Soi Lek: Time to whip civil service into shape

By Lee Wei Lian

September 23, 2011

Dr Chua spoke of “maddening” encounters with the civil service. — File pic

PETALING JAYA, Sept 23 — Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek decried the lack of a system to discipline non-performing civil servants today, saying that one should be introduced.

The MCA president said that his personal experience with some civil service staff throughout his career as both state and federal level leader were enough to drive a person “mad”.

“There are a lot of Little Napoleons and Little Josephines,” he said at the National Conference on Making a High Income Nation a Reality here. “Their job is not to facilitate but to frustrate.”

He noted that the problem was there was no way to get rid of problem staff.

“You can change the political leaders of a government but you cannot change the civil service,” he said. “They are there for good, cradle to grave. The time has come for the government to have a punishment system on top of a reward system that is based on performance.”

The one million-plus strong Malaysian civil service is considered one of the largest in the world on a per capita basis, leading to complaints of civil service bloat.

Previous calls for the government to reduce its size were resisted, however, as much of the civil service is considered a vote bank for Barisan Nasional.