Is there hope for the civil service?

I HAVE found courage to write this after the strong words from our Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to the civil service today. He encouraged those in civil service to not blindly follow instructions, to speak up if there are wrongdoings, and said he will support those who have been ‘tortured’.

I have entitled this column ‘Is there hope for the civil service’ because of the longstanding culture of victimisation in the organisation. Many of us join the civil service to serve the public. Some of us have better financial prospects elsewhere but choose the civil service because it offers us an unparalleled opportunity to serve the people of our nation. Unfortunately, the civil service is, as Tun clearly pointed out, populated with leaders who are self-serving (to put it mildly).

Over the years, I have seen some who have taken advantage of their position to enrich themselves or abuse their power. So much so that the prevalent culture is to ‘keep your head down and follow instructions’, even if things are wrong. Those of us who attempt to speak up when we see wrongs or necessary corrections in the system are often censured, at times with measures detrimental to our career. We are constantly reminded that we belong to the ‘government service’.

Kindly allow me to share a personal example from my own life. I have just retired after serving in the civil service for 35 years. In April last year, I received a showcause letter to say I have brought shame or detriment (“memalukan danmemburukan”)tomyministry and the civil service. I was also informed verbally that action was being considered at the highest echelons of the organisation to sack me without pension.

Now you may ask what action had I done to bring such wrath on myself. What prompted this response was a tweet that I had made which stated that “we are civil servants, not government servants”. I went on to say that it is the “taxes of the people that pay our wages”. You may say that what I tweeted was factual and mild, but remember that this was in April 2017, before the elections when fear was prevalent and many were being censured. This tweet was forwarded by some cyber-trooper to the highest levels of the organisation and so I was threatened with a show- cause letter.

It was a traumatic learning experience for me. I found that, despite many years of work and bringing change/pride to the health services ( I received a number of international awards), no one was prepared to openly stand up for me. I tried meeting the senior civil service management but was unsuccessful. In the end, the previous Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam was kind enough to act on my behalf when I approached him. Even then I still received a warning letter (“teguran”) saying I had been found to have brought shame/ detriment to the organisation and was warned about future actions.

Why do I bring this up you ask? Because if the civil service is to have any hope, we need to get rid of petty victimisation of staff and offer safe opportunities for staff to speak up when they see wrongs. The Regulations for Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) 1993 has an overreaching Regulation 19 (1) about any civil servant speaking up. This was put in place to protect government policy, but is also used to silence every voice that attempts to speak up. It can and is used arbitrarily, as was on me.

I hope the Institutional Reforms Committee can look at this section and consider with the government an amendment to focus it on government policy and not on personal statements. If there is no safe mechanism to express the wrongs that are conducted in the civil service, a mechanism outside the system, then many will not dare to support the necessary change for reform in our civil service. Even now as I speak up about the way I was treated (and it is frightening when you go through it), I have some fear that action can be taken against me after retirement.

If you wonder why sometimes whether there is low morale in the civil service, remember how I was treated for making a simple, true statement. Remember the lack of support within the system for staff who speak up.

It is time to bring back a civil service we can be proud of. It requires a radical change in how we appoint leaders in the service and how much we encourage constructive dissent (voiced disagreement and discussion on policies and decisions). There is a lot of deadwood and selfserving individuals who need to be removed, but there are still many who want to serve our beloved nation.

I hope the civil service can be found committed to ensuring the best service for our public and nation, and not that of individuals.

Datuk Dr Amar-Singh HSS is a senior consultant paediatrician.