July 10, 2012
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com
On the Civil Service Pay Rise Debacle
by Lim Teck Ghee, Chairman, The Center for Policy Initiatives (CPI)
The New Straits Times editor recently wrote an article analysing the recent changes in the civil service top leadership. The article titled “Of accountability in the civil service and putting people first” ended with the lines “[t]hose in the public service can now look forward to a better and a more rewarding career as the country marches towards meeting the Vision 2020. We can now put the dark episode behind us.”
But has the dark episode ended? Although one prominent head, the Public Services Department top honcho, has rolled, more were implicated in the salary revision debacle and should have been lopped off. Even with the latest attempt at salary revision, the basic problems besetting the civil service remain unresolved and continue to be kept out of the arena of public discussion and discourse.
Rushing through the SBPA
When the new Skim Baru Perkhidmatan Awam (SBPA) for the public service was mooted, it was clear that the scheme had the top echleon of the civil service as its principal beneficiaries. To prevent public scrutiny of the scheme, few details were provided and there was a concerted attempt made to rush the implementation through.
None of the country’s major stakeholders and key players emerged with any credit during the period when the SBPA was being pushed through with indecent haste.
CUEPACS, the main civil service union responsible for looking after the
interests of lower-grade workers, only came to grips with some of the main flaws relating to the salary inequities very late in the game. Why did the CUEPACS leadership flip-flop over SBPA and finally register its opposition so late?
Were their arms twisted or were they blinded by personal ambition and self-serving interests of its leaders or by other factors?
Aspiring economists would do well to study the CUEPACS role in this episode of labour negotiations to uncover the tangled and often invisible dynamics of individual, group, organisational and political interests converging and diverging.
Politics and the Civil Service
The stand of the country’s top leaders was negligent and irresponsible. Salivating at the prospect of the civil service continuing to serve as the Barisan Nasional’s fixed deposit of game-deciding voters in the coming elections, Prime Minister Najib, his ambitious Deputy Muhyiddin and the entire Cabinet failed to pay attention to the details of the proposed SBPA and were unconcerned with its shortcomings. A Cabinet paper on the proposed SBPA was tabled so the Cabinet cannot claim ignorance on the matter or shift responsibility away from itself.
National interest appears to be furthest from the minds of our political elite because many would have benefited personally if the SBPA had been successfully implemented. The practice in Malaysia is that the salaries and allowances of elected politicians are pegged to those of the country’s top administrators.
It was not merely the nation’s top 5,000 civil servants who would have benefited from the “durian runtuh” or windfall of the SBPA. Tens of thousands of our political elite would have benefited similarly from the surreptitious attempt to benchmark the pay rise to the wages of top private sector professionals and managers. Is this why political parties and politicians were so quiet on the SBPA during the critical months when the Public Service Department (PSD) attempted to ram the scheme down our country’s throat?
Another key force — the mass media — was also derelict in its responsibilities when the SBPA was being rolled out. Instead of critically analysing the new scheme and seeking feedback from the public, they dutifully reproduced the stream of official propaganda applauding the impact of the new scheme. Not a single editorial appears to have been written in the mainstream media calling attention to the obvious defects of the scheme and subjecting it to judicious scrutiny and debate.
Today, four months after the scheme was aborted, there are belated editorials about how bold and responsive the government is to the needs of the lower-rank civil servants and how fortunate it is that the scheme did not “see the light of day”. Spinning and hypocrisy seem to reign supreme amongst most of our media leaders when it comes to crucial matters of the state that may have political consequences.
The only stake player that has emerged with any credit in this sorry and continuing saga of political opportunism taking advantage of a national issue is the Internet media. It is the Internet media that raised the alarm bells over the defects of the SBPA and smelled a rat in the way that the scheme was being railroaded through by the government and the PSD. It is the Internet media that carried the comments of indignant readers calling for the scrapping of the scheme and decrying the attempts by government aimed at milking political mileage from it.
Dark episode behind us?
Yet another special commission has now been set up. Headed by former Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi, the commission is to study the transformation of the civil service in a comprehensive and holistic manner. The commission does not have to look long or far and wide to identify the key problems of the civil service.
NGOs such as the Centre for Policy Initiatives have identified four key reforms needed for a revitalised civil service. They are:
● Fighting corruption within the service.
● Depoliticising the service.
● Ensuring a multi-racially representative service.
● Right sizing the civil service
To these, another should be added. How much did the Malaysian Salary Remuneration Ssystem (SSM) correct the salary inequality within the service or did it further reinforce it? Under the Barisan government, the salary differentials within the Malaysian civil service have developed to be amongst the more inequitable ones in the world.
Has the yawning inequality in civil service pay become even worse with the 
SSA? The new special commission, CUEPECS and others should have something to say on the salary inequality within the civil service even if the government would rather it be put into permanent cold storage.
In fact, all Malaysians should be very concerned with the civil service salary inequality and other issues affecting the well-being and productivity of the largest body of workers in the country.
Competent, diligent,disciplined,and clean civil service is needed. Yes, better salaries and perks for them but this must be matched by productivity and efficiency.–Din Merican
Certainly Malaysian cannot comprehend the need to reward those who rob us of our trusts and services. The size of our civil service is bloated beyond common sense. An example was the commissioning of a million RELA (correct me if I am wrong) without proper consideration of the cost impact what to say on the quality when you can see them all over town doing nothing.
There is a lot of debate going on within the GS as it stands, which Dr Lim is not aware of.
The SBPA mechanism allowed for ‘trimming the fat’, meritocracy and better pathway for advancement of the technical groups. When it was first unveiled, there were many loop-holes which the then DG PSD, was willing to fine-tune. But becuz of the furor and knee-jerks by the unthinking masses, that was put paid. The problem was that the 3 head-honchos in charge, viz DG,PSD; KSN and DG Treasury did not seek Cuepacs input and the Cabinet never bothered with micro (or even macro) analysis. They just went ahead to ‘Syiok Sendiri’. You see the problem with this Administration is basically one of Non-Consensus and inability to respond holistically nor think laterally. Their motto seems to be: ‘Apa pun Boleh!’ or ‘Cin-Cai Bo Cai’! Pro-action is a dirty word and they only react to shit hitting the fan..
The SSM is merely upgraded stultification and evolutionary dead end. A political expediency. The ex-DG PSD, instead of taking credit took the bitter pill, while the whole Cabinet should’ve been shot!
So Transform what? All show without substance.
We are not unthinking robots and are too old to play with Transformer Toys. We have no patience with dithering idiots who think a world of themselves. We can’t afford ‘cakap ta’ serupa bikin’-o-nomics.
We want Reform! A paradigm change of how things are done – Mahatirism or not!
The raison de’tre of the civil service is to preserve, protect and prop up the UMNO/BN government. In other words by upholding Malay interests.
To trim down the civil service would mean more jobless Malays which will be detriment to UMNO’s interests.
Just walk into any government department, I mean any, and you will find civil servant missing from their desks. They would have either gone out on the pretext of saying their prayers or be chatting away at the cafeteria or nearby warongs or smoking in or behind the toilets.
Over the years I have been to this local council office to apply for a dog license and believe me, on EVERY occasion the person in charge was out. The others will not attend to you and say, “Dia keluar. Cuba datang kemudian”.
Don’t ask for the boss. He is also out!!!
Kesian that jpa guy!!! Is kena berhentikan the same as kena buang. Kena buang means dpt all his pension ka? What about his gratuity??? Klu dpt …then all government servant yg kena buang bole dpt the same ting ka? No double standard la…please!!! Or ada pay off under the table ka?
Bukan kena buang. Bersara lah.
The finger pointing took the form of a fist. Couldn’t trust the fella, as he was next in line for the KSN, which was given to a more magnificent ampu-bodek. The acting DG, PSD is a woman who won’t be confirmed until after GE-13. Biasa lah..