Malaysia’s Civil Service

Recently, the PM proposed to open the civil service to the private sector. When he was the Deputy Prime Minister, this idea was brought up by himself in the Cabinet for general discussion. He even suggested that leading corporate figures and retired government civil servants should also be co-opted into the academic world. Students in the tertiary education then stands to benefit from the rich experience from the captain of the industries and top civil servants. This is rightly practiced in many countries. In America, the retired Secretary of State always ends up in important academic position. Tapping the private sector makes sense since they know not only the theory, but also the practical aspect of implementation and problem in dealing with government agencies.

Mixing the private sector with the civil service hopefully will give rise to a better cross-fertilization of ideas and practices, which are sadly lacking in the government service. It will also give the private sector an insight into the constraint of the civil service and the government machineries. The government delivery system is often bogged down with bureaucracy and having to work within the rather rigid general orders of the civil service.

In Malaysia, there is a clear dichotomy of service between the private and public sectors. The moment they leave the civil service to join the private sector, they lose their seniority and hardly ever had a chance to go back to civil service. The Malaysia civil service provides employment from the cradle to the grave. It is difficult to sack a civil servant, unless there are clear violations of the general orders. Hence, we have a lot of dead woods warming the seats. Some become what we call the little Napoleons and Josephines. They do not become facilitators to help the public. They do not serve the Rakyat but Lord over them. They construct all sorts of man-made barriers to make an average man dealing with the government with a bad taste. Bad civil service reflects poorly on the government of the day. Often, it is the politicians who stand for public office that gets the blame.

We have a bloated civil service of nearly 1.15 millions. With a population of 27million people, we have one of the higher ratios of civil servant to population. Despite aggressive privatization in the early 90s, the numbers of civil servant keep on increasing slowly but surely. The rising maintenance cost of the civil service is a major problem, about 41 billion a year. The biggest problem is inefficiency in the public delivery system. Since civil service provides lifelong employment, there seems to be ‘tidak apa’ attitude by some civil servants. Over the year, it has becomes the budaya or culture of these small group of civil servants. They obviously serve to damage the image of the public delivery system. To be fair, there are a lot of civil servants who are very good, professional and dedicated. Unfortunately, over the year this is getting smaller. While I was in the government, from the state to the federal level, I met some of these civil servants who will do the country proud, at the same time I also met a lot who don’t deserved a cent worth for their work.

Walk into any government office one is strike by the predominance of one ethnic group.

These ethnic imbalances get more glaring over the years. Today, about 77% of the government servants are Malays, only 15% are non-Malays and the others contribute 8%. To ratify this imbalance would take decades. Of course when this is raised, some will point out that the private sector is also dominated by one particular race. When the private sector places emphasis of the command of Mandarin, this is construed as discriminatory.

Remuneration cannot be a reason for the lack of interest for the civil service by the non-Malays. In fact, in some of the government services, the total package remuneration is not too bad when compared to the private sector. In order to attract the brightest and the committed, promotion should be based on performance and qualification, and not by who you know within the service. Right now, the general perception is that the government service is only for the Malays and the non-Malays have no chance in career advancement within the civil service. Until we show more transparency and professionalism in recruitment and promotion of civil servant, it is unlikely that we will attract the brightest. The non-Malays will continue to shun the civil service.

首相纳吉最近建议将政府部门的重要职位，开放给私人企业界人才。之前他出任副首相时，也曾把这项建议带到内阁讨论。纳吉甚至认为，商界翘楚及退休公务员也应被学术界重用，高等教育学府的学生可以从在商界长袖善舞的企业翘楚，及经验丰富的高级公务员身上受惠。其实，很多国家都有这么做。在美国，退休后的国务卿受委出任重要的学术职位。其实，这项构思有其意义，因为私企界人士不仅是纸上谈兵，他们有很多实际经验，也懂得如何与各政府单位打交道。混合私人界与公共服务领域的做法，固然希望能达到更好的相互交流及实践效益，而这向来是公共服务领域所缺乏的。这么做也可以让私人界深入了解公务服务领域和政府机制既存的限制弊端。政府传递系统常因为官员的官僚作风及行事刻板而造成怠慢。

在马来西亚，私人界与公共机构的服务明显不同。公务员离开政府机构加入私人界后，很难再返回公共服务领域。马来西亚的公务服务制度是雇用公务员到老；基本上并不会辞退公务员，除非他们严重违反既定条例或守则。因此我们这里有很多“朽木”霸占着位子，其中一些就变成我们所形容的小拿破仑。这些人无法帮助公众，不服务人民，却制造各种人为障碍，导致人民对政府机构服务的印象不好。其实，公共服务差劣也反映当下政府的效率。通常，那些担任公职的从政者成为箭靶，遭人责难。

我国的公务员有近115万人，是一支庞大的队伍。以2千700万人口计算，我国的公务员人口比率高于人口比率。虽然我国在90年代初期积极进行私营化，但公务员数据一直不断攀升。公共服务领域维持成本不断上升是政府的大问题。目前，公共服务领域的年度开销大约410亿令吉，却无法提供有效的公共传递系统。由于这是终身制的铁饭碗，一些公务员有恃无恐，造就了“无所谓”工作态度，甚至已成为一小撮公务员的工作文化。他们简直是在破坏公共传递系统的形象。公平而言，还是有很多优秀、专业及有担待的公务员。但不幸的是，这样优质的公务员越来越少。当我还在政府部门任职，不论是在州或中央机构，我偶曾遇到一些令国家自豪的公务员，也同时碰到工作态度非常糟糕、不值得一提的公务员。

今天，走进任何一个政府机构办事处，你会看到某个族群主占大多数。此种族比率失衡的情况近年来更严重。目前，约77%公务员是马来人，只有15%是非马来人，其他则占8%。我国或许需要数十年时间才能把这种失衡现象纠正过来。当然，当有人提出这问题时，一些人会说私人界其实也是由某个族群主导；私人界着重中文掌握的政策，也即被诠释为歧视。

薪酬劳并不是导致非马来人没有兴趣当公务员的因素。事实上，一些政府部门的薪酬总额不会比私人界差。为了可以吸引有素质及负责任的人才，当局应该根据个人的表现和资格进行擢升，而不是靠所谓的人际关系决定晋级命运。现在，一般认为公共服务是为了马来人而设，非马来人根本没有发展空间。要吸引有素质的人，我们要在录用及擢升制度方面透明化及专业化，否则非马来人将一直对公共服务领域却步。