Thieving civil servants are not traitors? – Ravinder Singh

According to Cuepacs president Azih Muda, civil servants involved in the anti-GST gathering violated the "Aku janji" service pledge they had made. Thus, they were traitors in his eyes.

Surely those who went to the assembly were not the ones enjoying high salaries, entertainment and other allowances, driving big cars or being driven around by chauffeurs, sitting in posh offices that are bigger in area than low cost houses, and wearing coats and ties to office. This group does not have to worry about tomorrow and other financial commitments. Some of them were probably born with a silver spoon in the mouth. 

At the other end are a much larger number of civil servants who genuinely worry about tomorrow. Will they be able to pay this month’s house rent or installment? Will they be able to pay their motorcycle installment? Will they have enough left to see them through the month after Angkasa has made deductions for various payments?

How many of those in this category have to do some part-time work to make ends meet?  

I wonder in which group Aziz Muda himself falls.

Does he know the number of low income government servants who find it difficult to make ends meet? How many of them are debtors to banks and ah longs?  Haven’t any of them been declared bankrupts?

What has he got to say about those civil servants whom the Auditor General had reported negatively on in his reports for the last few decades? Are these civil servants who rob the till by purchasing goods at astronomical prices (e.g. RM100 clocks for over RM3,000; RM3,000 laptops for over RM40,000) not guilty of violating the “Aku janji” they made?

Does the “Akujanji” made by heads of departments differ from that made by their subordinates? Does their “akujanji” not say anything about carrying out their duties honestly and with due diligence?

If any civil servants did go to the anti-GST rally, they did no harm to the nations’s coffers. But “stupid” heads of departments who have been paying exorbitant prices for government procurement have been committing a criminal breach of trust (CBT) as they have been acting against the direction of law. These are the traitors, but Cuepacs have never said a word about this. Thus by its silence, Cuepacs gives its approval to these acts of CBT.  

If Cuepacs is genuinely concerned that civil servants must abide by their “Aku janji”, it should aim its guns at the “stupid” heads of departments who are siphoning out billions through the highly inflated prices they pay without a care about “Aku janji”. Do these persons deserve to be called “civil servants”?

*Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insider.