The government in Malaysia is traditionally looked at through the political paradigm, which focuses upon the prime minister and Cabinet. The executive is praised or blamed for what the government does or doesn’t do.
However, such a frame critically underrates the power and influence of the bureaucracy in national governance. The bureaucracy is viewed somewhat like a black box , which implements the decisions of the executive.
This is far from the case.
The public services comprises a force of some 1.7 million, which includes the bureaucrats of the civil service and those in the education and health services, police, and military. One could also argue that those employed by government-linked companies are quasi-civil servants, as their employers are owned by the government.
Based on the 2024 budget, the administrative state will be paid RM95.6 billion in salaries this year, plus RM32.4 billion in pensions, making up 41.6% of total budget outlays. All government spending, and tax collection for that matter, occurs through the administrative state.
The GLCs, which extend the will and influence of government into the marketplace, account for 54% of capitalisation on Bursa Malaysia. This is a massive source of power over the sphere of government and economy.
Policy making
In addition, given that the bulk of policy development comes through the civil service to the executive, which usually turns their recommendations into policies, the administrative state is even more important.
The administrative state works in two directions: a major influence on society and the economy through making regulations, spending and collecting taxes; and providing the executive with policies.
These administrative state institutions are the most powerful piece of government today, and this is rarely studied in depth by academics and political analysts.
The reality is that prime ministers and Cabinet ministers clearly rely upon the administrative state when in office to run the government. The executive doesn’t necessarily drive the government; most of it is on auto-pilot with the administrative state doing all the work.
Some ministers have been better than others in understanding and working with the administrative state.
Ministers with little understanding of their portfolio, who lack in-depth knowledge or experience of how their ministry actually works, will face an uphill battle to manage their ministry.
Each ministry is a separate mini empire within the administrative state, where working and cooperation dynamics may differ substantially.
A separate world
If one looks deeply into the matter, it can become scary to realise that Malaysia, like most governments in the world, is actually run by faceless, unelected, and unaccountable people, far from the public view.
These anonymous bureaucrats occupy buildings around Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and other urban centres. They are unaccountable to the people.
The prime minister and Cabinet are not the only influencers upon the administrative state. GLCs have political appointees on their boards of management, who may have their own agendas.
The top people within the administrative state regularly brief the rulers. The administrative state talks horizontally within itself in ways that are not transparent to outsiders. It also has its own corporate culture. This is a powerful set of assumptions, beliefs, and values that guide the thinking of those within the administrative state.
The Malay agenda
One aspect of the administrative state’s corporate culture is the importance of the Malay agenda.
Many within the administrative state see themselves as protectors of Malay rights, which may override any potential directive given to them. Bureaucrats have their own way to sway, ignore, stall, or disrupt ministers, if the bureaucrats believe it necessary to do so.
Over the last few decades, some previous prime ministers have tried to interdict the corporate culture of the administrative state.
Under Dr Mahathir Mohamad, it was the quality movement. Then came the ISO certification drive. Balance scorecards, and the government transformation initiative undertaken by former prime minister Najib Razak was the latest back around 2012.
Unfortunately, this reform agenda got lost after 2018, when Pakatan Harapan came into power under Mahathir.
The Covid-19 pandemic probably strengthened the power of the administrative state, under a period of emergency rule. Muhyiddin Yassin expanded the size of the administrative state as he expanded the number of ministries.
The Ismail Sabri Yaakob government re-emphasised the Malay-centric agenda of the administrative state. Under Anwar Ibrahim, agencies and GLCs have emphasised more on economic policy.
Warped by local education
Perhaps the biggest influence upon the administrative state has been the local education system. Prior to the 1990s, most senior bureaucrats studied in the UK, US, or Australia, and returned with a solid grounding in various technical fields and public administration.
The post Merdeka baby-boomers had a deep sense of passion towards doing their bit to assist national development.
However, local graduates who are now climbing the ranks of government have been strongly influenced by the local education system, which provides them with a completely different outlook towards governance and public administration.
In addition, decision-making within the administrative state has become heavily politicised over the last couple of decades. Many now play the game to satisfy and please their superiors with a strong sense of power-distance between superior-subordinate relationships.
Vanishing technocrats
Technical expertise within committees most often gives way to political consensus decision making. Technocrats are quickly disappearing.
Just like everywhere else in the world, there is a swamp that needs to be drained to rid the administrative state of the politicisation and internal agendas that have crept in over the years.
These influences are swaying decision-making. It narrows the potential diversity of thinking that should be around the administrative state.
Past prime ministers have used the civil service with various objectives in mind. However, all of them knew major reforms were needed to bring the administrative state into the 21st century. The major barrier was how to do this without losing votes.
The big reform issue that needs attention today is reforming the country’s administrative apparatus. Discussion must go far beyond trimming it down. There must be a comprehensive plan of what the administrative state should look like in the future.
This won’t happen until the next generation of politicians takes the reins of power. However, will this next generation have the drive and passion to have concern about reform of the nation’s public administration?
Source : FMT
Civil Service
The civil service is a major component of the deep state. The civil service plays a role in structure and process facilitation. Most federal budget spending is channelled through ministries and their satellite agencies. Its within ministry procedures that money flows for allocated purposes.
Therefore, political leaders and their staff must rely upon the civil servants within the ministries to direct funds into selected contracts. Through selective special purpose ventures, operated either by cronies or proxies are the beneficiaries of these funds. Getting things done, requires collaboration between people within the political and administrative arms of government.
Within the deep state paradigm, ministries should be viewed at semi-independent empires, which can set up agencies or business subsidiaries. Its within these agencies and business entities that financial activities escape the direct view of the government auditors.
From the financial scandals listed below, it can be seen which ministries are important.
1Malaysia Development Berhad – Finance Ministry
SG Networks – Communications Ministry
Littoral Combat Ships – Defence Ministry
Mysajathera – Health Ministry
ECRL – Finance Ministry
Sabah Gas Pipeline – Finance Ministry
Sabah Solar Panel – Finance Ministry
Scorpene Submarines – Defence Ministry
Port Klang Free Port – Transport Ministry
The Home Ministry is extremely powerful. The liaison with the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), and Special Branch has great impact upon the security of the actors within the deep state. This influence depends upon the minister in charge, and the quality of personal relationship with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), and head of the Special Branch. There is also a belief that extra-judicial activities are undertaken from rogue officers within the PDRM to protect the interests of actors within the deep state. Some of these rogue agents work in tandem with organized crime to undertake threats, blackmail, intimidation, incrimination, humiliation, and even elimination.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), operates under the attorney general, who decides who should be prosecuted by the body. The MACC is not an independent body. Over the last few decades, the MACC has been used to selectively prosecute political enemies of those in power.
Source : Murray Hunter
Malaysian Civil Service’s Cancerous Culture
In other areas, civil servants act for the direct benefit of their political leaders rather than national interests. Asia Sentinel has learned that officers at the National Registration Department (JPN) in Sabah are issuing identity cards to illegal immigrants. These identity cards aren’t connected to the national database. However, the Electoral Commission (EC) will accept them for voter registration.
Corruption is endemic, with numerous methods used to profit from public funds. Some officers in areas close to the procurement process set up small trading companies which supply items not subject to tender such as office furniture, fixtures, stationary, printing, and computer equipment at inflated prices to their respective departments or ministries.
Other misuses occur through false travel and accommodation claims, and payments for goods not supplied or work not done. Tenders are often manipulated to hand out construction jobs to specific companies. Assets are sometimes misappropriated for personal use.
One top ranking civil servant, Hj. Ismail Othman had a whole career of crime within the civil service beginning with taking payments from developers while he was the district officer in Port Dickson. As general manager of the Perlis State Economic Development Corporation (PKENPs) he manipulated housing and industrial development tenders, continuing to do so as state secretary until he was dismissed on 24 hours’ notice for publicly questioning the decision of the Raja over the selection of chief minister after the 2008 state election.
The officer has just recently retired with lavish properties in London costing far beyond what he would have made as a civil servant. The MACC officer who investigated the case told the Asia Sentinel there was a good case against him. However, he has been able to escape any form of prosecution due to his close personal relationship with the then director general of the MACC.
Numerous guilty parties to acts of fraud and corruption have escaped prosecution due to relationships high-ranking civil servants have with each other. Others escape prosecution because heads of departments and ministries don’t want any scandals to go public, preferring cover-ups. Many departments and agencies within the civil service are so much under the control of a single person or select group that corruption or wrongdoing is nearly impossible to detect.
In 2018 the MACC prosecuted only 418 civil servants out of 1.7 million employees for fraud and corruption, with 13 from top management. In 2019 1,153 have been prosecuted, including thirty from top management according to MACC statistics. In 2020, the number of prosecutions dropped to 475, with only nine within top management charged, and to April 2021, 208 prosecuted, with only four top management executives charged. This drop in prosecutions correlates with the installation of the Muhyiddin government into power.
Today, the civil service directly employs 11.8 percent of the country’s total workforce, continuing to grow due to the government’s belief in heavy market intervention. With past successes in developing the agricultural sector via heavy intervention, this model has continued to be used to develop the multi-media, biotechnology, and halal sectors with lackluster results.
Many government sector market intervention corporations like the Federal Land Development Agency, which once was vital in rural development and uplift of rural families, now require massive taxpayer funded bailouts. At the state level numerous agencies and special purpose companies also suffer from massive losses. The extent and scope of these losses nation-wide is hidden by poor government transparency in these activities.
Almost 45 percent of Malaysia’s budget goes to paying wages and pensions to past and present civil servants. The ability of the government to cover these payments is under question. Standards have been declining since 2014. The size needs to be cut urgently and practices modernized to make government more efficient according to a recent World Bank report.
Many government services are duplicated in rural services, vocational training, border protection and religious administration that could be streamlined and coordinated, making taxpayer savings.
Transparency and accountability are extremely low. Much of the annual Auditor-General’s report is not released to the public. Information about state civil services and agencies is extremely difficult to come by within the public domain.
No Freedom of Information Act (FOI) exists although it was promised. The Official Secrets Act (OSA) has been routinely used to hide information about tenders and other government business. The Whistleblower Act is extremely weak and the government still prefers to intimidate and threaten whistleblowers rather than investigate allegations of fraud and corruption within the civil service. There is still a prevailing culture, even with the new Pakatan Harapan, that transparency is still a prerogative – or not – of government.
Malaysians are at the mercy of decisions made by civil servants which can sometimes take months, with little recourse to appeal, should a decision go against the applicant’s interests. Although there is a Public Complaints Bureau (PCB), there is no specific body like an Administrative Appeals Tribunal or Ombudsman, although one is being planned.
The civil service has long lost direction, its intervention into what should be a market-driven economy causing more problems than it has solved. It is not the job of the government to pick market winners, or neither the job of the civil service to make that happen. The white elephants that have been created at both federal and state levels have cost Malaysian taxpayers dearly. Special purpose vehicles have only been opportunities for unscrupulous civil servants to profit through fraud and corruption.
The one-dimensional nature needs to be addressed urgently, if it is going to modernize and be relevant in the 21st Century. It needs to reflect national population demographics to not only reflect the nation’s racial mix, but gender mix as well. A single-race, male-dominated civil service lacks the diversity needed to tackle society’s needs and problems. Without demographic change, the culture dominating the civil service will remain corrupt.
Source : Murray Hunter
The Coverage Malaysia
