The projects rolled out for the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) might breathe life into the debt-ridden and controversial 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), PKR’s Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli warns.

Speaking at a forum on the 11MP last night, Rafizi said that as usual, the projects rolled in government plans befitted certain people and cronies linked to the ruling party and not as touted to drive the economy forward.

"11MP, in my opinion, is nothing more than series of projects costing RM200 billion-plus to build up the coffers of connected people and cronies, without any impact on our economy.

If we are not careful, the projects of 11MP will be geared to plug off the losses of 1MDB… more and more projects have to be created to add value to 1MDB," Rafizi said at the forum, ‘11th Malaysia Plan: Can the targets be achieved?’ at Universiti Malaya last night.

Rafizi ( photo ) asked everybody to keep watch on the developments around 1MDB, which was gaining criticism each passing day from all quarters, especially from the people.

His NGO, National Oversight and Whistleblowers (NOW), is currently on a donation drive campaign called 'Close down 1MDB, return rakyat's money'.

The NGO wants the people to donate RM10 each in its efforts to raise RM20,000 to file an injunction to stop public agencies - the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Lembaga Tabung Haji (Pilgrims' Fund Board) and Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) from dealing with 1MDB.

Meanwhile another panellist, former deputy minister Saifuddin Abdullah, called for a total transformation of the civil service, which he claims is not being executed adequately in either government transformation programmes or in the 11MP.

Saifuddin said the problem with the Malaysian government in dealing with civil service problems was just to create another unit or hire consultants and this demotivated the civil servants themselves even more.

But elephant in the room is not addressed...

"I'm not saying the civil servants are not good, but we need to do transformation.

"For many years not, if not happy with the civil servants, the government created something else, or hired consultants to address the issues. But the elephant in the room is not addressed," he said.

Saifuddin suggested that Malaysian government looks at how the civil service of the United Kingdom has been transformed into a leaner and better service.

"The UK civil service in the past 16 years, from the time of Margaret Thatcher, has made two full transformations. This (transformation) was not done behind close doors but debated, like they debate policies. They got the input from every stakeholder," Saifuddin said.

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