Asian Angle | Najib can’t afford to keep Malaysia’s civil servants – or to lose them
With 1.6 million on the Malaysian government’s payroll, the workers are key to electoral success. But a large service keeps the country stagnant – and prone to a financial meltdown
While such a large service has the effect of buttressing the government, making Malaysia more stable, it also hampers efforts to transform the government, making Malaysia more stagnant too.
So while Mohammad’s desire to reduce the size of the civil service is quite understandable – indeed, it may even be necessary to prevent a government financial meltdown – Prime Minister Najib Razak knows that doing so would be the kiss of death politically, given the impending general election.
Thus Najib has taken to reassuring the civil service, which is predominantly formed of Malays, not to worry about any reduction in headcount. The can has been kicked down the road.
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It should be noted that Mohammad’s figure of 1.6 million includes armed forces, police, education and hospital personnel. The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) claims that these should not be included in the headcount, as is the case in some other countries, and consequently claims the civil service numbers 500,000. Even so, there is a self-serving logic to Cuepacs’ suggestion – they don’t want their heads to roll.
