The incoming President of the United States, reportedly nominated billionaire Elon Musk of Tesla, Space X, X platform and xAI and venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy – an American entrepreneur who has a net worth was over $1 billion as at Aug 2023 and who in Feb 2023 declared his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination in the 2024 United States presidential election but later dropped out and declared his support for Trump - to lead a newly created office named Department of Government Efficiency - designed to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies, measures to the ‘Save America Movement,”.
It is no shame if Malaysia were to copy and do the same because what Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will be doing is genuinely appealing and deemed worthy enough to be copied.
Back in 2017, the then 2nd Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani admitted that Malaysia has the most bloated civil service in the world – based on the then population of 31 million people, it is one civil servant for every 19.37 people in the country - and salaries and pensions of civil servants are becoming a strain on the government.
(RM Bil) (RM Bil) (RM Bil) (RM Bil) (RM Bil)
Total pay of civil servants 22 74 84.5 87.8 91.3
Total pension of civil servants 5.9 19 28.04 30.26 32.01
Ministry of Finance records reportedly show that total public service employees increased from 877,100 in 1999 to 1.30 million in 2011 and reached 1.39 million in 2023.
Knowing and acknowledging publicly that Malaysia cannot afford public service pensions for future generations compounded by ageing demographics which will overburden the system, in Jan 2024, you declared reform of the public services pension, it showed you have the guts to take up prickly causes, but the haste of your disclosure and dearth of details have raised concerns.
Following your statement, in the same month in Jan 2024, the public services department (JPA) announced that new civil servants would be appointed on a contractual basis pending a new policy on hiring civil servants for permanent posts without pensions.
You obviously harbour ambitions for government employees to be more dynamic and invested — remaining in the service because of the nature of the work and not drifting toward a comfortable pension.
In fact, you repeated this in June 2024 at a Madani Aspiration Gathering of Public Service Counselling Associates (AKRAB) urging all civil servants to make a paradigm shift and help in driving the country’s growth.
Despite the brickbats from the opposition, the ordinary rakyat did see that you have brought significant changes to the country’s governing style.
The proof is in the recent Budget that you announced in Oct 2024.
A Malaysian style DOGE will look at slashing slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures instead of the ordinary rakyat reading year in year out about it from the Auditor General’s Report, focus on efficiency, while also working to improve the lives of all Malaysians.
To ensure full transparency, a "leaderboard" will be set up and be made publicly available online detailing all actions of DOGE.
What say you PM10?
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