1. How I wished the communications minister was quick enough to expand more and vigorously on the gist of the PM's speech . But he hasn't and this convinces me, that he wasn't alert.
2. It also tells me that perhaps the PM hasn't picked the right persons for certain ministries. And that is why i said that when the PM said he has a team of like-minded people, it was more an expression of hope rather than one of reality .
3. As regards the public service, we don't have people like an Ismail ali, a Zain azrai, a thong yaw haw, or even a navaratnam. What we have are passable joes who advanced because of connections, race and so on instead of merits and performance.
4. Once the principles of putting the best person on the job based on incorruptibility, excellence, ability and performance are abandoned and replaced by choices based on connection and race, the rot seeps in
5. Many years ago, when I was an adun in pahang, we attended a talk given by tan Sri navaratnam. He talked about his book, 'the winds of change '.
6. Naturally, he talked about the importance of having an excellent public service as a Sina qua non for a good, clean and efficient government . He waxed lyrical about having the best civil service during tun Razaks time .
7. So, I asked him a question. Would he agree that the deterioration in the quality of our civil service began with the indiscriminate bumiputra-ism policy? He was evasive and didn't take the bull by the horns. As was the politically right answer.
2. It also tells me that perhaps the PM hasn't picked the right persons for certain ministries. And that is why i said that when the PM said he has a team of like-minded people, it was more an expression of hope rather than one of reality .
3. As regards the public service, we don't have people like an Ismail ali, a Zain azrai, a thong yaw haw, or even a navaratnam. What we have are passable joes who advanced because of connections, race and so on instead of merits and performance.
4. Once the principles of putting the best person on the job based on incorruptibility, excellence, ability and performance are abandoned and replaced by choices based on connection and race, the rot seeps in
5. Many years ago, when I was an adun in pahang, we attended a talk given by tan Sri navaratnam. He talked about his book, 'the winds of change '.
6. Naturally, he talked about the importance of having an excellent public service as a Sina qua non for a good, clean and efficient government . He waxed lyrical about having the best civil service during tun Razaks time .
7. So, I asked him a question. Would he agree that the deterioration in the quality of our civil service began with the indiscriminate bumiputra-ism policy? He was evasive and didn't take the bull by the horns. As was the politically right answer.
8. Operasi isi penuh was interpreted as filling all government posts with any tom, dick and Harry Malay.
9. But even more damaging than the mono racism intake, was the abandonment of the ethos of an excellent civil service based on incorruptibility, competition, excellence and dedication. That's when we started going to the dogs.
10. The theme of creating an excellent civil service wasn't enunciated clearly by PM X. It seems like Jack sparrow, he will make it up as he goes along. He hasn't got the germ of that idea .
11. The efforts to create an excellent civil service must include his own personal resolve and will to shape the ethos of the civil service. It must be one based on incorruptibility, excellence, diligence and service for the people. We found none .
12. We would have expected the shortsightedness and deficiencies of the PM would be made up by members of his 'team'. Unfortunately many of them are not quick on their feet .
13. Sure, we all agree that a clean government with good governance must be anti corruption, anti abuse of power and anti wastage and so on. First the PM must have the personal resolve and will. 2nd, he must have the instruments to do it .
14. Assuming the chief of the sprm is whole, the sprm should be given wider powers and answerable to parliament. Other justice and law enforcing institutions must be given full unobstructed powers .
15. We would by now realized that creating a clean government is not just flashing your chesire cat smile, eating briyani or eating at warungs or eating grilled fish at tangling. It requires more than refineness . It requires robustness and force
16. If we are mesmerized by all those superficial crap, then we are one generation removed of walking on all fours. Like lky says( he's talking about imprisoning people under Singapore's Isa) we are applying it to severely punishing the corrupt, taking action against these people, is like making love to a virgin. It's painful initially, but gets more pleasurable subsequently. His words, not mine ok.
17. The recent arrest of the segambut bersatu chief, meant that some corrupt civil servants conspired with the then equally greedy political leadership to swindle the country of some 93b covid funds .
18. Civil servants should work with the current political leadership to achieve it's overriding objective to secure an incorruptible government. The rotten apples in the civil service, no matter how high or from what ministry should be exited. Don't save them, save us from them .
19. It is not the business of public servants to make things difficult for the public. They cannot put up unnecessary red tapes to the business community as a pretext to get commissions. Their brief is to make it easy to set up businesses.
20. Similarly they don't make things difficult for the public at large. The public shouldn't be made to wait excessively too long to get service. I liked the story of the lady mp in India, whose main mission is to tear down red tape. The question she asks is, why should the public wait excessively to get service from public servants?
21. When a department is created and civil servants staffed it, there is purpose for that. The purpose is to serve the public promptly and efficiently. And not to expect temporal gratification.
22. You do your best because you are duty bound and serve for the sake of serving. This is the Lillah taala the PM spoke of. The Japanese have a word for it, ganbatte or ganbare. Doing your best is hotwired in the self.
23. The ' for a purpose ' function is illustrated by a story about the great lee Kuan yew.
24. He once went for a holiday at a government rest house by the sea, at Tanjung Pagar, I think. He pressed the desk bell many times. It didn't work and nobody attended to him.
25. The lesson here is this. The bell and the host were there for a purpose. The tools with which the civil servants have, must work and the civil servants must serve diligently. They are not there to decorate the office.
26. The presence of these civil servants at the mosque and listening to the speech by the PM that day, do not preclude them from behaving horrendously at their workplace.
27. Both the presence and listening are not a guarantee that civil servants will act virtuously and piously. The PM will still need to wield the big stick to punish errand civil servants.
28. The bipolar personality of the civil servants questions the brand of Islam that they practised.
29. If they uphold corruption, abuse of power and are wasteful with government resources and continue to behave in a Hobbesian manner, then their religiosity must be a warped and vulgar one .
30. Moreover, the mosque does not guarantee that whatever promises, resolutions they make, will be translated into virtuous behavior and acts of saintliness.
31. The mosque, a Muslim place of worship and other devotional acts, is as much a place where virtuous acts emanate, as well as a place where wickedness originate. The civil servants can make the Putrajaya mosque an Al Quba mosque or an Al Dirar mosque.
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