i am newly joint PTD somewhere in the enclave of putrajaya. previously worked in the operations of a well established foreign bank here in Malaysia. it was unfortunate that i dont have the time to ponder each and every article u gentlemen have. from these few articles, i respect both dr bakri and en. din as ur writings have indeed opened my perspectives on a lot of matters.

let me comment about the state of malaysian civil service. compared to my previous working experience, things are so much slower. (i’ve only been in the service for a year now) so so so much slower. but somehow i find that i can shine here. here is my small pool and i intend to become that big fish. a guru once told me; be that big fish in that small pool. why do i say that? because i am able to make change. i have changed how my small run it’s operation. my presence here is felt and ultimately, i have learned to make decisions. this was not the case in “swasta”. my ex colleagues think that an assisstant director in the gov is a big thing. it’s not, but the responsabilities actually are.

the thing is, to a certain extent, dr bakri’s idea about being more selective is true. i must admit, half of the officers, predominantly malay, cant construct a sentence in english without going “eh apa tuh”. but i wouldnt blame them, i blame the education system. but then again, so what if we cant speak english properly? are we malays so low in jati diri that we need to make people listen to our heavily accented english to have a decent discourse? we need new ideas and innovations.

i really cant give much ideas on how to change the service yet. just to point out that my dept have started on balance scorecard (started as in sending people to attend courses). i was so suprised to learn that no other gov agencies have actually used it except for mampu. when i mentioned scorecard, other officers never even heard of it. no wonder why things are so lembab here, the service is using ideas recycled from dulu - dulu and from old brood who inherits the same ideas. i see the training modules in INTAN and only those JUSA can be sent to harvard business school. why invest in old brooms? send the young ones (like yours truly).

what do u get from PTD’s nowadays? some of them are simply so fresh out of school, no wonder they get bullied by the kerani.

TQM, Six Sigma, Kempen Senyum, ISO 9000 and many more programs instituted by the government are without nought. It’s the people that make or break the system. So far all these have become buzz words used by senior government officials without really understanding the input and output expectations. The government can continue to have more of these programs or strategies as they are called but let’s take a look at the outcome. Nothing has changed.
Take a look at Najibs statement about establishing Malaysian Kitchen overseas. He has made these statements twice but so far applicants have been kept in the dark on how the system will work. There is no funding made available and applicants are asked to get financing from EXIM bank. Even without the Malaysian Kitchen concpets Malaysians have opened up restaurants overseas. Malaysian entreprenuers have acted on their own without the government intervention. Now along comes the government trying to set up Malaysian Kitchen overseas to reflect the Malaysian image and make Malaysian food to appeal to the host countries. Instead of competing the government should be complementing. Tourism Malaysia and the Ministry for Entreprenuer Development should help promote existing restaurants and offering them incentives for projecting the Malaysian images. These incentives can come in many forms. Buying ads and promoting the restaurants in guide books and doing coop ads in return for displaying tourism brochures. Ministry for entreprenuer development should use existing restaurants as incubator for future restaurant developments. But I guess the senior Ministry officials are busy trying to see which officer is going to be promoted next and busy calculating their elaun saraan or how uch they will be making with the salary boost coming in July.

Commanders were told to adhere to the requirements of the Ministry without fail. Threats were used to ensure compliance. This was pretty easy in a discipline organisation like the armed Forces. So you see TQM corners in all units on the ground. The word TQM was the by-word then although many did not know the difference between Total and Quality. So long as TQM was mentioned during briefs that was enough to please a visiting general who, in all possibility, was clueless about TQM.

I had on several occasions argued the relevance of TQM in the army and had written a thesis to prove the inadequacy of such a system but was told, in no uncertain terms, that my theory was wrong and what was dished out by the Ministry was right.

Client charter was taken to a new height by some moronic generals who felt they were on the right path of enlightment. The army chief then was so imbued with TQM that he ordered units to erect billboards in front of guard houses so soldiers could read and remember them by heart. Soon billboards began to sprout all over the camps. One such camp in Ipoh had no less than four boards at its entrance. For a moment we became a solgan-shouting army with a multitude of objectives to remember. It was hilarious but to some idiots it was serious business.

I once told my commanding general that training was more important than shouting slogans and erecting billboards. Obviously, he was not amused. I was reprimanded for belittling his instructions. That was the army then.

Blue Ocean Strategy, as Din Mericam describes is the in thing today. I read this on an ad recently, “Are you operating in the RED OCEAN business. STOP! Achieve success to capture uncontested Blue Ocean market space!”

This hocus pocus is related to business strategy. I wonder what has Blue Ocean strategy to do with a bloated civil service that has been swimming in a dark ocean since Independence? No amount of red or blue ocean is going to change the civil servants’ mindset. I just hope the armed forces is not cajoled to adopt such strategy as well. Well, I am not surprised if it does.

What bemuses me is, it appears that this lethargy has rubbed-off its effects in the private sector. While it so appears that the private sector is far ahead in terms of performance and productivity, it is certainly not at a level good enough to match the growing standards to ward off the stiff competition even from our Asean neighbours.

A culture of pervasiveness seems to have permeated generally among Malaysians. Amid concerns that we are fighting a losing battle to retain our position (economically), the leaders and their cohorts are oblivious to the reality that surrounds us. As one of them recently told me, enjoy life while you can. When I pointed the effects of our folly on our future generations, he simply retorted - why worry about the future generations? As we have taken care of us now, let them take care of themselves. After all, we woundn’t be around anyway. Would they be thinking along the same lines when their own kin/children are concerned? Well, I am holding my breath.

Which treament regime would you choose to treat a patient with
cancer of the prostate?
cancer of the liver, stomach?
cancer of the blood?
cancer of the skin?
cancer of the brain??
cancer of the Heart - (soul, bro)?

It looks as if the existing system is so badly damaged that the public service is heading down the road to nowhere. Many still benefit from the status quo, and so why fix it with new rules of the game.

In the 1980s, Ahmad Sarji, then Chief Secretary, introduced Total Quality Management (TQM). Ministries and other agencies had mission statements or client charters. When you visited them, you would find these “artifacts” prominently displayed in the reception areas. No one really cared to live by those pledges.

Millions of dollars were spent annually for staff training, seminars, workshops and conferences, especially around May-August, ahead of the next budget. A performance evaluation was introduced. Yet both the quality and productivity of public service delivery did not improve, despite best intentions.

Now in the Badawi era, we have KPIs (Key Peformance Indicators) and better salaries and benefits. I am not sure that the PM will not succeed in changing things around.

My sources told me that recently top civil servants spent a few days in Langkawi with the Deputy Prime Minister, Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak at taxpayers expense and participated in a seminar led by the Korean co-author from INSEAD of the popular book, “Blue Ocean” (not the real full title).

Now everyone in the top echelons of the civil service is talking about crafting blue ocean strategy. Why? Because it is Dato Seri Najib’s favorite management book, not because they see any value in this new approach and framework to strategy making and execution. Bodek lagi!!

In fact to most of them the word “strategy” still sounds Greek. The Blue Ocean strategic approach will suffer the same fate as TQM of the 1980s.
It is all sandiwara and this has been going on for years. Nothing will change, except superficially.

Thanks.

The top civil servants is forever looking for easy money for their retirement. Many of them when given to head an agency or government owned entity will find ways and means to make that agency or entity to become a berhad company. If that is not possible they will scheme to siphon off funds. There are many examples such as UDA, PERNAS, PERNAS Edar, USMETA, Express Nasional, BUMIREL, LORI Malaysia, PINB, Padi Beras Negara, LPP, FELDA, FELCRA, MUDA, KEMUBU, Tabung Haji LTAT, and many others. Of late have you noticed the rot going into Khazanah and even PNB. Some are caught while others are protected.

As you say the civil servant whether working or not will get automatic increment each year and then promoted when a vacancy occurs without considering the merits. All the Cemerlang scheme are not quantitative but rather appeals to the emotional factor of the boss. Nobody likes to be the bad guys. I’ve even seen underachiever and underperformer and those with questionable integrity being given the Hadiah Cemerlang.

Even as recently when a government officer was asked why change his travel plans and incurring large penalty, the reply was why not even the Minister can charter a private jet to go to Boston. So they follow the “Pimpinan melalui Teladan” Monkey see monkey do.

There is too much spoonfeeding, favoritism, and too much of Malay culture in the civil service.

It does not matter whether the civil servant works or not. He/she gets annual increments, bonuses and political giveaways from time to time. What I am saying is that the incentive system is a cock-up.

It is going to take political will, guts and enormous effort to change things. Not now when Pak Kaduk is still in charge.

The salary increase is nothing but a vote buying process off course Islam Hadhari leaders do not lie. Do they deserve this increase? Just look at all the mishaps and flip flops in the country. In the so call modern world, with modern technology, buildings are falling apart. Why didn’t buildings in the 70s and 80s fall apart? The quest to enrich oneself and you scratch my back and I scratch yours between civil servants and their politician masters is so deep that both do their best to cover each others backsides.

The civil servant of 50-70s, I think had a desire to do what is best for the country and did they best. Were they better educated than the current ones? The current ones are a tidak apa attitude and they use religion and race to justify or divert attention.

Strange but somehow your article reminds me of the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 20th century. I will have to check on that.

Still, would the concept of Bangsa Malaysia take us out of the muck that we ARE in?

Ahh, Korupsi…where do we begin? I am tempted to like the way China deals with her corrupted officials - at least those bureaucrats and party officials from the lower of the top echelon. Still, I need to check on that.