The prime minister reminds civil servants of the ills of corruption and tells them to use their brains to overcome their emotions so that they are not corrupt and their performance improves.
PUTRAJAYA: With his characteristic wry smile, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today told civil servants he would not mind emulating China in dealing with corruption, except that his cabinet is against it.
China is known to shoot those found guilty of corruption.
To curb corruption, Dr Mahathir said in jest, he would not mind practicing what China did but that “cabinet ministers do not agree to this,” drawing laughter from the 3,500 civil servants present at his first townhall session with officers of the diplomatic and administrative services.
He said Pakatan Harapan ministers and post-holders have been warned that if they were caught for corruption, they would be removed from office.
In his almost hour-long speech, he reminded the officers not to fall into the trap of greed or become emotional in dealing with their work.
Saying corruption marked the downfall of a country, Mahathir added:
“When corruption becomes part of the people, there will be no medicine to cure it, because the authorities who are supposed to look into it are also corrupt. And the cost of things goes up.”
In Japan, he said, people committed suicide due to shame but here “when you say that you are a thief, they just smile”.
He reminded civil servants to use their reasoning and common sense rather than give in to emotions at work and in their daily life.
He said every human was caught in a conflict – between emotion and reason.
“We have to make a choice. There are weak and strong personalities. A strong personality will be able to resist the feeling or desire because of better ability to know what is wrong and right.”
He said even getting out from bed sometimes was a struggle, as it would be nicer to sleep.
He said the failure of the brain to overcome emotion would cause problems such as being late for work, being lazy or giving in to corruption.
Mahathir said regulations alone were not enough to tackle such problems, particularly corruption.
“I talk about value of life because it determines our character, whether we succeed and fail. What is value of life? Being clean, skillful and being trustworthy. Trustworthiness means not to take what is not yours.”
He stressed that delays at work and corruption would only result in costs going up, which would ultimately burden everyone, including their families.
He also told the officers that today he does not trust the civil servants as much as he did during his first stint as prime minister. This was because some civil servants were being instigated “from outside”.
The theme of the townhall session was “Way Forward: The Rise of Authentic Leadership”.
The first townhall session was also attended by several cabinet ministers. - FMT
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