HOW TO REDUCE THE SIZE OF THE BLOATED MALAYSIAN CABINET AND CIVIL STAFF POPULATION…AND INCREASE PROFESSIONALISM AMONGST THE MEMBERS OF THE CABINET AND CIVIL SERVANTS, AND ALSO REVENUE FOR THE COUNTRY.

By Mansor Puteh

This article is also about how to trim the civil servants staff population and cause them

to be more production and to turn activities of the many agencies in the ministries into

industries that can generate income for the country so that these agencies.

Malaysia should also have by now no more than fifteen members in the cabinet much

like America and many other developed country does, and for a good reason.

All developed countries do not have many ministries and in each ministry, there are so

few agencies to support and provide for.

This should explain why the civil servants population of those countries is small.

Therefore if Malaysia wants to become a developed country, it must follow what the

other developed countries had done by trimming their cabinet and civil servants

population.

If this cannot be done, Malaysia will continue to have a bloated cabinet members and

civil servants population, most of who will be unproductive and redundant and less

efficient and waiting to be elevated to a higher post with a bigger pay and more perks,

while not doing much all until they retire and provided for by pension payments until

they die after which their spouses will benefit from government with those in the

government mostly serving themselves and that of their parties, more than the

government and country they claim to serve.

This is not a case of ‘the more the merrier’ but the more the less professional.

And who in the country knows how the problems were created that caused the

population of civil servants to be so bloated for so long and how to trim it by

encouraging professionalism, like only I can?

And it is for a good reason too; and only if this can be caused to happen that the

number of civil servants can be reduced, for the better of the staff who would by then

become more responsible, productive and professional and more importantly become

industry leaders who can be respected internationally and not just in the country and

when they are holding office as proxies of their political masters whose real talent is

more on how they can impress their political leaders and not the industry worldwide.

The fact is that America does not even have a ministry of youth and sports, but this did

not mean that their sports industry is lame and amateurish. On the contrary it was

because that they were professional that had caused the country not to have such a

ministry in the first place, so the best can enter it and those who thought they could

manage it didn’t make the grade.

Malaysia is a small country yet it has twenty-seven ministries and how to free most of

them to pave the way for Malaysia to be a developed country! Unfortunately this is

mostly seen in the economic sense and not in the social and cultural sense.

Ironically when the first Malayan government cabinet was formed it only had seven

which are basic ones for a new country and this was deemed by the leaders then to be

sufficient to develop the country.

But as the country grew more and more ministries were added; and sometimes they

even overlap with each other.

Thus politicking was created when it did not exist before when many, especially those

who are not properly trained or qualified were encouraged to enter politics because they

did not need to meet with any academic requirement or experience.

In the end, those who trusted themselves to the political stage and having thick skin

seemed to succeed, while those who have far more superior academic and professional

qualification and experience, prefer to sit on the sidelines to marvel at the horrendous

state of politics and politicking that has become in the country that it did not deserve,

especially when street politics and internet politics were created.

Does the size of the cabinet matter to make America to be what it is today? And how Malaysia can learn much from how America could have such a small number of ministries in their Federal Cabinet.

         

America which has a population of three hundred million people whose political and military and economic reach extends throughout the world only has a total of fifteen ministries.

         

Whereas Malaysia which has a total population of only thirty-two people has twenty-seven ministries including the ministry of youth and sports that America does not even have.

Yet, despite that sports in America have brought out the best from many Americans so that they have sports activities that are conducted not by any ministry but by associations and other private individuals.

And does Malaysia need to maintain such a large number of ministries to ensure that all sectors of government and the private sector be enhanced? This unfortunately, has not happened.

Unfortunately, since the country first had its own government in 1955 with its first cabinet which comprised only seven cabinet members, it has grown to twenty-seven. The number might increase if demands from organizations and groups are answered.

I am not surprised that there is no one in the whole country who claim to be smart, but who has not said anything about this issue and not allow many other lesser mortals to look at the suggestion by Mahathir or whoever that said that these the size of the civil servants should be further reduced.

But none of those who have said this, has not gone on to say the same with the size of the bloated cabinet because they do not know what good this too can bring to increase the level of professionalism and the productivity of the country.

The end result of which will be seen in the new level of democracy since many won’t be linked to the government of the day so those in the cabinet will have to do more to show how good and deserving they are to be in it.

And it will also force many to not want to be in politics because it does not pay as much as being in the private sector as can be seen in all the developed countries when those in the private sector earns a lot more than those in the government and politics.

Zaini can publish it in his portal but I also want to see it out in the newspapers.