Najib Can’t Afford to Keep Malaysia’s Civil Servants – or to Lose Them
With 1.6 million on the Malaysian government’s payroll, the workers are key to electoral success. But a large service keeps the country stagnant – and prone to a financial meltdown
Phar Kim Beng, South China Morning Post
Malaysia is stuck in the middle income trap. And one of the problems keeping it there is the massive size of its civil service – estimated at 1.6 million by Mohammad Sherif Kassim, the former secretary general of the Ministry of Finance.
While such a large service has the effect of buttressing the government, making Malaysia more stable, it also hampers efforts to transform the government, making Malaysia more stagnant too.
So while Mohammad’s desire to reduce the size of the civil service is quite understandable – indeed, it may even be necessary to prevent a government financial meltdown – Prime Minister Najib Razak knows that doing so would be the kiss of death politically, given the impending general election.
Thus Najib has taken to reassuring the civil service, which is predominantly formed of Malays, not to worry about any reduction in headcount. The can has been kicked down the road.
READ : Najib’s take on Malaysia’s new MRT risks upsetting Chinese
It should be noted that Mohammad’s figure of 1.6 million includes armed forces, police, education and hospital personnel. The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) claims that these should not be included in the headcount, as is the case in some other countries, and consequently claims the civil service numbers 500,000. Even so, there is a self-serving logic to Cuepacs’ suggestion – they don’t want their heads to roll.
Government employees such as the police are key to electoral success in Malaysia. Photo: AFP
However the headcount is made, the fact is the Malaysian civil service is a behemoth, one of the largest in the world.
In February 2017, the deputy finance minister, Abang Johari, warned the annual payroll was already at US$19 billion while pension payments were US$4.5 billion a year.
There is one civil servant for every 19.37 people in Malaysia, according to Johari, as opposed to 1 to 71.4 in Singapore; 1 to 110 in Indonesia; 1 to 50 in South Korea; 1 to 108 in China; 1 to 28 in Japan; 1 to 84 in Russia; and 1 to 118 in Britain.
The bloated size of Malaysia’s service causes government expenditure to rise yearly and create a government that is unwieldy and bulky.
While opposition parties like the Democratic Action Party (DAP) have voiced concern over the size of the civil service before, not even they are prepared to address the issue head on as they too are scared to lose votes. Ninety per cent of Malaysia’s civil servants are ethnic Malays.
READ: An election like none other, is it time for change in Malaysia?
This is the demographic that the DAP and the opposition coalition have been targeting in their bid to beat Najib in the upcoming general election.
Liew Ching Tong, one of the top strategists in the DAP, believes that if the Malay votes were to dip by 15 per cent – a distinct possibility – the opposition would gain another 34 seats in parliament. This would immediately deny Najib a simple majority of 112 seats.
