing to work on…take the money back from him and do some other research…what capacity building? The minister don’t know what’s that.
We’ve lots of engineer graduated from worldwide universities, why can’t we come up with a viable solution? Why do I need to suffer the humiliation of working with government agency? Why am I being labeled as lazy bunch of government servant? When the real lazy people are the administrator of this country who doesn’t spend their time listening to the working people of government agency…why?
October 7th, 2005 at 7:47 am
Your are lucky, you get to save lives and help people, one at a time. I imagine you must have felt very good, being to deliver such a personal service and get full satisfaction. It must have felt like god, delivering life, or returning life to someone and the person will be forever indebted to you.
Try duplicate that through a machine that have a mind of its own, even better, try and do that through a machine that have 1 million minds (the “bureaucrazy”). and your patient is 25 million people, all with various sorts of ailments and needs sorts of attention.
i’m a civil servant and im more concerned about the budget and financing it, its macro repercussions and its sustainability. While I agree that its not perfect, my inside view is somewhat neutral- on the direction the budget is trying to get to.
I dont mind a bit of “Malay Bashing” hell i do it too. but to give broad general comments its too shallow- at best.
October 8th, 2005 at 5:56 am
Stereotyping of the Malays
As Dr. Bakri rightly points out, it is a gross injustice to the Malays when it is used to explain any dysfunctional aspect of government. It happens also when Malays fail in their businesses –although here it is done by extolling the resilience of the Chinese entrepreneur whose street knowledge of business is better than any MBA degree the educated elite among the Malays may have earned in the U.S.
The stereotyping of Malays does not end there.
How much is allocated to the building of religious institutions in the recently announced Budget? I suspect it is a disproportionately large share for a small developing country like Malaysia.
The intention here is not to cast aspersions on anyone but merely to focus on the unintended effect such disproportionate spending on building religious institutions have. For one thing, it acts to reinforce the stereotyping of Malays as religious bigots who are unable to separate the needs of government and business to matters relating to his relationship with his Creator.
The truth is we do not need to take to religion the way the Chinese took to opium in the 1800s as a result of the deliberate policy of the British to “weaken” their resistance to colonization and the spread of western values. Their need to sell opium to the Chinese was for the most part, believe it or not, based on expediency: they needed another medium of exchange, another “currency” to make up for the world shortage of silver which was a popular and accepted medium of exchange in that part of the world. In the case of the Malay peninsula, before it came to be known as Malaya, their need for Malay administrators is a natural corollary of the then British Resident advisory system of government – again a matter of expediency. The ruler needs access to the ruled. How else could the ruler rule otherwise? The British did not have to sell opium to the Malays. Opium use was brought here and made popular by the Chinese. Today, we see the Malays take to “weed” or marijuana or ganja as a result of commercial dealing in this commodity (some refer to it as contraband) by the Chinese.
Such activity has gone on for a while now, and has given rise to another type of stereotyping. The stereotype is that of a Malay as a lazy, easy going, ganja smoking, fun-loving “brown monkey” with a need to prey upon others who are more industrious than himself to feed his addiction, greed, his need to support a lavish lifestyle.
When the stereotyping is done by the Malays themselves to explain away their failures and shortcomings, it reflects their belief in fate having a central role in their lives. This traditional concept of the Universe built on the central belief, right or wrong, that everything has its place, its own purpose, everything happens for a purpose and there is nothing one can do to change all that, is rooted deep in the psyche of the Malays. It may have its origin in the Judea-Christian concept of the Old Testament - but it is misunderstood and misinterpreted. However, when the stereotyping of the Malays is done by others, it is done with the sole intention to belittle the Malays as being more suited to be administrators sitting behind desks pushing pen and paper earning a wage, waiting to collect that pension when he no longer has to work for a living.
Stereotyping and labeling does not help. It only reinforces the very weaknesses we have in ourselves.
As Malays we need to regain our self worth, dignity and correct the low self esteem we have of ourselves - the seeds of which have been planted there to reinforce the need for stereotyping by others who deal with us on a daily basis.
When the stereotyping is done by us, it is to help us understand the role that fate plays in the scheme of things. When it is done by others it is to fulfill their need to understand the person they are dealing with. Decision-making is that much easier when we deal with stereotypes. The need for stereotyping is mostly psychological. The stereotypical Malay today is that he is a lazy government servant earning a small salary. The latest Budget seeks to change that: the salary he earns is no longer “small”.
October 9th, 2005 at 8:55 am
Let’s look at it simply in terms of results. Where are the results? We can spend all we like on development or lining civil servants’ pockets, but if the country stagnates and the civil service languishes, nothing has been accomplished. If there is a breakthrough accomplished on a thin budget, however, that’s a success nobody can deny or question.
And what are the results? Pretty much everyone I know either filters their tap water, buy bottled water, or put up with undrinkable water. Every middle class neighbourhood I visit has a prominent security guards’ post at the entrance. (And in some of them, theft still occurs.) When I stop by at McDonald’s for a snack on a rainy day, I look out the window and see the national car whizzing past on the road, completely obscured by a wave of water from a bunch of potholes that the car just drove over.
I visit my school, and I see money spent on tiling the floor of the library and IT lab when nobody cared about the cement floor. I see a WiFi hotspot only the teachers use because the rest of us can’t afford laptops or our parents refuse to allow us to use them. I listen to teachers telling me “red blood cells prevent from sick”. I get asked how many oil rigs are there in Kelantan.
I head to the basketball court and see a group of Chinese, Indians and a Malay or two (all from national schools) playing on one half of the court. On the other half, a group of Chinese chattering away in Mandarin are playing alone by themselves. At the canteen, I might see a worker spraying Ridsect or Shelltox in the air - over exposed food.
I go home, and open the mailbox. My father’s tax refund from last year has finally arrived. As I enter the house, the phone rings - a phone I waited six months for after moving in to my brand new house. I try to logon to the Internet, but I realise TM Net has yet to finalise its installation of the streamyx hub. Nevertheless, I remain happy. After all, I have a friend who waited two years for her phone line.
Well, that’s my life - the life of a middle class Chinese secondary school student smack in the centre of a suburb of a developed state, and somewhere in the Multimedia Supercorridor. These are the results of our past budgets. Is this budget even trying to correct any of these problems? Not as far as I can see. So is this budget a bunch of bollocks (as a Brit might say)? Definitely so.
October 11th, 2005 at 4:25 am
matmoto
I think the government also hard sells the idea that the Malays are weak and need their crutches forever.
And the political parties of the BN only reinforce that. All Malaysians should wake up from their slumber and reject any party with such “crutch mentality.”
April 10th, 2006 at 12:18 am
Great article. I am just sad I dont know how to reply properly, though, since I want to show my appreciation like many other.
July 12th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.
September 6th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
Dave
Interesting topic… I’m working in this industry myself and I don’t agree about this in 100%, but I added your page to my bookmarks and hope to see more interesting articles in the future
November 3rd, 2006 at 7:32 am
Ignorace is bliss for the majority Malay in Malaysia… with a deeply entrenched ‘handicapped’ culture, ‘forever’ being dependent on the goverment and the nons to support them. The prevailing Ali Baba’s syndrome, and ‘puppet figures’ with the imposed 30% one-ethnic equity in corporate sectors and etc.etc. has rear its ugly heads. Look at the recent Zakaria and gang syndrome, blatant abuse of power and gradious delusions of building castles on earth to solidify the self proclaimed “Bumiputra” or self-accorded ‘Princes and Princesses of the Earth’ label. What about spending 3 millions for a weddding and 50million for divorce settlement! Yet the cries that the recent equity study of 45% is wrong and should be maintained at 18% or should it be ‘forever’ low so that more lazy bones can br nurtured. The chosen ones? indeed?!! No accountability, lack of integrity and irresponsibility like spoilt ‘big babies’ who insist they must have continue priviledges from their other ethnic siblings! Malaysians are a hypocrite lots - this Bolehland is full of racism despite years of independence.