Public Services Department director-general Mohd Zabidi Zainal has publicly announced that 50 civil servants holding ‘sensitive posts’ will be transferred within a week. That is pretty decisive and fast action and he said that this exercise is going to be ‘on-going’. I wonder why the haste, and how many more will be transferred out?

Has the problem of sensitivity and corruption in the civil service suddenly become so serious? Is there now a kind of crisis about this problem of stagnancy of officers sitting in sensitive posts and making money?

This drastic exercise also begs the question, as to whether the person or the post is the ‘sensitive’ problem? If it’s the person and he/she is performing badly or dishonestly, he or she could be dealt with under the government’s disciplinary rules or General Orders quite severely and swiftly, if of course, there is a real will to do so.

If the problem is the sensitive post, then for the sake of good governance, please desensitise the post. How? By introducing tighter procedures, so that so-called ‘Little Napoleons’ do not find loopholes and then exploit them for personal gain and public loss.

But who are the Little Napoleons? They are those recalcitrant officers who specialise in abusing their authority for personal pomp, power and greed. Apparently, there is a growing number of them in the political and administrative arena today. How else do we account for the worsening International Transparency Corruption Perception Index, please? All the anti-corruption measures so far have shown they don’t or cannot bite the problems of corruption.

However, the common problems, to both the cases of sensitive posts as well as sensitive persons, are the abuse of power and could easily be corruption. Corruption is broadly defined as the exploitation of public office or posts for personal gain or unfair benefits, including of course big donations. Most Malaysians are aware of these problems but now appear helpless to do much about the curse of corruption in high places.

Nevertheless, in either case, if the abuse of power or corruption or both are involved, will the mere transfers of the sensitive persons or officials or Little Napoleons help solve the problems of abuse or power and corruption?

Actually, we may perpetuate the problems of blatant abuse of power and even inadvertently, reward the errant officials, by allowing them to practice their fine art of misconduct and the devious manipulation of the system, for their continued corrupt enrichment, by only transferring them to their new posts or places of work.

So what is the solution to the abuse of sensitive posts? Simply put, like in the business world, staff found to be suspect, should be speedily identified, counselled, and guided along the straight and narrow path, like every religion and sound value system teach all of us.

However, if the suspected official still persists in suspicious activities, then he has to be got rid of through mutual understanding. But if the errant officer continues in his wayward ways, he should be sacked or reported to the police. If the present rules, regulations and laws do not allow for stiff disciplinary action to be taken, then for our own good, please change the laws.

Do not manja-manja and undermine the maruah of the Civil Service.

Unfortunately, under the current circumstances, this tough treatment of Napoleons in politics and in the administration may lead to the dispatch and even disposal of significant numbers of politicians and staff. Most people will respond, so what? So be it.

Our country and our taxpayers are losing out on our diminishing capacity and patience, to tolerate, afford and sadly support, these Little Napoleons, fund wasters and abusers of public funds. Why should we manja -manja the minority of dishonest public servants, at the expense of the vast majority of dutiful civil servants and most Malaysian citizens who practice integrity and goodwill and their solid religious values which reject corruption?

Recommendations for a better Civil Service

The transfer of officers indicates that something is badly wrong with the state of the Civil Service. They also show that we are going for the necessary quick fixes. But for serious weaknesses in the Civil Service, which is the ‘tulang belakang’ or backbone of the government administration, these quick measures are not sufficient.

These quick fix measures appear ad hoc and knee jerk in nature. They are certainly not fundamental and sufficient enough to improve and strengthen the Civil Service in the longer term.

There has to be reform in the Civil Service or these problems will just carry on forever.

Hence the following recommendations are seriously proposed for government and the public consideration for early implementation:

1. The quality of the Civil Service should be enhanced considerably. We have to hire the best graduates in all fields and retain them.

We used to pride ourselves with a top-class Civil Service that could compete with the best anywhere in the world. I am not sure if we enjoy that kind of reputation today?

2. We have to pay more to attract the best recruits, as in the past. We did have highly competent civil servants in the past, like for example those members of the G25 and their colleagues. But we will also need to stress better quality of work and higher productivity and better services and more civility, to the public. It’s the public, who as taxpayers, are actually their pay masters. Civil servants tend to forget this and unlike those in business, many government servants today ironically think the government owes them a living.

3. We should scrupulous go about attracting, recruiting and retaining government staff of integrity and devotion to duty. We used to be ingrained with ideals of serving God, Agong and Country.

Do we insist on these qualities today? Those found wanting or corrupt and inefficient, should not be tolerated. One bad apple can spoil the whole case. Sadly that has been happening and on going to a large extent.

4. The government of the day should ensure there is professionalism and independence in the Civil Service. Political interference of any kind is poisonous to the health and strength of any Civil Service worth its salt.

Our public institutions are generally perceived as weakening today, as compared to the past. If this is true, then it is a dangerous public perception, as we can have elements of ‘state capture’, taking over the institutions and reducing their independence, integrity and inclusiveness.

But our national institutions, like the Judiciary, the Civil Service, the police, the Armed Forces, the Election Commission, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and so, can only be strong and effective if they are staffed by the best intellects in our country, in all fields.

But do we have our best and most competent and honest sons and daughters serving our beloved country? It's for the public to judge. To be fair, I have some reservations, please.

5. As a multi-racial and multi-religious society, our Civil Service has to reflect that blessing of diversity that we enjoy. For indeed, we aspire for Unity in Diversity. But yet parochial politics and some short-sighted politicians go against the grain in our country, and often ignore this reality - at the peril of national unity, harmony and progress.

Those of the same racial group tend to show more empathy to their own kind. Hence a basically monoracial Civil Service tends to alienate other groups, even inadvertently. But the damage and resentment builds up over time, which is inimical to our society.

Conclusion

It is gratifying that the Public Services Department has openly recognised that there are serious problems at the highest levels of the Civil Service. It is now clear that many in the top echelon of the Civil Service are inefficient and corrupt. Thus the thinking public are deeply concerned and wonder - what is the real state of affairs at all levels, down to the base of this huge bureaucracy?

The government and the Civil Service leaders cannot be seen to be merely transferring the problems. Instead the rakyat must be assured that the government will take all the steps necessary, however politically unpopular, including some that I have enumerated above, to solve the problems. This can only be done effectively by reforms in the Civil Service.

However, the burning questions and the continuing challenges for the government are - have the federal and state governments got the political will to reform the Civil Service? Is there a strong enough political will to reform the related national institutions, to enable our beloved Malaysia to move forward with greater maruah, pride and progress?

Only our governments and our rakyat can truthfully answer these vital questions. And adopt the proper reforms to succeed more in the future.

RAMON NAVARATNAM is chairperson of Asli/Centre of Public Policy Studies.