LAST week, some contract government doctors staged a short walkout in hospitals where they serve. These doctors represented the grievances of some 22,000 of their colleagues who believe they are treated unfairly compared to their permanent counterparts.

The dissatisfaction of contract doctors is a symptom of a much larger malady: the way we treat our civil service.

Doctors in public service are some of the most underpaid, underappreciated professionals around.

The starting basic salary for housemen is only RM2,947, around the same as any other less demanding profession.

For the cost and amount of work that went into obtaining a medical degree, and the amount of work expected from a houseman, this is hardly fair compensation.

After a further four years of mandatory government service, if lucky enough to be confirmed into a fixed position, the doctor spends a further year applying for a coveted Master’s spot, and spends around four more years qualifying as a specialist doctor, only to get the princely sum of RM6,182 as a basic pay, or less than your average middle manager.

These are our front-liners, whose critical role has finally come to light after a year and a half of overworked hospitals, now almost at breaking point.

It should be a no-brainer to hire these contract staff permanently, considering Covid-19 will be with us for a while, the attrition rate of losing government doctors to the private sector, migration and more lucrative, less stressful careers, and the growing need of doctors and other allied health professionals in our growing population.

Similarly, government employed professionals in other tracks – lawyers, accountants and engineers – are routinely paid lower than their private sector counterparts.

Perhaps instead of applying ad hoc solutions, the government could re-examine the civil service as a whole.

This pandemic has shed more light on the value of digitalisation, the fact some departments were able to suspend function, and certain deficiencies in operations of others.

Lessons learnt from this pandemic have come at a steep cost and it would be wise to take a leaf from it. For example, the immediate need to prioritise, reorganise, merge and even shut down certain departments.

Allied health sciences, computing, public security, micro-economic strategists and grassroots community organisers are some areas that appear to be understaffed by the government. 

Whereas policymaking, education, information dissemination showed it lacked competence and flexibility.

Areas like tourism promotion, quality assurance, religious and cultural promotion took a backseat. 

Ministries and departments should not be created or shaped by the fortunes of its ministers, rather by real needs that help our economy, community, society, culture and nation grow. Departments should be geared to producing meaningful, productive output, thorough and usable analysis and intelligent regulatory oversight.  

Departments that exist as remnant shells of now privatized, outsourced, or defunct agencies should be minimised or closed, and the funds diverted to more deserving ones.

Legacy clerical and manual roles should be abolished in favour of automation, and the government should lead the national digitisation efforts by being not only its champion, but pioneering change.  

It is simply unsustainable to maintain one of the largest average civil services in the world, especially without the economic viability and vitality needed to support it.  

More than just salaries, there is the employment cost – healthcare, retirement benefits, disbursements, training and education costs, and of course, the opportunity cost missed. These are stackable costs that only inflate over time, tying down more and more government funds – both federal and states. 

These employment schemes itself could also be relooked at, and perhaps offset by higher upfront salaries, insurance, joint arrangements with the private sector, private pension funds and so on. 

Head counts should matter, and treated with dignity and compensation befitting their professions, which would be difficult to do if the focus remains on quantity, immediate political expediency and individual agendas as opposed to quality and the greater, mutual, long-term good. – July 28, 2021.

* Emmanuel Joseph firmly believes that Klang is the best place on Earth, and that motivated people can do far more good than any leader with motive.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.