Bigger civil service means bigger government means bigger budget – Medecci Lineil

I would like to respond Prime Minister Najib Razak’s labour day message on May 1, 2014.

I don’t think there should not be more policies that help to increase the strength of the civil servants which now number about 1.5 million.

I am not a fan of civil servants and the results they generate. I agree most of them are decent people, but I still don’t like bureaucrats.

First, the truth is civil servants are not performing any market function or generate profit and loss. They do not earn money or revenue. They never ask your permission. They expropriate resources by taxing people, law enforcement, regulations, summons and seizing goods.

Taxes are conducted by coercion: if you don’t file and pay your taxes, you get jailed.

Then they use the money to "incentivise" big businesses, contractors, GLCs and political cronies, to "stimulate" our economy and "subsidise" poor people.

The payment of 1.5 million civil servants uses up the government revenue and that revenue is taxes. So to maintain their employment, the government must turn to taxes all the time.

Therefore, based on the economic logic of the above mentioned argument, to increase the strength of the civil servants, it means bigger government.
Bigger government means bigger budget. Bigger budget means bigger revenues. Bigger revenues mean bigger level of taxation. Bigger level of taxation means lesser wealth creation, lesser prosperity and greater distortion of economy will be.

If people do not question this fact, they should be willing to accept all the consequences of the increased strength of the civil servants. High taxes, bribes, leakages, scandals, abuses, cronies projects, fiscal deficits, national debt, inflation, etc.

The real important point here is government and its evil nature. That’s what enables endless chronic corruption, deficits, debt and power abuses in Putrajaya and elsewhere.

Second, civil servants do a lot of things they should not be doing. Sarawak Teachers Union lobbying for an Act to shield them from legal action taken by the whining parents. Here in Sarawak, police disarming residents by seizing homemade shotguns and homemade air guns in rural and interior areas. Both ridiculous.

Civil servants also do many contradictory things; I always see them smoking outside of the office despite the fact that government spend billions of taxpayers’ money to campaign against smoking and subsidise smoking related diseases every year. Or spend billions of taxpayers’ money to build houses for civil servants which indirectly fuel more house inflation.

More absurd, they are paid regardless of the outputs and outcomes. They are consumer labour and the funny thing is, they get the opportunities to do fun things like “pergi berkursus di hotel” or “lawatan sambil belajar ke Langkawi atau luar negara” and wasting huge amounts of money at lavish conferences and winning excellence awards at our expenses.

As a capitalist these horror facts bother me a lot.

* Medecci Lineil is founding board member at Institute of Leadership and Development Studies (www.lead.my).