Our civil service is going through enormous and essential reforms to ensure Sarawak is a developed state with the highest standard of good governance and integrity by 2030.
– Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg, Premier
Today’s topic will be on the Malaysian civil service. No, don’t get me wrong; I am not jumping on the bandwagon to urge Putrajaya to revamp the government sector to reflect a fairer racial composition by suggesting ethnic-based quotas.
The topic of racial imbalance in the government service is as old as the civil service itself since the time of the British colonialists. They started it and we’re just continuing it, if you will. The issue is nothing new and it’s not going to be resolved anytime in the near future – not in my lifetime, that’s for sure. I’ll leave it to our elected Ahli Yang Berhormat (YBs) to handle the contentious issue.
Instead, I am going to touch on our state civil service, more precisely on its current state, and its noteworthy transformation, and convey public suggestions for improvement.
The Sarawak civil service, I should say, started its serious reformation to transform into a “world-class entity” only during the time of the fifth chief minister, the late Pehin Sri Tan Sri Adenan Satem, and is continuing now under Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.
But first read the following message (on the overall state of the civil service in this country) which I retrieved a few days ago from one of the WhatsApp groups that I am in. I am reproducing it unedited.
“A lot has been said about Malaysia’s civil service, the good part, the bad part and the ugly part. Most times it is more bad and ugly than good. So, jangan syok sendiri guys. I and my friends are really mad that nothing much seemed to have changed. Aah, typical lah!!! I was a senior government servant and served all over the country, including a good part of my service in Kuala Lumpur. I opted for early retirement at 45 in the 1979 because I felt I can do better in the private sector. Before I started leaving I talked heart-to-heart with my director, and suggested so many proposals to improve his department (name withheld). I don’t know whether what I said was getting into his coconut or if he was really listening. He just kept on answering the incoming fixed line calls (no cell phone then). That man could have just asked his secretary to hold all calls, right? Anyway I come straight to what I am going to say. My former department (based in Kuala Lumpur) has not made much improvement in terms of quality and efficient services.
I hear many of the new people there are still not in the office when they should be in to attend to the public. During my time, they all just get ready to leave for coffee break, lunch and when it came to go home they will leave before the time is up. It was not surprising to have three to four tea/lunch breaks. The office was also virtually empty during festive seasons. Now staff disappearing has been curbed! Thank god! Prime Ministers have come and gone, but I see not much improvement in certain departments. Nowadays, staff also take so many emergency, sick and whatnot leaves! Grandpa died lah, nenek mati lah, isteri beranak lah, kids sick lah, etc etc. Adui! No end to the staff problem in the civil service.”
Being inquisitive, I tried to obtain more information about his civil service life but no sooner had he found out from the WhatsApp group members that I am a newspaper editor than he politely told me he is not going to say much other than what has already been written.
But anyway, I believe Malaysia’s civil service has improved tremendously in terms of delivery of service, and handling public complaints.
I am extremely proud to say that the Sarawak civil service on the other hand is slowly metamorphosising from a not-so-good-looking caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly – thanks to Adenan who started the transformation and Abang Johari who is continuing the good work.
The Premier has directed civil servants to equip themselves with new skills necessary to enhance service delivery and achieve the vision of an international-class civil service. He believes in human capital investment to build and nurture a world class talent pool.
Of course, all these efforts by the government alone aren’t enough to achieve efficiency and the desired level of competence. Civil servants need to do more to increase productivity and encourage creativity to deliver better services than what they have previously done. There is no time to rest on their laurels.
Transparency and good governance are key elements as integrity and accountability are part and parcel of the civil service’s delivery system and execution of duties.
It is public perception that the government sector is often seen as susceptible to corruption in developing countries, not just in Malaysia.
Bear in mind that corruption can cause leakage to public funds and drive away investors which will affect our economy.
More importantly, Sarawak should hire qualified and competent people who are knowledgeable, principled, unprejudiced, ethical and fair to run the departments.
Recently, Abang Johari paid tributes to the Sarawak civil service for helping the state to achieve its highest revenue in its history.
“With their (civil servants’) cooperation and hard work in 2022, we made a record where the state revenue almost reached RM12 billion. The figure surpassed its projected revenue of RM10.2 billion by 17 per cent,” he said early this month.
Our civil service is also performing better than the rest of the country because of Abang Johari’s decision to allow the government sector to continue the use of English, in accordance with the Sarawak Constitution, despite opposition from certain quarters. The use of English has made our government sector a progressive entity.
Another factor that has set us apart from Malaya is the implementation of the digital government initiative under the Sarawak Digital Economy Strategy, making it easier and faster to interact with the public. This has certainly improved the delivery process too.
The strategy also covered the agriculture, manufacturing-industry, tourism, smart city, digital health, e-commerce and social sectors.
Having said that, the areas where our civil service can improve is in human resources. I mean hire the best and continue with the state’s emphasis on meritocracy, regardless of race and creed. Just ignore the critics and aim to be the best in the country.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
