PM pleads for civil servants to be patient

SERI KEMBANGAN: The Prime Minister made an earnest appeal to civil servants to tighten their belts and be patient in facing the rising cost of living as Putrajaya works to resolve the nation’s RM1tril debt.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government’s focus was on reducing expenditure to be able to pay back the debt incurred by the previous administration.

“I plead to our friends in the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services’ (Cuepacs) to work with us and be patient while we recover the country’s financial position.

“If there is no violence or social unrest, we can recover in three years,” he said at Cuepacs’ launch of the MyCuepacsCare takaful programme yesterday.

“If we can do this, we can pay back our debt. Then we can increase income and use it to help the rakyat, especially civil servants,” he added.

Dr Mahathir said in the meantime the government was working to reduce the cost of living and increase purchasing power, but it would require efficiency and discipline from the civil service.

When asked about reducing bureaucracy, Dr Mahathir said he had discussed with the Chief Secretary to the Government to reintroduce three old systems to reduce excessive bureaucracy.

The three systems are the desk file system, manual of procedure, and workflow chart.

“Without bureaucracy, nothing can work. The problem is there are too many processes,” he said.

The Chief Secretary is also working on information for the public to understand the steps needed to obtain approval for their endeavours, Dr Mahathir said.

On the European Union’s palm oil ban, Dr Mahathir said his comments on the possibility of buying Chinese fighter jets in retaliation to the European Union’s ban on palm oil biofuel was merely a suggestion.

He said he had written to the EU and that the government does not have plans to buy any jets.