Aiming for diversified thinking in civil service

WE need not just a leaner service but, most crucially, a diverse one as well, “Creating a leaner civil service” (The Star, Nov 29).

Government decision-makers should not be cut from the same bolt of cloth. The Public Services Department must therefore look at the “whole person” and not just grades, no matter how sterling these are.

Looking at the whole person broadens the outreach in finding people who do not conform to the stereotype of what a good civil servant should be. Efforts in diversification must begin now so that the foundation for the future can be laid before it is too late.

Out-of-the box ways to achieve diversification must be thought out. It must obviously begin with the type of education our tertiary students are getting.

Collaboration by our local universities with renowned world universities to offer broad-based liberal arts programmes will be a good first step to mould forward-looking mindsets in our students. This can ensure diversified thinking even before the graduates join the civil service.

Our graduates must develop the ability to take inter-disciplinary views of things. Complex problems of the future cannot be solved by a senior civil servant being just an excellent economist; he or she also needs to have insights into how society operates.

Since no single factor is necessarily the determinant of “wicked problems” of the future, our tertiary education institutions must adopt holistic approaches in order to set the right direction in our efforts to diversify skills.

Perhaps, as the futurist Alvin Toffler suggested in his book Future Shock, a “Council of the Future” should be created in every tertiary education institution, led by students who will presumably invent and inhabit the future. Hopefully, more such institutions will be founded to strengthen our drive towards diversified thinking in not only the civil service but society as a whole.

WONG HORNG GINN Johor Baru