The prime minister has spoken on the lack of courtesy by our government civil service when dealing with the public.

It is common knowledge that the big brass at government department treats their departments as their own personal fiefdoms and expect their staff to treat them with greatest respect and only pay lip service to the public at large.

One can only hope for decent treatment if one has an honorific title in front of one's name. Either that or if you are known to the top brass of the department concerned.

Go to any department in charge of issuing licences or those dealing with the law and you'll hear from the grapevine that 'money talks'.

Yes, there is a lot of deadwood in the government departments and reforming the civil service to be on par with other modern countries is going to be a Herculean task. It goes without saying that our top politicians and top government officials should be good role models for their junior staff to emulate.

Muslims are taught early to treat our jobs as our prayers ( ibadah ). If we can ingrain the good value of treating our work like our prayers, hopefully the high incidence of abuse of power by the high and mighty can be reduced significantly.

Funds in the government coffers can then be directed to help the downtrodden and poor citizen to improve their life further. If we look at the scandals involving in government-linked companies over the past years, there must be something rotten somewhere.

After nearly 50 years of independence, where is the ethos of good values and service in our public sector? They are paid by taxpayers monies to do a good job in serving the public.

Hopefully, the prime minister's call for better government ethics and culture will not fall on deaf ears and that the government servants will pull up their socks to serve the public without fear and favour.

In the private sector, if you do not perform, out you go. But in the public sector, if you don't perform, you can hide in the labyrinth of government procedures for years until retirement.

'Change or be changed'. That should be the message sent to the public sector by their political masters.