theSun | TUESDAY MAY 5 2009
speak up!
Held to ransom
ONE can never underestimate the
civil service. They can cripple you
and even take over the country! So
said a deputy minister to me not too
long ago.
He was not kidding. The deliv-
ery of a political leader’s promises
is dependent on the civil service
that oils his government.
We have seen evidence of these
around the world when govern-
ments have collapsed or are on
the brink of collapse due to civil
servants taking them hostage either
for more benefits or in the most
extreme, a change in government
– Taiwan and Zimbabwe to name
a couple.
Closer to home, one only needs
to ask the immediate past prime
minister. In spite of his best efforts
to improve service, it is still a very
long walk towards attaining a
world-class public service system.
In his own words to us he spoke
of the resistance from the police
force against the setting up of the
Independent Police Complaints and
Misconduct Commission.
On a micro level, a visit to the
immigration department, it seems
is not enough to send the message
to the public servants as well as to
letters
letters@thesundaily.com
Reconsider Penang Hill
Human behaviour and ‘hard evidence’ railway upgrade
EMERITUS Professor Tan Sri Dr
Khoo Kay Kim is to be commended
for his willingness to engage in the
current serious debate by “conven-
tional historians and social scientists”
on the “The challenge of interpreting
history” (Letters, April 21). Indeed, as
“founding fathers” of the University
of Malaya and the Science University
respectively, it is timely that Khoo
and I call for an assessment of the
“state of the art” on this important
topic particularly in relation to ethnic
and race relations in Malaysia.
The urgent need for such an ap-
praisal becomes painfully clear on
the basis of Khoo’s response titled
“Base conclusions on hard evidence”
(Letters, April 28). With respect,
this amounts to nothing more than
presenting ad hoc unconnected
arguments that could perhaps have
been more meaningful and relevant
had they been submitted within a
focused social science theoretical
framework.
For instance, anyone with a
rudimentary knowledge in political
sociology would understand that,
it is absurd to describe the social
situations in any two counties (in
this case India and Malaya) as being
“identical”. The similarity mentioned
was in regard to divide-and-rule
policies within the British imperialist
institutional social structures.
Then again Khoo seems to have
failed to recognise that “indigenous
national consciousness” is not sim-
Case for a decent minimum wage to fight poverty
CRIME is a hot topic of discussion
now. It has created an air of insecu-
rity causing fear and panic among
the people.
In the recent past, several in-
stances of petty crime have pointed
to low-end crime committed purely
for survival. It is paradoxical that
the rich, famous and smart ones
commit high-end crime just out of
avariciousness. Yet, justice is meted
out speedily and harshly for crime
committed by those who have fallen
through the cracks.
Unfortunately, workers wages
increase the confidence level of the
public.
It is because of failures to attain
certain goals in the rehabilitation
of the service, that the tenure of the
chief secretary to the government,
Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hasan, I am
told, has been extended.
Mohd Sidek after all, has been
going into overdrive since his ap-
pointment three years ago to inject
new life into the service with ac-
countability and KPIs.
He has made examples of a few
who are defiant or not on the same
page via demotions and transfers.
But he still has some way to go
judging from letters of complaints to
newspapers as well as experiences
of this scribe and those who related
theirs to me. These vary from slug-
gish counter staff at hospitals to
non-existent queuing systems at
the stamp duty office to touts who
– despite best efforts of the authori-
ties – continue to rule the roost at
the immigration, registration and
road transport departments; be it
in filling forms, reserving queue
numbers or manning collection
centres masquerading as photog-
raphy booths.
However, one must admit that
ply a matter of being Malaysian or
Malayan. Rather, it refers to the re-
sponse in the rejection in the validity
of people who consider themselves
as indigenous to their claim to
existence, to land, to the right of self-
determination, and to the survival
of forms of cultural knowledge for
living within their environments.
But perhaps we should take this
opportunity to briefly clarify some
fundamental dimensions of the so-
cial sciences in regard to this debate.
Readers are urged to bear with me
because it may sound simplistic
and may involve some discussion
considered “abstract”.
It may come as a surprise to some
readers that the social sciences are
mainly concerned with the simple
question of making sense of human
behaviour, and that this objective is
pursued primarily through theory
testing. Because of the complexity of
behaviour, where the same outcome
can be realised through multiple
factor causation, and particularly
because of dynamic social change,
it is essential that an explanation
of behaviour should be based on
hypothesis testing within selected
theoretical frameworks, rather than
on the mere interpretation of histori-
cal evidence.
Indeed, contrary to popular no-
tion, social science theories them-
selves are drawn from research on
repeated practical experiences over
time, so that it becomes possible to
have not kept pace with rising hous-
ing, food, health care, education and
other costs. As such, many workers
are unable to feed their families and
must rely on other sources to supple-
ment their income. This has resulted
in a rise in the level of poverty which
has extended beyond the traditional
settlements/slums and reached the
urban and suburban communities.
There is a direct correlation be-
tween poverty and crime.
Mahatma Gandhi had stated that
“God can never appear before the
starving man except in the shape of
Down2Earth
by Terence Fernandez
for a system that has been en-
trenched in bureaucracy and graft
for eons, there has been progress
albeit through baby steps.
For a quick fix, the solution is
simple – merit-based rewards sys-
tem and benefits and a pay package
that befits the responsibility and ex-
pectations placed on the shoulders
of our civil servants.
The government had addressed
this two years ago via a salary revi-
sion of nine to 42% for the armed
forces and law enforcement au-
thorities.
The police force is a benchmark
of how we regard our public serv-
ants. Even with the revision, how
can we expect our men in blue
to put their lives on the line for
RM900? (Entry level for a consta-
ble). Is their life worth only that
much?
Why can’t we tighten the re-
quirements for joining the force
ascertain that given causal factors A,
B or C – D is likely to occur.
A variety of social constructs are
available to measure the validity
and reliability of research data and
the most common is the application
of socio-economic causal variables
such as education, occupation and
income.
Therefore there is nothing defini-
tive or deterministic in the context of
making sense of human behaviour.
Indeed this is made abundantly clear
within the disciplines of the social
sciences themselves where courses
are taught within a comparative
perspective. This was in fact the situ-
ation in the School of Social Sciences
at USM where Hamzah Sendut as
vice-chancellor and Professor K. J.
Ratnam as dean launched the first
ever comparative social science
programme in Malaysia. Indeed just
to make the point, my Oxford D.Phil
degree begins with the words “It
would appear ….” meaning that the
research findings were acceptable
at that time, but will not necessarily
hold for all time. In fact a “good”
theory accordingly should be capa-
ble of being defeated.
As might be expected some of my
friends (light-heartedly) tell me that
all my examiners at Oxford were not
sure whether I should be awarded
the doctorate degree.
Dr Collin Abraham
Kuala Lumpur
bread” clarifying that for a hungry
man no sermon, no ideology, no
prophecy could work.
A lot of crime these days seems to
stem from economic circumstances
with the poor unable to make a
decent living. They resort to an infor-
mal economy of crime for survival.
It is myopic to presume that un-
der-privileged people are less prin-
cipled than the average wage earner.
They are driven by circumstances
and need, not greed to crimes of
desperation.
Emotionally, poverty and hunger
to make it more professional by
getting better educated and quality
personnel with private sector re-
muneration? The force should not
be a last resort for those who did
not do well in school exams.
Our civil service is in eighth
place in the World Competitiveness
Survey. A commendable achieve-
ment but don’t forget we were
fourth five years ago.
Whether investors view us
favourably depends not only on a
stable government and tax relief
but also how easy it is doing busi-
ness in this country. Many have
been frustrated by red tape and
Little Napoleons who rule the roost,
where even Vietnam seems like a
better option.
**********************
SPEAKING of Little Napoleons,
Sunday was World Press Freedom
Day. To mark this day, Perak’s own
Bonaparte, State Assembly secretary
Abdullah Antong Sabri, issued a
restriction on the number of media
organisations “allowed” to cover the
state assembly sitting.
He gave his preferred list of 13
organisations where theSun was
among those deemed as persona
non grata.
Of course Mentri Besar Datuk
Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir had
to do damage control and lift the
restriction as did assemblyman
V. Sivakumar in his capacity as
speaker.
THE Public Works Department has
called for a tender to upgrade the Pen-
ang Hill funicular railway. It is expected
that the work will take about 10 months
to complete. The project is part of the
economic stimulus package and is be-
ing rushed through for that reason.
It is worthwhile to examine how
much stimulus this package will pro-
vide for the economy. The difficulty is
the lack of reliable data, but even so it
is possible to make educated guesses
and arrive at broad conclusions.
The contract is estimated to cost
RM40 million, with a sizeable portion
made up of electrical and mechanical
works, most of which can only be sup-
plied by a specialist foreign supplier of
funicular railway equipment. Thus, it
will be a safe assumption that at least
half of the budget will be paid to that
foreign company. The balance will be
for the purchase of building material,
services (transport, hire of equipment,
etc), salaries and the main contractor’s
profit. Most of the wages will be for
foreign workers and will be repatriated,
leaving perhaps 75% of the balance, or
about RM15 million, to remain in the
country to stimulate the economy.
Against this is the cost to the econ-
omy of stopping the railway service for
at least 10 months. During this period,
at least 500,000 tourists will not be
able to visit the hill. Assuming that each
tourist spends RM25 – a purposely low
figure – the loss will be RM12.5 million.
lead to intense feelings of despair and
hopelessness which are fundamental
causes of crime and violence. People
living in poverty are more likely to
commit crimes such as burglary,
theft, etc.
Establishing satisfying employ-
ment by implementing a minimum
wage and economic well-being are
important factors for successful inte-
gration in the community. Society as a
whole will benefit when workers are
helped to regain dignity by elevation
from poverty to lives characterised
by work and (improved) productiv-
9
However, one wonders what the
new requirement to “register” as
announced by Zambry means, as
well as the new need for state as-
sembly-issued tags although each
organisation has its own media
tags as well as the ones issued by
the Information Ministry for access
to Parliament.
Abdullah, just like State Secre-
tary Datuk Abdul Rahman Hashim,
is a facilitator but since the Perak
constitutional crisis erupted, both
seem to have demonstrated their
political alliances.
No fault there. As citizens it is
their right to back whichever po-
litical party they want but as civil
servants, is it proper to wear their
partisanship on their sleeve? To
the public, Abdul Rahman seems
to have demonstrated this by his
overzealousness in throwing out
the old regime and rolling out the
red carpet for the new one.
Going back to my argument
above on how the civil service can
make or break a government, their
conduct is not making it any easier
for Dr Zambry and the Barisan
Nasional in winning the hearts and
minds of the people of Perak who
feel that their right to decide on
their government has been taken
away.
Terence is deputy editor (special
reports & investigations) at theSun
and can be reached at terence@
thesundaily.com
Based on previous experience when
the funicular was down, about 150
tourists a day will visit the hill using the
jeep track and spend about RM70 each
– a purposely high figure – (mostly on
taxi fare), injecting about RM3.1 million
into the local economy. Offsetting this
against the loss figure (RM12.5 million)
gives a net total loss of about RM9.4
million. Hence, the actual gain to the
economy is only about RM5.6 million
(RM15 million less RM9.4 million).
It is evident that the actual stimulus
to the economy is small, about RM5-6
million, if the contract is completed on
time. If the project is delayed by, say, 18
months, as often happens, the result
will be the opposite, and the economy
will be de-stimulated.
Not included in the above calcula-
tions are the inconvenience to the hill
residents, particularly those living in
mid-hill, and the loss of a valuable herit-
age asset, which leads me to conclude
that the planners have not diligently
considered all aspects fully before
deciding to upgrade the railway.
I have to add also that RM5-6 mil-
lion over 10 months is a paltry sum
and can easily be matched by merely
encouraging economic development
such as the development of Crag Hotel
and abandoned government bungalows
and quarters on Penang Hill.
Ahmad Chik
Penang Hill
ity. Minimum wages should be set at
levels designed to provide properly
for individual workers and their de-
pendents failing which we will be
having a class of “working poor”.
We need to promote and sustain
employment that offers fair and
equitable minimum wages. Only
then will there be dignity of labour.
Anything short of this will breed
oppression, fear, poverty and an
increase of poverty-driven crime.
Renuka
Kuala Lumpur