by Martin Jalleh
9 Nov. 2010

Deputy PM Muhyiddin Yassin believes that the BN is “back in business”. The buoyant “Malaysian-second” in Bolehland, said that BN’s future is bright and the Opposition better not underestimate them!

Bolstered by two big by-election victories he even boldly declares that the bureaucrats in Bolehland are “the best civil servants in the world”! The civil servant “have done a lot, but the people want better”.

The Deputy PM was at his ironic best: “The people do not want rhetoric. The era for rhetoric has long gone. The era where the government knows all, like what the prime minister has said, has long gone.”

[Strange, but it is APCO (the international communications firm which Najib is paying a bomb to spruce up his image and lobby for support in Washington) which feels that Malaysia is just another backward hole where Government knows best and press freedom is a figment of the imagination (Malaysian Chronicle)!]

Yes, the rakyat knows best Muhyiddin and we fully agree with you that the civil service in Bolehland is the “best in the world” in the following ways:

Best Bloated Civil Service

· With 1.3 million civil servants to a population of 26 million, Malaysia has one of the highest civil servants-to-population ratio in the world by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development standards.

· In 2009, Malaysia’s civil servants-to-population ratio was highest in Asia Pacific. Her ratio was 4.68%, compared to Indonesia’s 1.79%, Korea’s 1.85% and Thailand’s 2.06% all of which have less than half our ratio.

· In 2009, Singapore had a total of 60,000 civil servants, i.e., 1.5% of the total population. Hong Kong had 160,000 out of a population of 7 million (2.3%). Taiwan (population of 23 million) was served by only 528,000 (2.3%).

Best way to bleed a budget dry

· “…much of the budget (2011) continues to go into operating a bloated civil service. As much as three quarters of the national budget is spent on paying salaries and other benefits to over 1.3 million civil servants.

· “This means that of every dollar spent in the budget, 75 sen goes towards manning the civil service, leaving little left to carry out development work that can benefit the country’s population.

· “There is clearly something fundamentally wrong in the way the country’s budget is being spent when so much of the allocation goes to paying for a sector that is generally regarded as unproductive and standing in the way of efficiency.” – Dr Lim Teck Ghee, Director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies

· A post-2011 Budget dialogue highlighted the massive amount (35% of the total RM162.8 billion operating expenditure) to be spent on emoluments, pensions and gratuities of civil servants. A panelist, Ministry of Finance budget division director Datuk Dr Rahamat Bivi Yusuff admitted that there is a need to trim the civil service to reduce the budget deficit.

· In a public forum held in Sept this year Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin admitted that there is an over-inflated civil service and that the government will need to make tough but necessary changes in the next five or 10 years to reduce the numbers.

· “We are now spending more than RM41 bil a year – that’s a billion more than the market capitalisations of Khazanah Nasional and Telekom Nasional – to upkeep our 1.15 million civil servants. It’s a whopping cost, especially so when juxtaposed against the 1.14mil Malaysians who pay income tax. (There are 10.5 million employed citizens in the country, of whom 6.4 million are registered taxpayers, but actual contributions come from only 1.14 mil). – The Star, 7 May 2009

Best way to bankrupt this nation

· Whilst it is the growing trend of many countries to reduce their civil service, Malaysia, the PM’s Department in particular, has done the opposite. It more than doubled its number of civil servants from 21,000 to 43,554 this year. In stark contrast, the White House employs only 1,888 staff.

· The White House’s budget is US$394 million for 2011. The PM’s Department has been allocated a whopping RM18.14 billion for the year 2011, almost double the RM10.2 billion this year.

· “Pemandu, which stands for Performance, Management and Delivery Unit, was set up last year under the Najib administration as one of the pillars in his Government Transformation Plan… is a massive drain on resources. In a span of two months, just to pay 50 consultants, the government spent RM20 million.”

· “If the civil service is consuming a big budget under the Prime Minister’s Department, it is because the other agencies of the civil service are not functioning. That’s why Najib consolidates everything under his department.” – Ong Kian Ming, political analyst

Best contradiction of 1Malaysia

· As at 31 December 2009, the racial breakdown of the Malaysian civil service comprising 1,247,894 employees was as follows: Malay (78.2%); Other Bumiputras (7.7%); Chinese (5.8%), Indian (4.0%); and Others (4.2%).

· “This is the worst multi-racial composition of the government service, with the lowest Chinese and Indian representation in the public service in Malaysia’s 53-year history. This is clearly seen from the three sets of comparative figures of the racial breakdown of the civil service before the NEP 1971 and as at December 2009 – Malays (60.80% and 78.2%); Chinese (20.2% and 5.8%); Indians (17.4% and 4.0%); and Others (1.6% and 4.2%).

· “It is clear that the Government is setting the worst example of a 1Malaysia Government.” –Vivian Kuan, in Loyar Burok’s Blog (8 Nov 2010).

Best in corruption

· Last year two out of five civil servants were deemed corrupt by Cuepacs. It was described as a worrying trend that needed to be tackled urgently.

· Cuepacs President Omar Osman revealed that a total of 418,200 or 41% of the 1.2 million civil servants in the country were suspected to be involved in corruption last year (Bernama, 02.06.10). It caused Lim Kit Siang to remark that “the MACC is a big flop as it did not even arrest 0.1% of the corrupt civil servants last year”.

· Malaysians generally consider political parties and civil service to be the most corrupt groups, and the government’s anti-corruption drive to be ineffective, the 2009 Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) report revealed (The Sun, 03.06.09)

Best “dumping ground”

Finally, Muyhiddin should ponder on the wisdom of Sakmongkol AK47, the pen-name of Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz, a former state assemblyman of Pahang who is a member of Umno.

“Government service shouldn’t be treated as a dumping ground for academic rejects and mediocre material. Let’s demand a certain high standard and ensure we bring in talent that supports that demand for high standards.

“What has the government done to improve the efficiency and competence of government servants? There isn’t really competition there if the service is dominated by one race. There isn’t sufficient quality if the entry-level qualifications are so-so.

“Yet each year, to placate civil servants, the PM will appear on TV to say, we honour our civil servants because they have done a good job, blah blah. Which is not entirely true. The service is slow, the quality of officers is questionable.

“Those people talking about the GTP have not talked openly about the issue of talent in the civil service and in government. If we don’t open up our civil service, it will atrophy. It is a simple observation of experience. If we don’t open up and cultivate competition to get into government service, we get what ails our service now – little Napoleonism – the imposition of pettiness by mediocre talent that fouls up the delivery service.”

So there you have it Muhyiddin — the world’s best bureaucratic behemoth and blunder to burden the people of Bolehland and bleed the country dry! And believe it or not its by a government who boasts about ” People First, Performance Now”. Little wonder that we are the world’s best example of a country with growing similarities with Greece where 10% of its population are government servants and is reputed to be the most corrupt nation in the Eurozone!

But Umno likes Muhyiddin’s make-believe. It will guarantee them votes in the next General Elections, which must be close at hand. Civil servants are made to believe that Umno is their (political) paymaster and they owe Umno. The party’s leaders would do or say anything to convince the government servant of this, even praising them as “the best civil servants in the world”!