Reform of the civil service: A mission impossible
Systemic and institutional reform – even if the opposition coalition comes into power – cannot be expected so powerful now is the civil service lobby
Lim Teck Ghee, The Heat Online
The latest kerfuffle involving a security officer in the Road Transport Department (RTD) ordering Suzanne G L Tan, a member of the public, to wear a sarong before being served has put the limelight again on this key component of the nation’s manpower, and how it is responding to service the needs of a modern multi-racial and multi-cultural society.
Everyone will have a story to tell about a civil servant providing efficient and polite service.
The greater likelihood, however, is that most Malaysians – if polled independently – will have negative, rather than positive things to say about their experiences with the country’s governmental machinery.Slow, disdainful, disrespectful, arrogant, unreasonable, high-handed, couldn’t-care less staff.
These are some common complaints against officials from the rakyat when applying for a licence, registering a vehicle, opening a business, and during the numerous unavoidable instances when they have to interact with the omniscient government presence in everyday life.
It is not only petty service complaints involving perceptions of aggrieved members of the public which perhaps need be taken seriously. Other common complaints relate to corruption and abuse of power. Although most news stories in the mainstream and internet media have focussed on corrupt practices involving huge sums of money, it is a cancer found at all levels of the administrative service – whether local, state or federal.
What is worrying about the corruption and lack of integrity in the civil service is the apparent fact that it is accepted by many – if not the majority – of civil servants as acceptable or condonable behaviour.
A recent study — although of a small sample of civil servants – provides a glimpse into the mindset of civil servants and the administrative culture in the country (see, Iskandar Hasan Tan Abdullah; Asri Salleh; Rusnah Ismail; Nazlin Emieza Ngah, “Perception of Civil Servants on the Knowledge of Integrity and Corruption Level in Three State Agencies in Terengganu, Malaysia” in Canadian Social Science, Vol.6, No.3, 2010).
These are the findings in response to the following questions posed in the survey:
1. Receiving a gift (money, items, or services) as a token of appreciation is considered as bribery, (54.3% of 150 surveyed agreed as wrong while 34.7% did not);
2. Using office money for own benefit is part of corruption (51% agreed, 39% did not);
3. Gaining extra money by forcing the clients (56.6 % agreed, 31.4% did not);
4. Directly involved in giving out contract to own relatives, (55.3 % agreed and another 31.7 % did not);
5. Directly involved in hiring relatives into own departments (46.6 % agreed, 41.4% did not);
6. Provided false logging and accommodation claims (41.1 % agreed, 37.9 % did not);
7. Abuse of office’s assets/belongings (40.1 % agreed, 42.5% did not);
8. Intimidating actions in order to get money from clients (51.8 % agreed, 28.7% did not);
9. Abused power/position in order to gain something (53% agreed, 27 % did not).
Add to this now a growing list of abusive malpractices engaged in by little Napoleons or overzealous front line staff given leeway by their superiors and/or vague administrative guidelines; and encouraged or sanctioned by the Islamisation process taking place among Malay Muslim staff members which leads them to impose their value system on unsuspecting members of the public — and one can understand why it is difficult to avoid the impression that we have an increasingly out of control civil service.
