Brendan Pereira on Monday: The tough side to Mr Nice Guy
May 01, 2006
Brendan Pereira
New Straits Times

SUPPOSE.Suppose a civil servant went before Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and offered a bunch of lame excuses for not doing his job, what would happen to him?

In days past, the bungling officer may have received a telling off. Or had his ears bent by vitriol from an embarrassed superior. Nothing more.

But the unfortunate civil servant who fudged and squirted nonsense at Abdullah at a recent briefing after being asked repeatedly to explain his tardiness got more than a verbal assault.

He was removed. No ifs or buts. The man — of considerable experience and seniority — was yanked out of his comfort zone and transferred out of the department.

News of this episode is spreading through the civil service like blood coursing through the veins. It is also providing grist for some lively dinner table conversation in the Klang Valley.

What prompted this unusual and swift action? Did the senior civil servant catch Abdullah on a bad day?

Those in the briefing room with the Prime Minister that day say he was stumped at the slow pace of some reforms in the education system. Excuses which had been in mothballs for a year were dressed up like original arguments and served up to Abdullah.

Wrong move. His aides and even some ministers say that it is ill-advised to challenge Abdullah with tardiness and stock answers these days.

Mr Nice Guy is much less tolerant of people who are obstacles to the Ninth Malaysia Plan being implemented or those who try and fudge reasons for the failure of a project.

Easy to understand why. A key assumption of the Ninth Malaysia Plan is that the private sector will throw off the shackles of caution and invest in a big way in projects in the country.

Malaysia’s private sector was its main engine of growth during the 1990s. Consider these statistics: In 1997, just before the East Asian financial crisis struck, Malaysian private investment as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 35 per cent.

During the period of the Eighth Malaysia Plan, it was negligible. To get the private sector to be the engine of economic growth again, corporate Malaysia must be convinced that their applications will be processed speedily and that the public sector will not impede them at every turn.

They must also see evidence of a leadership willing to take tough action to discipline politicians, local government officials or public servants who have made a living out of frustrating projects from taking off.

Make no mistake, the stragglers, the procrastinators and the corrupt are a formidable group. They only understand the exercise of raw power.

Words, no matter how forceful, often have little effect on their calloused hearts.

Oh yes, they are a determined lot,too.

On hearing that Abdullah planned to visit and find out more about the troubled Kuching Prison project during a visit to Sarawak, some people did their best to discourage his interest, laying out a buffet of reasons why that visit should be scratched off the itinerary.

He persisted with his original plan and now the Anti- Corruption Agency is examining why RM200 million was spent on a penal institution that is not fit to house even one criminal. Now there is a real chance that the culprits behind this fiasco will be held accountable.