In praise of our technocrats
IT takes many pairs of hands to build a country. Over the past 60 years, we can thank many people: the statesmen who negotiated independence; the soldiers who defended us from communists and threats of invasion; every farmer, fisherman and factory worker, teacher and doctor; and small businessmen and corporate tycoons.
In the presence of such visible contributions, the Malaysian civil service is easily overlooked. Yes, Malaysia (and indeed every country) can reduce red tape, silly regulations and petty corruption. While every civil service can obviously do better, this letter serves to explain the role of our Malaysian bureaucrats and then “defend” them, thank them, and inspire them to do more.
The Malaysian civil service determines regulations on an entire universe of policy areas. These areas can be highly visible (such as the Health Ministry’s food safety regulations or Bank Negara’s base lending rate) or invisible (like mandatory emergency exits in cinemas or preventing high-rise condominiums in Kuala Lumpur from having too many car parks per unit in order to nudge urbanites towards public transport).
The Malaysian bureaucrat is in fact a technocrat. He or she is passionate about a specific policy area, has received extensive education in this area, and has accumulated years or decades of experience. It is true that some policy areas are more visible than others, like finance, education, health and defence. However, every policy area has its own importance. Malaysia cannot thrive as a country if we do not have passionate, educated and competent technocrats in invisible policy areas like agricultural science, road safety, library systems, urban planning and waste water management.
It is very possible that the Malaysian techno-bureaucracy is more competent, educat- ed, practical, and experienced than their political masters. Another advantage is they operate in many non-controversial areas of public goods. We would probably trust a career civil engineer to make better railway network decisions more than a works minister without any education, knowledge or experience in that field.
Although laws are powerful, there are more regulations made at the ministry level than those passed in Parliament. Therefore, technocrats actually do influence the trajectory of Malaysia without going through politicians or Parliament.
That is why they have an outsized but invisible impact on Malaysia.
It is easy to criticise our civil service for irrelevance or incompetence, but imagine the visible harm of sending your child to an unregistered and unregulated nursery, or living in an apartment built by a developer that did not comply with modern construction standards.
Parliament may pass a law regulating nurseries or small businesses but it is technocrats (not professional politicians) who determine the licensing standards for nursery teachers or approvals for sole proprietorships.
Thank you, Malaysian technocrats, for all this visible and invisible work, in policy areas both glamorous and boring, macro and micro, through laws or regulations. Your intellectual and professional contributions over the past 60 years have made Malaysia safe and prosperous.
National Days are occasions for celebrating past successes and also to refocus on future achievements. In many metrics, we are doing better than our South-East Asian peers and countries who achieved independence after World War II. We should congratulate ourselves for this. However, we are generally considered to lag behind East Asia, Europe and North America. We can get there quickly by building on Malaysia’s 60-year critical mass of technocratic knowledge, experience, results and momentum in three specific ways.
Firstly, Malaysian technocrats, please take pride in your work. It isn’t always glamorous and almost always unappreciated. It may seem boring and unimportant to an outsider but your passion, education, knowledge and expertise help Malaysia as a country. Always remember that your work has great impact and that we are grateful to you.
Secondly, because your work is important, please get better at it. Continue your education (formally or informally) and learn from your superiors or other departments or even other countries. The technocrat’s job is public service in the truest sense, and you will need to acquire more skills, knowledge and ideas so that you can serve your policy area, country and fellow citizens better.
Finally, please own your space. There is always a tendency to politicise a policy area, or to limit your knowledge and expertise. Please uphold the highest standards of intellectual and moral integrity, and convince the politician or the public that your stance is right for the country. Politicians and the public will play their respective roles in our country, as will you, armed with your facts and expertise. When you function at the highest standards possible, you will keep us safe and prosperous.
In conjunction with the country’s 60th National Day celebrations, we salute you, Malaysian technocrat. Thank you for all that you have done for us and for continuing to improve your standards.