Working Paper in Economics and Business Volume II No.4/2012 Civil Service Reform in Malaysia: Commitment and Consistency Prijono Tjiptoherijanto May 2012 Department of Economics Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia 1 Working Paper in Economics and Business Chief Editor: Suahasil Nazara Editors: Djoni Hartono, Beta Y. Gitaharie, Femmy Roeslan, Riatu M. Qibthiyyah Setting: Rus'an Nasrudin Copyright c 2011, Department of Economics ISSN 2089-2039 Department of Economics Building 2nd Floor Depok West Java, Indonesia 16424 Telp. 021-78886252 Email:[email protected] Web:http://econ.fe.ui.ac.id/workingpage 2 Contents Contents 3 List of Tables 4 1 Introduction 1 2 Reforms in Civil Service2 3 Issues and Challenges4 4 Concluding Remarks6 List of Tables 1 Proposal for Future Public Service in Malaysia....................5 2 Breakdown of Officers and Top Managers by Ethnic Groups, 2006.........7 3 Breakdown of Officers by Service and Ethnic Groups on 30 September 1999....7 Civil Service Reform in Malaysia: Commitment and ConsistencyI Prijono Tjiptoherijantoa aDepartment of Economics, Universitas Indonesia Abstract During the last forty years, the willingness and capacity of the Malaysian public service to accept and implement administrative changes and reforms should be appreciated. This was especially true in the eighties when there was political backing to administrative reforms and what appeared to be a permanent agenda on such reforms by top administrative leadership. In order to anticipate challenges brought by globalization and economic liberalization, the civil service has to be more efficient in the frontline, whereas frontier agencies must instill a global mindset, meaning they must observe the world from a broad perspective. One way to acquire this expertise is by providing better education and training programs to all Malaysian regardless of race and religion. Keywords: Administrative leadership, economic liberalization, efficient civil service 1. Introduction vants should be seen to perform their best to serve the public. Like most civil servants elsewhere in the In Malaysia, ethical guidelines play promi- world, Malaysia's civil servants make decisions nent part in the life of civil servants. Civil ser- which affect the general public. The civil ser- vice ethics shape the behavior and discipline 1 vice in Malaysia is entrusted with the respon- of Malaysia's civil servant and reinforce good sibility of providing various services to the gen- values as well as enhance efficiency at work. eral public and to guide the nation towards To date, three major established sets of values development and industrialization. Therefore, have been identified as those which represent the public's expectation of the civil servants in civil service values in Malaysia. The formula relation to their performance is quite high or advocated is based on \Bersih, Cekap, dan above average. Falling short would indicate in- Amanah2". There should be optimal dosage competence or lack of productivity. Worse, it of \Bersih", best translated in the form of might stir feelings of betrayal since civil ser- clean management practices, optimal dosage of IBased on the field research conducted under the 2Clean, Efficient and Trustworthy. See: \Dasar- financial support from API-The Nippon Foundation dasar Baru Kerajaan", Department of Information (TNF), Tokyo, Japan, 2007-2008. Malaysia, Second Edition, Kuala Lumpur : Rina Pub- Email address: [email protected] (Prijono lication Sdn. Bhd. For Government Printers, 1987. Tjiptoherijanto) It was modified to become: \Amanah (honesty), Bijak- 1Article 132 of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia sana (Wisdom), Cekap (efficient), Dedikasi (dedicated), defines the various public services to include the armed and Efektif (Effective)" or in abbreviation of the prin- forces, the judicial and legal service, the general pub- ciple of \ABCDE" by Datuk Seri Najib Razak, For- lic service of the federation, the police force, the joint mer Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia and presently public service, the public service of each state, and the a Prime Minister. See: New Strait Times, 26 January education service. 2008. 1 P. Tjiptoherijanto/Civil Service Reform Malaysia 2 \Cekap" to ensure the highest level of produc- sector training policies and program while pro- tivity, quality and efficiency, and a very strong viding the focus for overall administrative and commitment for incorporating \Amanah" to personnel developments. ensure the public sector deliver its services free The decade ended with a sour and tragic from corruption practices. This \Amanah" note with outbreak of the ethnic hostility on concept demands civil servants to love their na- May 13, 1969. It became a watershed in the tion. The civil servant is therefore expected country's history. The government decided, af- to incorporate these values into the job. This ter a great deal of study and inter-ethnic con- becomes important when dealing with a more sultancies, that to prevent the recurrence of an- liberalized world of the present, since a clean other May 134, the economic disparity between and efficient civil service is needed for establish- the Malays and non-Malays should be bridged. ing good governance and facing global compe- It's therefore formulated and launched with tition. the New Economic Policy (NEP), as a mas- ter policy for socio-economic development, in 2. Reforms in Civil Service 1971, with the two-fold aims and that was to eradicate poverty irrespective of ethnic origin Early efforts at administrative reform in and restructured the Malaysian society in or- Malaysia began in the 1960"s. The govern- der to erase ethnic identification with their eco- ment saw the need to improve the adminis- nomic function. The establishment of the Na- trative machinery in order to carry out vari- tional Institute of Public Administration (IN- ous socio-economic development programs as TAN) IN 1972 AND The Malaysian Adminis- well as promote increased responsibilities sub- trative Modernization and Management Plan- sequent to the country's independence in 1957 ning Unit (MAMPU) in 1977 were the main when it was marked by lawlessness and disor- stone of administrative reform in the 1970's. der. Consequently, there was the need to en- While INTAN was set to replace the then Staff sure public sector agencies had the capability Training Center, MAMPU is put inside the and capacity to carry out responsibilities effec- Prime Minister's Department. tively. The emphasis at the time was on effec- In the decade of 1980's, more program- tive institutional development to support de- oriented reform efforts were introduced. One velopment planning as well as the implementa- and the most important of them was the tion. Thus, in 1965 the government with assis- launching of the Malaysian Incorporated in tance of the Ford Foundation obtained the ser- 19835. It was mooted at a time when the coun- vice of two-man team consultants to undertake a review of public administration and to sug- 4In November 25, 2007, Indians who make up less gest reform and innovation. The recommenda- than 10 percent of the population of about 26 mil- tion of those two consultants which was know lion in Malaysia and are disproportionally poor, led a as the Montgomery Esman Report3 led to the protest march through Kuala Lumpur, the first large- scale ethnically motivated street demonstration in al- establishment of the Development Administra- most four decades since May 13, 1969. The police broke- tion Unit (DAU). The DAU was entrusted with up the demonstration with water canon and tear gas the responsibility for planning and guiding the and arrested five representatives of a group called the reform efforts in the public service. It was in- Hindu Rights Action Force or HINDRAF, which led the protest. The five men are being held indefinitely and strumental in laying the foundation for public without trial under a Malaysians International Security Law (ISA). 3John Montgomery and Milton J. Esman (1966), 5Malaysian Incorporated was inspired by the \Development Administration in Malaysia: Report to Japanese notion of \coordinated inter-dependence", a the Government of Malaysia", Kuala Lumpur, Govern- key ingredient of the famed Japanese teamwork, collec- ment Printer. tive pride and high achievement. P. Tjiptoherijanto/Civil Service Reform Malaysia 3 try was flush with the bold ideas of dynamic declaring October 31 as Civil Service Day or and invigorated new administration that was Hari Q (Quality Day). The objective is to really to break from the morales of the old. reinforce values of quality culture in an or- The essence of Malaysia Incorporated was that ganization. \Q Day" is celebrated by hold- the country would be run a single business cor- ing \Open Day" talks on quality and other poration, with the private sector following its activities relating to productivity and quality growth and expansion, and the public sector of work in organization. In conjunction with providing the all important support vital for \Hari Q", the government launched national the success of the corporation. quality awards to give recognization to agen- The Malaysian Incorporated was the real- cies for quality achievement. The awards are ization of the Look East Policy which was in- : (a) Prime Minister's Quality Award (Public troduced in 1982. The main objective of this Sector), (b) Chief Secretary to the Government policy was to promote the adoption of work (KSN) Quality Award, (c) Director General of culture, ethics and values from Japan and Ko- Public Service (KPPA) Quality Award, (d) Di- rea. It is a known fact that Japan and Korea's rector General of MAMPU Quality Award, (e) work culture have contributed significantly to District Office Quality Award, (f) Local Au- their economic success. Indeed, it was a time of thority Quality Award, and (g) Human Re- looking east, rediscovering Eastern values and sources Management Award. In addition the work ethics in order to push for quality im- government also introduced the Civil Service provement on all fronts of the public sectors to Innovation Award from 1991 followed by the provide better services to the community.