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Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : SAN GORG CORINTHIA HOTEL,
JULIANS, MALTA
Tarikh/Date : 22/04/96
Tajuk/Title : THE COMMONWEALTH ASSOCIATION FOR
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND
MANAGEMENT (CAPAM)
BIENNIAL CONFERENCE
1. I am indeed honoured to be asked to address this
distinguished Commonwealth Association for Public
Administration and Management (CAPAM) Biennial
Conference. I wish to take this opportunity to
thank the Rt. Hon. Dr. Fenech Adami, the Prime
Minister of Malta, the host of this conference, and
the Honourable Minister Gorden Draper, President of
CAPAM for inviting me here today to address this
Conference.
2. I have no doubt that the Conference this time
will focus on pertinent issues on the New Public
Administration as identified by the CAPAM's
inaugural conference in 1994. The theme `The New
Public Administration : Global Challenges - Local
Solutions' is timely and appropriate given that
leaders of the Commonwealth at the last Commonwealth
Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Auckland had
agreed to assist member countries in strengthening
their public services. Malaysia hopes to share the
experiences of Commonwealth countries in the area of
public administrative reforms.
3. The global challenges which will confront us
as we enter the next millennium are many, and
whether we succeed in managing them will depend on a
number of factors among which will be our own
ability to adapt to rapidly changing perceptions and
situations.
4. For this, we need to know our own strength or
weakness and the direction we are headed for.
Nothing serves to concentrate our efforts more than
the identification of targets or goals. Once the
goal or goals are identified, it remains only to
chart the route and to negotiate your way along it.
The whole would then constitute the national agenda,
which when promoted and accepted by the nation as a
whole, will yield positive results.
5. It is with this perception that Malaysia
identified its goal - an ambitious one no doubt, but
then unambitious goals motivate no one. Our goal is
to become a fully developed country by 2020, fully
developed not only economically, but also
politically, socially and spiritually. To achieve
this, we must ensure high rates of growth; seven
percent to be precise for a period of 30 years from
1990. At the same time we intend to consciously
maintain our social system, our strong moral and
ethical values and our religious faiths.
6. An important cog in the engine of growth is the
public service, the executive machinery of
Government. Some in the advanced countries believe
that Governments are superfluous, being merely a
collection of corrupt officials and politicians who
act as impediments to the freedom of the people to
do what they think is good for them. And so in the
last few decades they have been busy paring the
authority of the Government. This they do by
breaking up the administrative machinery into
conflicting centres of authority. Thus the
authority of the President for example is negated by
the authority of the legislative bodies and the
authority of the legislatures diminished by the
courts' powers of judicial review. Even when the
people elect the President and the members of the
legislative, they refuse to trust the leaders of
Government that they themselves have chosen.
7. Now new centres of power have emerged. These
are the Non-Government Organisations. Just about
anybody can set himself up as an NGO and he will
have a powerful influence over Governmental affairs
even if he represents nobody but himself. There can
be literally hundreds of NGO who must be listened
to. The time of the administrators must be taken up
dealing with NGO, their protests and often their
violent opposition.
8. On top of all these is the press, now referred
to as the media, the people in between, the
interpreters. No one will dispute the need for a
free press. But the freedom is gauged by the
strength of the media's opposition to the Government
in power. The media is not considered to be free
unless it is unequivocally against the Government.
The effect is to force the media to undermine the
Government, its authority and its programmes. Even
if the Government does good or succeeds in carrying
out a programme, the media highlights only the
negative aspects of these in order to prove that it
is free. That this in itself reflects its own lack
of freedom does not seem to be appreciated by the
press. That it is also not free from the control of
the owners or the editors or the journalists and
their pet prejudices is deliberately ignored.
9. With all these forces ranged against the
Government, it is almost impossible for the
Government to function effectively and to lead the
nation. Perhaps an emasculated Government such as
this is good for the developed countries of the
West. The people are well able to take care of
themselves, or so they believe. But a Government
without authority, and the means to apply, if not
enforced that authority in a developing country
would be disastrous. The country will not only be
unable to develop but it will not even be stable.
Anarchy will prevail and the people will suffer. If
you look at a number of developing countries where
the Governments are weak, you will realise why these
countries just cannot make any progress. Of course
they are lauded for being democratic. But anarchic
democracies are no better than any other anarchy.
The people lose their freedom.
10. Malaysia believes in democracy but not in
anarchy. Democracy is not intended to result in a
Government unable to govern. The Government must
rule the country. It must lead and it must be
effective. It must have objectives other than
merely the maintenance of law and order. A
developing country must develop and it is the duty
and responsibility of the Government to develop it.
While the Government should not be authoritarian,
should not trample on the rights of the citizens,
neither should the citizens disregard and negate the
rights and the authority of the Government to
govern. If the Government fails, then it should be
brought down democratically i.e. through the same
door that it came in, through the ballot box.
Overthrowing it in any other way must be regarded as
undemocratic and eschewed. Those who overthrow the
Government by other means must accept being
overthrown by the same means when they become the
Government. And the process can be endless. Again
anarchy will prevail.
11. To implement the policies and programmes of the
elected Government, an effective administrative
machinery is essential. Such a machinery must be
structured carefully to enable it to carry out the
decisions of the elected Government. Separation of
the legislative from the executive (administration)
is good but the fact remains that the executives
must carry out the decisions of the legislative
wing. It is fine when the administration is merely
required to maintain law and order and the
utilities. But a modern Government cannot just
confine itself to this chore only.
12. To develop a country and to manage its
finances, the administration must know and
understand the decisions and the directives of the
elected governing body, the Cabinet. Effective
communication between the Cabinet and the top
officers of the administration must exist. Far too
often the interpretation of Government decisions by
the administration is wrong. A one sentence
condensation of Cabinet decision is not adequate.
Not having heard the debate preceding the decision,
the administrators may well disagree with the
decision or interpret it wrongly. The end result
must be an ineffective and an unsuccessful
administration and Government.
13. In Malaysia, Post Cabinet Ministerial Meetings,
presided over by the Minister concerned, allows
Cabinet decisions to be fully explained to the
administrators. The latter can ask for
clarification or even disagree at this stage. The
Minister will have to explain why. In the process,
there emerges a greater understanding of the
decisions made. Implementation will be more precise
and positive, in accord with Cabinet's decision.
14. But wrong interpretations can also take place
at lower levels. Effective communication is also
necessary all down the line of command. Each and
every individual in the administration must know
exactly the workflow chart, his own position and
responsibility according to the chart and the part
of the work that must be carried out.
15. A modern Government has less authority but is
expected to do much more than just govern, i.e.
maintaining law and order and attending to the
public utilities. It is a paradox. But a modern
Government must accept the need to be more involved
in the general well-being of the people. It must
develop the country and manage its economic and
social affairs. These days military strength is not
as important as economic strength. Government must
lend its weight and authority to ensure that the
economy grows.
16. Socialists and Communists believed that the
best way to make the economy grow and benefit the
people is for the Government to take over all the
means of production. It was assumed that if all the
profits from business accrue to the Government as
the sole owner of the business, then Government
should become much richer. Private ownership of the
means of production would result in only a
percentage of the profit accruing to the Government
in the form of taxes.
17. But after some 70 years of Communism and
Socialism, it was discovered that the Government
received practically no profit from Government-owned
enterprises. Not only was Government management not
profit motivated but workers refused to work hard
because there were no incentives. On the other
hand, workers still went on strike in Government-
owned companies to demand more pay despite the lack
of profit. Besides with only workers to buy the
products, the domestic market was poor. And so, the
Communist and the Socialist systems of Government
ownership of the means of production are now in
disrepute. Where once nationalisation was the
catchword, today one hears everywhere the new
catchword - privatisation.
18. But privatisation is neither easy nor always
beneficial. It requires a totally new mindset,
particularly among civil servants. Privatisation
really means abolition of much of the authority of
civil servants. Whole departments have to be given
up to new owners whose ways of doing things and
whose attitudes towards the performance of employees
are radically different. Suddenly civil service
chiefs find themselves turned into mere inspectors
rather than being the directors and implementors of
Government policy. Quite often they have actually
to service those people who have taken away their
jobs from them.
19. But if privatisation is to succeed, cooperation
from the civil servants is essential. They must be
prepared to reexamine their roles and their way of
doing things. They have to put the interest of the
private sector above those of the bureaucracy. They
have to remove bureaucratic impediments to the
success of the privatised entities. In short, they
must ensure that the privatised entities succeed
where they the bureaucrats may have failed before.
20. This is not something that anyone does gladly.
And civil servants are often reluctant to cooperate
in making their former arch rival successful. And
yet that is what it takes to make privatisation
work. From being the authority, the Civil Service
must now become the non-executive partners and
public servants in the true sense of the word.
21. Why should the civil servants cooperate with
the private sector, particularly with the agencies
which were once run by them but are now in private
hands? The simple answer is that it pays to do so,
to help the private sector succeed and make profits.
Government collect taxes from the people in order to
finance the administration; to pay the salaries of
civil servants. Obviously, if the private sector
makes no money, taxes cannot be collected. On the
other hand, when the private sector is doing well,
tax collection in every form, in particular
corporate tax, will be big. Big revenues collected
by the Government influence the remuneration of the
civil service. And so by helping the private sector
to prosper, the civil servants are actually helping
themselves.
22. Politics was once the most important
consideration of Governments when conducting foreign
relations. Countries align with other countries or
confront them based on ideology and the need for
national security. Civil servants were therefore
required to be skilful in politics, understanding
the various ideologies and negotiating diplomatic
alliances.
23. Today the stress is on economic relations, on
trade and investments. Again the civil service has
to adjust, to acquire expertise in economics and
trade and trade practices, even master an entirely
new jargon. Failure to do so would make the civil
service ineffective or even irrelevant. The past
attitude towards business has to change also. The
civil service must be business-friendly,
facilitating trade between nations through
negotiating favourable terms and conditions for
trade.
24. Not so long ago the only machine seen in an
office was the typewriter. Today machines have
invaded the office, Government and private. It is
said that office workers above forty are afraid to
handle computers, faxes, copiers and paperless
transactions. But office automation and computers
are now essential parts of the administration
process and civil servants must adjust their work to
accommodate these machines.
25. Quality too has become a much sought-after
target. If goods produced must meet certain quality
standards, surely services, Government services
included, must achieve a certain degree of quality.
ISO 9000 should not be for the factories of the
private sector alone. Government administration
must also vie for the coveted award. A good
Government administration cannot be of a lower
quality than its clients - largely the private
sector. It must complement the private sector fully
if it is going to serve the country and contribute
towards its growth and the well-being of the people.
26. From the foregoing, it is clear that present
day administrators need to change and adjust not
once, but again and again. New structures need to
be set up even as administration is downsized. The
reorientation can be disruptive and unsettling at
times. But failure to take cognizance of these
needs and failure to devise the right structures and
methods will surely result in ineffective
Governments and the failure of the nation. So the
civil service has a crucial role to play and it is
necessary that they appreciate them and take
immediate steps to make themselves as relevant as
ever.
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