ALLOWING civil servants to conduct business could end corruption within the civil service, said Education Ministry officer Azhar Zainul Rashid.

Speaking at the National Transformation 2050 (TN50) dialogue with Prime Minister Najib Razak today, Zainul suggested that the government conduct more seminars and allow civil servants to take part in business as a way to earn additional income.

“I appeal to the government to consider a structured system, like special TN50 business workshops civil servants.

“This will encourage government staff to do business with a commitment not to let these businesses interrupt their daily duties. This system can help raise the household income of civil servants and motivate them to improve the government’s image by giving better service to taxpayers.

“This will also indirectly reduce or end corruption, which has become a cancer to the country. Many civil servants are involved in business but are afraid of Datuk Seri (Najib) because there’s no proper structure for them to do it cleanly,” said Azhar at the dialogue held at the Finance Ministry in Putrajaya this morning.

On May 24, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission deputy chief commissioner Shamshun Baharin said 46% of the cases they investigated between 2014 and 2016 involved civil servants. 

During the dialogue, another Education Ministry staff who only identified herself as Nadia said the country should have only one school stream in 2050.

“I hope that we can achieve unity through education. One of the ways to unite people is to have a single stream school that teaches in English and Malay without setting aside Chinese and Tamil,” said Nadia.

Najib said he also hoped that such a schooling system would be in place by 2050.

“We want to have a peaceful nation, but how can we achieve national unity? Some have suggested that this should start from the schools but this is a sensitive subject as currently there are different streams.

“How do we solve this? We cannot close the Chinese and Tamil schools. But what we can do is to have a national school where Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil, and maybe Arabic, are taught properly.

“If it is a Chinese student, he can learn three languages. The teachers need to be more multiracial, too. But can we accept this module now?” 

Najib said to realise this idea of unity through education, there needed to be provisions for religious schools, like tahfiz.

Other issues raised by the civil servants include allowing women to work from home and more job placements for younger government employees.

The TN50 dialogue session was organised by Chief Secretary to Government Ali Hamsa. – May 31, 2017.