LETTER | To improve civil service, remove politics and sack deadwood

LETTER | We congratulate Anwar Ibrahim on his appointment as the 10th prime minister and are looking forward to the much-needed changes to bring the country's standing up in all areas as it was in the 1960s.

In his first address to members of his ministry, he succinctly stated the civil service is the pillar that upholds the system via laws and regulations.

Thus, it must be disciplined and there was no room for corruption and leakages. Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) fully supports him on this.

A few days ago, the ex-chief secretary to the government Abdul Halim Ali called for a law to protect the civil service.

He proposed a Public Services Act to avoid “political interference in appointments to the professional civil service". We agree with this call, but a very important factor that has affected the civil service performance has not been addressed.

Not only must there be no political interference in the appointment of top officers of the civil service but no civil servant from the top to the lowest post must be allowed to be a member of any political party.

Civil servants have to serve under whichever government is in place. Thus, their loyalty has to be to the government in place, not to their political parties.

When they are members of political parties, whether you like it or not ("mahu tak mahu") the political ideology of their parties is bound to creep into their duties in serving the public.

This is what creates "little Napoleons".

For example, allowing teachers to be active members of political parties has contributed to the decline in education.

Some of them were promoted to headships as a reward for helping the parties although they were not fit to manage schools. Result - broken schools with rampant indiscipline and consequent decline in academic performance followed.

Allowing teachers, particularly, to be active in politics has been based on the need to use them as political agents of the ruling party as they are found in the remotest parts of the country. At one time they were not allowed to be in politics, then they were.

In January this year, the then-prime minister directed the Education Ministry to immediately issue a directive allowing teachers to join politics on the pretext "of being in line with the democratic rights of the people". There are about 500,000 teachers.

Democratic rights have limits

"Democratic rights" have limitations, just as some other rights such as the right to free speech. Laws provide for this.

Civil servants can exercise their "democratic right" to be in politics by leaving the public service - when they are not paid with public money.

So, the proposed Public Services Act must specifically prohibit all civil servants (regardless of position) from being members, let alone office bearers, of any political party if the civil service is to be restored to its high standards of the 1960s.

There can be no two ways about this. Public servants must not in any way (even under the pretext of “democratic rights”) be allowed to be members of any political party, They should face immediate expulsion from the service, even if they are members of the ruling party.

There is a conflict of interest in being a government servant, paid out of public funds, who must be loyal to whichever government is in power, and loyalty to his political party which might be in the opposition. This will remove the unwritten criteria of promotions based on party loyalties of the government servants.

Secondly, why do non-performing civil servants continue to be paid with public money? The proposed Act must provide for the sacking of non-performing civil servants after giving them a period (say six months) to buck up.

Their presence in the service is very bad for the morale of the good staff. The government does not owe deadwood civil servants a living.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.