MALAYSIA
Former Malaysian Minister of Finance Daim Zainuddin (pictured) has taken the Government to task over its complaints about the Public Service, saying trust is a two-way street.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Tun Daim said PS employees had told him they were being sidelined by special advisers appointed by Ministers.
He said when you are in Government, you have to deliver.
“You cannot deliver by yourself, the Civil Servants are the implementers, not you,” Tun Daim said.
“You plan policies, then you say [to the Civil Servants], take over. If you don’t trust them, they just sit down.”
He said the Government was doomed if Ministers could not, or would not, depend on their own officials.
“Without them … you are dead,” Tun Daim said.
He said Ministers, many of whom were holding Federal portfolios for the first time, should remember that the Public Service was a monolithic entity that had been around since the days of the British and would be around for a long time to come.
“The Government still has to pay the Civil Service whether it is put to work or allowed to sit idle,” Tun Daim said.
“The Civil Service is also a valuable source of votes that the Government cannot afford to alienate.”
Kuala Lumpur, 8 May 2019
