Of expectation, guidelines and things in-between...

It is quite obvious that PR could not shake off its "opposition" mentality eventhough they have 5 states to run since March 2008. And if the leaders could not differentiate their role as "government of the day" then what can we expect from their followers?


Before proceeding further, let me offer my apologies first. This posting may hurt some nerves but hey...reality hurts. So, if by the end of this posting, some of you feel offended then relax and cool down because I have already offered my apologies even before I penned down the rest of the posting :)

It seems that the government loves to congregate at problematic areas, just like ants attracted to anything sweet and bees crowding flowers. Take PKFZ, for example. After years of persistence highlights by various parties and independent newspapers, the government finally admitted that PKFZ has problems. Whether it is a RM 4.2B or RM 12B does not matter anymore. It shows that someone up there has screw up big time.

Not only that, with new PKA Chairperson's guidance and admittance, the PKFZ bleeps and blunders goes under intense microscope, with special teams formed and tasked to get to the bottom of things. So it goes..reports, audits come filing in, police reports, MACC reports comes filtering in and Najib decided that there should be another super-high powered taskforce to find whether the project is carried out in good governance and to chart out its future direction. This time, the task force will be headed by KSN, Mohamad Sidek Hassan. Some think that the tskforce is one too many considering that the police, MACC and what nots are also getting a piece of action in PKFZ.

Whether it is one too many or one too late is no longer an issue. The issue here is how and why it happens? If it is done in slipshod way, by all means get those involved and put them on trial. It doesn't matter whether they are the backbone of UMNO or a member of the ruling coalition, it does not matter. If these entrepreneurs can do "magic" and makes our RM 12B vanish without a trace, then something is definitely wrong and it begins from the top.

That has been said and mentioned countless times. However what I am focussing is on the person entrusted to head the super task force, Mohamad Sidek Hassan. As if on cue, Malaysiakini posted a 2 part interview with Sidek Hassan that includes his defense on Perak state secretary's decision during the Perak fiasco. In the second part, Sidek mentioned that only a small number of the civil servants are politically active. That, in itself is an honest observation from the top civil servant.

However, for opposition stalwart Lim KS, he took the liberty to question the super taskforce formation and predicted that it is going to be a super "cover-up" taskforce. In other fronts, some of the independent bloggers think that Sidek will bring back happy days to BN people. In short, he is shot before he can even begins. Is that fair?

Remember back in 2007, Citizen Nades of the Sun commended Sidek's swift response to his enquiries. And it is not easy to get commendation from citizan Nades! Apart from that, Sidek is also responsible in setting up Permudah and his continuous unannounced checks to government offices are bearing fruits.

Now, we come to the core part. It is quite obvious that PR could not shake off its "opposition" mentality eventhough they have 5 states to run since March 2008. And if the leaders could not differentiate their role as "government of the day" then what can we expect from their followers? Why did I say that? Consider these :-

1. Mohamad Sidek Hassan is right when he mentioned in the Malaysiakini interview that the role of the civil servants is to serve the government of the day;
2. As there are federal list, state list and concurrent list, the position of the civil servants is clearly stated and it is up to the state government to make use of them;
3. Mohamad Sidek has also stressed that the loyalty of the civil servants is to the government of the day (either state or federal dpending on which department they are serving);
4. If the state government is unhappy with the performance of the civil servants seconded to the state from PTD (Pegawai Tadbir dan Diplomatik), the state can request for the officer to be replaced and transferred;
5. In the event that the state government faced a crisis similar to Perak, the civil servant has to make a judgement call, based on the available information (in this case Sidek was silent on the role of the civil servant to abide to HRH Sultan's command);
6. The civil servant (including the police) serve the government of the day which is suppose to be serving the public (and that means the police has to indirectly serve the public, subject to the government of the day's instruction);
7. Most government servants are trying to do the best they can;
8. Sidek commended the media for highlighting various lapses in the civil services and encouraged the media to continue chastitising those deemed to be "political" in performing their jobs;
9. He however said that credit should be given where it is due;
10. Sidek agreed that those civil servants who are not doing their job should be chastised;
11. Sidek foresee that the civil servants are professional enough to know that loyalty lies with the paymasters;
12. The civil servants have started to practise cross fertilisation of ideas and practises or exchange of officers where 20 top civil servants going into private practises whilst 20 from private practises join the civil servants;

Let me stop at 12. Take a minute or two to digest what Sidek is trying to say and the subtle message he is sending. His points are well delivered and it is up to the public to digest what he said.

Now, what is our expectation on super taskforce ? As mentioned earlier that their scope of work is to determine whether PKFZ project is carried out with good governance and to chart out its future directions. My expectation from this taskforce is easy :-

1. The super taskforce to determine whether it is done with good governance. If it is not, where did they go wrong? Who are responsible? What are the actions to be taken? And since the AG is one of the members of the taskforce, what are the legal recourses that can be taken? Can Malaysia get back the money it spends? Is PKFZ value for money?
2. what is the taskforce recommendations on its future directions? Do the public sector runs the show or farm it our to the private sector? What is the ideal price if need to dispose the project. Will the taskforce provide guidelines for future undertakings to prevent a second PKFZ? Who will approve the taskforce findings? who will implement its recommendations?

Looking beyond the taskforce, what will happen after that? Who will be held accountable for the past, present and future of PKFZ? I see that Sidek Hassan will carry out his task in good faith and once he handed his findings, the ball is back onto the government's foot. After that? Will the report be archived and become a home for cobwebs? Will it be hidden in the many reports submitted to the government? Will it be ever discussed in the parliament? Is it another whitewash by the powers that control Malaysia?

Coming back to the "opposition mentality", it is also evidently clear that the opposition's approach is always of mistrust. The opposition has a pre-set and pre-conceived ideas that the public sector are BN's apparatus. It is not. The public sector is there to implement the policies set by the government of the day. This is where the opposition need to go for "Admin 101" classes and learn to differentiate the functions and responsibilities of public sector.

Let us take a case in point of say Perak under PR. What was their mistake when they govern Perak? Nizar, in his haste to show that he can do things has incidentally step on the royalty when he make the decision to transfer out an official from JAIP. No doubt that the officer is BN-biased but Nizar's mistake is to transfer him without consulting and getting HRH's blessing. The point is PR may govern Perak but PR must learn to respect the ruler ie HRH Sultan.

Need another point? Again concerning the Islamic religous council but this time in Penang. Lim GE in celebrating PAS's victory in Permatang Pasir indicated that Ismail will be heading Penang Islamic religous council. Granted Lim GE is the CM of Penang but Penang's Islamic religous council falls under HRH Agung's purview. Wouldn't it be more proper and "beradat" if Lim GE sought the blessing of HRH Agung before announcing his intention? And this is not Lim GE's fault alone. The bigger culprit is Anwar Ibrahim, the once DPM of Malaysia who also said the same thing. Anwar, of all people should know the " raja-raja Melayu" heads the states' islamic religous council. And Anwar, fails big time here...

What about Hassan Ali of Selangor? Same thing...he announced something that he should not. He should be getting HRH Sultan's blessing first and not jump the gun. The way I see it, Hassan Ali is trying to show off his "muscles" and he falls flat when HRH Sultan Selangor called him for a private audience.

Do I need to say more? Do you want me to tell where PAS Terengganu failed during their tenure to govern the state of Terengganu?

Briefly, what PR should be doing now is to give their full backing to Sidek Hassan to do his job in heading the super taskforce. If possible, arrange for aan appointment and offer whatever help available to facilitate his work. Sidek is facing an undaunting task, an additional work burdening his already overloaded scope of work. And all this because of the failures of politicians to keep PKFZ in check. Yes, it is the politicians from both camps who failed us. They failed to highlight the issues early and even when they highlight the issues, it has not been proprly addressed. PR can seek consolation to say that they do not have the numbers then but theyhave sufficient now to highlight it. Did they? And when things do not fall in places, a civil servant by the name of Sidek has been roped in to head the taskforce. So, is it fair to judge him when he has not even started? When he is not the cause of the problem?

PR, up to now a year after 2008, stills see themselves as opposition. They are not! They are running 5 states and in those 5 states, they are the Government of the day. If PR feels that their police chief is not doing the job, call him in, reprimand him and if he still fails then seek audience with HRH Sultan to plead their case to get the inefficient officer replaced. You think that it cannot be done? It has happened before in Selangor. It has happened before in Pahang. In those 2 cases, it's sufficient to say that the officials involved are not from police cotingent but higher up. One of the officials were caught in close proximity or as they say "khalwat". So replacing incompetent officials are nothing new.

It is funny to see that PR is always blaming the system when it is not to their advantageous. Blaming the system is not the answer. The key is how to work within the system and make use of the system to the fullest advantage. This is where PR is lacking. PR has strong willed leaders like Anwar, Karpal, Lim KS, Hadi Awang but none of them has experience working in the public sector. Anwar was parachuted in and never understand the mechanics of civil service. Karpal and Lim KS are outsiders whose life is to criticise and up to now have failed to realise that they are at a threshold of taking over the federal government. Their inexperience in running the government shows where idealism didn't work. The same goes for Hadi Awang.

PR is bent at picking up small issue. PR should be tackling major issues and not the small issues. Picking up and solving small issues are fine but it does not reflect their full commitment. PR has been seen to come into office in a confrontational stance and such, what ever the civil servants are doing is wrong (to PR). But PR itself failed to realise how the system works, how the public servants are tied by bureaucracy created by the government of the day, past and present. That's what PR should be looking at - how to improve the stystem and convert it to people-friendly system.

PR has to act as a responsible opposition (at federal level) and that means to act maturedly. THis is no longer the "us against them" era. PR could not just oppose for the sake of opposing. There are issues where both BN and PR can work together and there are issues where PR can take the lead. PR has level headed MPs' who are ready, but are the leaders ready? Are the supporters ready?

To Lim KS everything must be placed under royal commission. Why? Is it a necessity? A report is only as good as it is and the difference is the followup. The super taskforce will produce its reports, findings and recommendation, then? It is back to the politicians to make out how the reports will be handled. What I am saying is that, it all leads back to the politicians. So, don't blame others and make others punching bags for the politicians' failure to address the issue.

The lists go on but suffice for me to say it again - PR needs to understand the system and make use of the system. And if PR still could not understand, help is just a phone call away...

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are...