Senator S. Ramakrishnan    , 27/12/2011

Since Datuk Seri Najib took over as prime minister of Malaysia in 2009 he launched many transformational programs to lift the economy from middle income to high income society and to improve delivery capacity by 2020. In January 2010 the government transformation program (GTP) to improve the public delivery mechanism and later in October 2010 the economy transformation program (ETP) as a road map to achieve the high income status was launched. To steam role these mega transformational programs the prime minister set up a new unit in his office (PMO) called PEMANDU headed by Datuk Idris Jala since he did not have confidence in the delivery capabilities of government bureaucrats. For the information of all, Malaysia’s civil servants-to-population ratio was the highest in Asia Pacific. The ratio in 2009 was 4.68 per cent, compared to Singapore’s 1.5 per cent, Indonesia’s 1.79 per cent, Korea’s 1.85 per cent and Thailand’s 2.06 per cent all of which have less than half our ratio.
 
Since Malaysia has a bloated civil service which the prime minister himself has no confidence in its delivery, the GTP should have started with the trimming and pruning along side with capacity building of the civil service. But there seem to be no political will as the civil service is seen as a UMNO Malay fiefdom.  The prime minister fears backlashes from the ultra groups which may weaken his position in UMNO. There are about 4 million foreign workers here. The production and service in private sector could have been modernized, automated and reduce dependence on foreign workers. The Malaysian government did not provide the leadership, incentives and guidance for Malaysian companies to transform into more efficient and less foreign workers dependent. Recruiting foreign workers were lucrative business to many UMNO cronies that the government closed one eye when foreign workers were flooding the country. Today reducing the civil service will be politically difficult. Therefore continue bleeding the treasury with excessive workers in government service who are not productive.  
 
The transformation of civil service is the prelude to transform all other 6 national key areas namelycrime, corruption, rural basic infrastructure, urban public transport, low-income households, and education. After nearly 2 years of the GTP launch, the government controlled mass media are boasting about their achievements. But Cuepacs President Omar Osman revealed that a total of 418,200 or 41 per cent of the 1.2 million civil servants in the country were suspected to be involved in corruption last year (Bernama, 2 June 2010). Corruption perception index (CPI) of Malaysia dropped to ranking 60th. When Tun badawi was the prime minister it was 37th. In the first decade of this century Malaysia lost RM1.08 trillion (US338 billion) in illegal outflow of money – fourth highest in the developing countries. This outflow of illegal money is due to kickbacks, tax evasion and transfer pricing. Apparently, the government is all silent on this. Auditor general reported that in 2010 government lost RM5.51 billion due to delays, penalties, poor quality work and repurchases. So Mr. Prime Minister, are we really transforming? The choice in the next PRU is ABU. Anything but UMNO.