AMID claims by ministers of a powerful secretive faction in upper echelons of the civil service, or deep state, the Public Service Department director-general urges government servants to remember their pledge to serve the public, no matter the government of the day.

Mohd Khairul Adib Abd Rahman, who was appointed to the post in September under a new government, said the civil service must stay focused on improving its productivity, efficiency and integrity.

Acknowledging that there are inefficiencies in the government administration, he said civil servants must always remember the public, whom they serve, and “feel the heartbeat of the people”.

“Honestly speaking, I’m not aware (of any deep state). When I read about it, I thought it was merely about politics, rather than civil servants,” Khairul told The Malaysian Insight.

“But there are inefficiencies we are addressing. We look at it in three parts: productivity, efficiency, and integrity.

“All these were challenges from before, and they are still challenges for me as the D-G, and they will be challenges for future D-Gs.”

Khairul was asked about references to the deep state by a few ministers.

Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad mentioned it when justifying Putrajaya’s reversal on ratifying the Rome Statute; Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said “deep-state actors” had sabotaged efforts to ratify an anti-discrimination treaty, while Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the deep state was trying to destabilise Pakatan Harapan.

The term “deep state” is can used to describe an alleged shadowy group of powerful unelected people controlling the government away from the public eye. Though the idea of a “government within a government” has been around for many years, the term “deep state” has been used and popularised in recent times by US President Donald Trump and his supporters to explain why his policy goals have been frustrated. 

Khairul said allegations of a deep state in the civil service had to be more specific.

Four government insiders told The Malaysian Insight that what might be seen as the work of a deep state was more likely adjustment problems for civil servants used to working in a BN culture that rewarded loyalty rather than efficiency. 

As for inexperienced ministers, they needed to know how to work with senior civil servants, such as the ministry secretary-general.

The PSD D-G said claims of “sabotage or uncooperativeness” could be slowness and inefficiency in service.

“That’s why I said, you have to be very specific. None of our services have stopped.

“More than a year after the transition (of government), the system has not collapsed. Civil servants are still delivering. The public can still get counter services, can still renew their passports, can still go to hospitals.”

He said civil servants know that they are supposed to be neutral and that as the government machinery, they act as the interface between the public and the executive.

“They must feel the heartbeat of the people; they must understand their executive master. The minister will give policy directions; their role is to serve and deliver, transfer directives into activities and programmes.”

Khairul said the public was not always happy with the civil service’s performance and said it could be because “we are limited in our communication”

This was one area of improvement needed, he added.

“We cannot say all civil servants are the same. I do agree, however, that in any organisation, whether public or private, there is always room for improvement.

“We also cannot say that the private sector is 100% efficient. They, too, have gaps. But because in our case, we deal with the public, so things appear more prominent. We are addressing this.”

Improvement is a continuous process, he added, and the way to stay motivated is to always remember to serve the public.

The PH cabinet, with most of them first-time ministers, has found it challenging to adjust to being in government and running ministries, in part due to a rocky start with the civil service.

After taking over Putrajaya last year, the PH government carried out a cleansing of personnel in key departments and agencies, and restructured several ministries and their functions.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad also publicly said that it was challenging working with the civil service which had been “destroyed by BN”, and that a “culture of sabotage” still existed within its ranks. – November 16, 2019.