Government of Malaysia Inc

KJ John
Malaysiakini

I cannot agree with bloggers Art Harun and Lim Kit Siang more. Both have basically argued a similar concern; why is the government acting as if they privately own the country.

Yes, to their minds the chief secretary to the government and chief justice are both CEO appointments – one for the executive branch of the public services, and the other for the judicial services. Both are accused of “doing things as they like”, as if they are in a private corporation and answerable to no one outside of the “cabinet” as their board of directors.

Allow me to repeat their arguments for those who did not follow them.

Art Harun, a lawyer in his own right, and a very articulate one at that, argues that the chief justice has basically over-stepped his bounds if he asked the two errant judges to resign privately, without being charged officially and publicly. He has basically no authority to ask them to leave privately; as this is neither a private appointment nor a private matter. This is not Government of Malaysia Private Limited!

If these two senior judges have in fact not carried out their oath to public office diligently and dutifully, as per their code of conduct; they must he charged and due process followed as per the constitutional provisions for the sacking of judges. I cannot agree more with Art Harun. We must move away for the so-called privatisation of the Malaysian government.

Now, for Lim Kit Siang’s argument about the secretary to the cabinet and the only cabinet rank chief public servant and the executor of the cabinet decisions.

The question asked by LKS (Lim Kit Siang) is why chief secretary Mohd Sidek Hassan did not oversee the previous decisions of the cabinet. LKS wrote: “I see it as a major step backwards in public accountability and good governance, as it smacks of being a super ‘cover up’ task force for the PKFZ (Port Klang Free Zone) scandal.”

He continues, “he (Sidek) should explain to the Malaysian public why he had failed in the past two years to carry out the cabinet decision in July 2007 when it resolved on the RM4.6 billion bailout of PKFZ, including giving retrospective approval to the four illegal Letters of Support unlawfully given by the two previous transport ministers, Dr Ling Liong Sik and Chan Kong Choy, that the chief secretary should conduct an inquiry as to how the four Letters of Support could have issued unlawfully and to take the necessary disciplinary actions against the culprits who have now landed the country with a RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal.”

As an ex-public servant of 30 years service, and a senior of Sidek, I fully agree with LKS: The chief secretary to the government and the secretary to the cabinet must answer LKS’ query as to why there was no serious follow-up to the relevant cabinet decisions, if they were in fact actual cabinet decisions.

If there was wrongdoing who was really responsible for that ‘close-one-eye culture’ in this instance?

Public service morally bankrupt

In fact, for the public that does not know, I visited the Prime Minister’s Department website and found out that there is a whole division called, ‘The Cabinet, Constitution, and Inter-Governmental Relations Division’ under the chief secretary headed by another deputy chief secretary-general with five secretaries to divisions, eight chief assistant secretaries, two system analysts, and eight whole units – all to service the cabinet.

In my calculation, that should be about at least 30 officers, if not 50, in that cabinet division headed by a very senior officer.

What were they doing to follow-up and follow-through the cabinet decisions? If my memory does not fail me, every other week we used to get reminders from this division about follow-up matters of cabinet meeting decisions and we were required to give updates, failing which we could be hauled up.

When such an elaborate and excellent system of follow-up and follow-through exists, why were these decisions not followed up and adequately reported in a timely matter?

Now that even the former finance minister who oversaw much of the privatisation which became ‘piratisation” has spoken up too, maybe it is time for the chief secretary to come clean and speak up for the truth on all such matters. There really is no reason for anymore cover-up; let the whole truth and nothing but the truth be known.

For a fact, on Jan 13, 2006, I did make an official complaint to the Parliamentary Special Committee on Integrity that the whole cabinet system of government was collapsing because ‘information papers’ were being passed off as cabinet decision papers when in fact they were only ‘information papers’ or ‘kertas maklumat’.

It looks to me like no one took the compliant seriously, and even more seriously, that the Parliamentary Special Committee Report has not yet even been tabled to the Parliament yet after more than three years. So much for People First, Performance Now!

The public services of Malaysia, like the judicial services, were excellent at one time. Today, they are morally corrupt, if not reeking with incompetence at absolutely all the wrong places. For example, every other week I hear that the Economic Planning Unit is requesting and putting pressure on government departments to “under declare and sell government land to private entities for a song”.

Why would the EPU be involved in such land transactions and transfers? Why is EPU now becoming an enforcement agency when its name suggests that it should be planning for the nation? Is it the dismal failure of EPU as a strategic planning outfit which caused the formation of new National Economic Council with a chairman of cabinet rank and developed by a non-public servant as secretary general?

Is it also the failure of the “privatisation agenda” of the EPU that is daily revealing all the “piratisation projects” and many failures of the government like the PKFZ? Was not the then minister of finance also the minister of the EPU?

A personal message to my friend

My dear friend, Mohd Sidek Hassan, you have always been a straight forward and truth-seeking person, whether in Washington DC, or in Miti (Ministry of Trade and Industry) or as the KSN (Chief Secretary to the Government) now.

Please carry on with such a straightforward performance driven agenda. But, please also be as firm and forthright with the prime minister and his cabinet; please do not cover up for their weaknesses, even if in the past.

Please tell the truth as it is, at least to the cabinet and tell the PM how rotten the public services have truly become over the years. My friend, I can only speak and write like this now because, as I told then Minister Rafidah Aziz, I was bailing out of the PTD (Adminstrative and Diplomatic Service) because it was beginning to stink even then.

As I wrote to you when you took office, you can make a difference to change the course of this nation vide your public policy defining role. You have done well so far, but I am equally concerned that you finish well. Therefore please do not compromise on any truth; speak the truth to the best of your ability, speak it in honest but true love; speak it also full of grace and hope.

Recently, in a bible study I am doing, I read about how the prophet Moses did not enter the promised land because he failed to obey God in the last years of his 120 year life.

Therefore my friend, please stay focused on finishing well for the sake of your children and our grandchildren.

Unfortunately for our senior colleague who was the ex-general manager of Port Klang Authority, her name is now dragged in the mud only because she may have given in to political interests, and may be self-interest, rather than to serve the public interest. May the Lord God Almighty help you finish well instead!