Chief Secretary to the Government Sidek Hassan says public officials are now forced to re-look at how they do business, including doing away with redundancies.
Merit has become very important in a globalised and competitive world.
“When I first joined 36 years ago, public service was not the best-paying job, but it was almost a ‘guaranteed’ job as long as you didn’t commit a big boo-boo until retirement,” he told reporters after delivering a talk at a leadership workshop organised by the Muslim Council of Britain in Kuala Lumpur today.
He says there is now higher expectation of the public sector and civil servants have no choice but to improve or be replaced.
“If you don’t perform, we will have to find better ways to make you perform. If we don’t do things as expected, other people will do those things.
“Where public sector jobs was once seen as ‘safe’, it is not the case anymore in Malaysia.
He also reminded high ranking officers in the civil service to make their contact details public so they are accessible by e-mail and phone.
“Complainants must receive a response within 48 hours. We engage all media – print and online alike.
“We need to clarify queries raised both through the media and complaints bureaus. In short, nothing is sacrosanct to probe and questioning.
Sidek says the public sector need to drive the private sector by setting higher standards of service delivery.
He warned against complacency although Malaysia now ranked 23 out of 185 countries in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking, 24th in the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness ranking and 10th in the Swiss-based IMD competitive ranking.
“Although we are ahead of countries like China, Italy, New Zealand in our competitiveness, it is still not good enough,” says Sidek.
