Signing off on a clearer note

WE should welcome the government’s decision to change the closing salutation of letters signed by its officers. “I who carry out commands” or its Bahasa Malaysia version “Saya Yang Menurut Perintah” has been in use for nearly 50 years.

Prior to that, under the colonial authority and a newly independent government, we had “I am Sir (or Madam), Your Obedient Servant.”

The decision in the 1950s to retain this essentially British closing salutation suggested some continuity with the colonial period. In Malaysia’s case, there were many remnants of British presence, including our British ingrained mindset, English language schools, British-owned rubber plantations and tin mines, motor vehicle retailers and distributors of British goods and services. Our Malayan and Malaysian civil servants seemed to have, in the early years, continued to protect the former colonial power.

In Robert Kuok: A Memoir, Kuok relates his difficulties with expatri- ate civil servants in obtaining tariff protection for his sugar refinery (page 132-3). It would seem that only after 1962 did we become more reliant on our own citizens with Malaysianisation.

In the Malaysian Foreign Service, there were some variations of this closing salutation. One that I remember well was used by the late Tuanku Jaafar Tuanku Abdul Rahman, our 10th Yang di-Pertuan Agong who, in his earlier capacity as the Malaysian High Commissioner to Nigeria, often sent despatches to the then Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. These notes ended with: “I have the honour to be Sir, Your obedient Servant. With highest respect.”

In the 1950s and 60s, we had several holders of royal titles and others with linkages to the royal houses in the External Affairs Service (as it was known then), including Raja Sir Tun Uda Alhaj bin Raja Muhammad, Tunku Yaacob Almarhum Sultan Sir Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, Tengku Tan Sri Ismail bin Tunku Yahya, Tengku Tan Sri Mohamad Tunku Burhanuddin, Tengku Tan Sri Indera Putra, Tengku Tan Sri Ngah Mohamad Tengku Akar, Raja Tan Sri Aznam Raja Ahmad, and Tun Syed Shah Shahabuddin.

A Foreign Service assignment was considered prized and prestigious and these royals generally played their assigned role with aplomb and distinction.

But I must confess that I always suspected that since 1957, the senior civil servants acted somewhat like their British peers, protecting British interests in the rubber and tin industry. They also wrote in the colonial style long minutes, given their facility with the English language.

In 1970, we seem to have discontinued the practice of extensive minuting as the focus shifted to action from internal debate and discussion.

With the old closing salutation, there was the impression that the signatory of the letter was a powerless government servant carrying out the command of some undefined high personage.

While it is true that all government servants ultimately serve at the pleasure of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, there was always the vagueness as to whose command was being carried out.

With this new closing salutation, it is clearer that the signatory is acting as a trustee of the Agong and the State. It also indicates that the signatory has some personal responsibility for the message conveyed.

Today, we too have to step back a bit and impress upon our civil servants the need to act according to their conscience, the law and various regulations and not follow directives blindly. Quite often at the senior level, they have to decide between God, government and, sometimes, deep personal greed.