Comment by SSS Admin in response to DingDong's comment.
SSS Admin
DingDong,
You raised an interesting subject that attracts an early reply. Incidently, one of us had a lengthy conversation with an ex-senior Government Officer on this subject only last week. The matter of “seniority and juniority” that has been all pervading in government service. Of square pegs in round holes. Of misfits and deadwoods. A huge and burgeoning bureaucracy. But, while the information we provide below may be fairly accurate, it should not be regarded as the gospel truth.
Your sense of loyalty and patriotism in wanting to serve our country is laudable but there may not be many good news for you in terms of your expectations as far as government service is concerned. It may not be the place for the restless at heart who wants things done fast and business-like. There’s still a lot of protocol and long-established procedures, references to various departments, endless meetings and bogdowns due to late or lack of response. Understandably, a housing development approval requires the written OK from about a dozen departments. But on other matters discretion could be applied where the decision can be faster. The upside is wrong decisions are minimised, the downside is it’s pretty darn slow in decision-making.
Regarding the Administrative and Diplomatic Service (ADS, which holds posts that lead to the positions of Secretary Generals of Ministries and Chief Secretary to the Government), recruitment is via the Public Services Commission (PSC) interviews arranged by the Public Services Department (PSD), which is under the Prime Minister’s Department. The level of intake – whether at the lowest or intermediate or “Superscale” level – is determined by the PSD. Enquiries or applications for posts should therefore be addressed to the PSD. It is headed by a Director General but with the rank equivalent to a senior Secretary General. The PSD DG is, in fact, one of the “Top Three” who decide on major recruitment and promotion issues, including promotion to Superscale D and above (rangeing from G upwards to A and “Staff” appointments).
Recruitment is invariably at the lowest “Timescale” level. There have been exceptional cases where higher-level specialist posts were created and, where there are existing serving Officers with the qualification and the minimum years of working experience required, they may also apply. The PSD has been moving with the times, arranging for the training (scholarships and training are also their business) at first degree and post-graduate levels for jobs in sophisticated fields in line with government policies. We have, for example, an astrophysicist and cosmologist in the person of Dr Mazlan Harun but we may not have many nuclear physicists to enable us to develop our own nuclear bombs like Pakistan did. In the field of accountancy, it may not be just specialists in “financial engineering” and financial models, but also in the various branches of the economy, like Stock Market specialists, etc. The chances of recruitment for those post-graduates on government scholarships is good but “posting” to the desired positions, Departments or Ministries is not assured. “Seniority and juniority”, we are told, still holds sway in Government Service.
Positions in Government Service provide security of tenure unmatched anywhere else. As DPM TS Muhyiddin said, even a Minister cannot sack or transfer senior officers who have been confirmed in service. Long-established procedures require a lengthy process of Disciplinary Board appointment and hearings conducted by the PSD (which also handles terms of service and discipline) such that recommendations for dismissal, after approval by the PM or the Minister designated to look after PSD, need the YDP Agong’s assent. We are told that often those with unsatisfactory performance are merely “permanently overlooked” for promotions, or given the post of “Co-Ordinator over something but means nothing” – an insignificant job, but not sacked. Government positions may therefore not be what the enterprising and go-getting Malays should aspire to. Secure, cozy and fairly comfortable but there are many good ones already in the important posts and waiting in line.
There has been a slight trend of “going outwards” from Government Service. The enterprising ones leaving for the private sector which invariably offers higher pay, or for business, “to answer the call” for greater participation by Malays in “the culture of profit and risk-taking or of doing business and wealth accumulation”. This, too, is a laudable attitude and trend. There must be more Malays doing business and accumulating wealth to push up the 18% Malay corporate wealth ownership figure. Of course, Malays do not have a culture of doing business and it is a bigger risk than the average Chinese faces, considering that. But we have to continue what has been started by many, with varying degrees of success.
Perhaps a stint of employment in the private sector in the relevant trade and lines of interest would be useful, not only in learning the trade but also building up a network of contacts. Networking and contacts are so necessary for the Malays in business. While there are the Malay entrepreneurs associations here and there, they are different from the exclusive Chinese clan associations and business guilds that have traditionally, and for generations as part of their culture, been helping members of their clans progress in business etc.
It has been thought that as we progress in nationhood, and as has even been proven, more and more Malays get qualifications than there are jobs in the Civil Service such that the spillover would fill in whatever jobs that may be available in the private sector in Government-Linked Companies (GLCs) and even purely private enterprises. And that, when these, too, are saturated, Malay graduates would be trying their own businesses. There have been reports of graduates in the humanities, perhaps minimally required in private firms, staying in the kampongs trying a business or two and getting some measure of success, at least able to sustain themselves. Of course, the success stories are difficult to come by but, especially during economic slow down periods, such efforts have started to be made by unemployed Malay graduates. Let’s hope more will succeed, and big-time, too. It’s the balance that you speak about, necessary for long-term unity.
We realize that encouraging Malays to try the business field is easier said than done. It’s tough competition out there, with dog-eat-dog practices being done and Malays facing unfair competition when considering Malays have no culture of doing business compared to the Chinese who have been at it for hundreds if not thousands of years. But hopefully the Government retains the New Economic Policy fully in the New Economic Model and seriously widens the distribution of the NEP benefits to non-cronies and the new and struggling Malay businessmen. They have to do this if they want better chances of staying in power after the coming general elections.
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