(Jan 10, Putrajaya) Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek said that when dealing with recruitment and promotion matters within the civil service, he is t otally colour blind -- regardless of race; only the best will be picked.

He insisted that the public service is in need of the best and most outstanding people. As such, he will not base his criteria for recruitment and promotion of government servants on race, skin colour or gender.

"As far as this issue is concerned, I am t otally colour blind and also gender blind. Only the best has my attention."

In an exclusive interview with China Press, Mohd Sidek stressed on his philosophy when he was commenting on the Chinese and Indian's lukewarm response on the recruitment drive of the public service sector. This is also his first exclusive interview with a Chinese newspaper since taking office on September 3, 2006.

Lack of advertising and publicity

Based on the same reason, he said, the government will not be setting race quota for the public service sector as a platform to recruit more non-Malay public servants, as this has contradicted the merit system promoted by the government.

He does not believe that the implementation of the quota system in the public service sector could bring any good. On the contrary, this can only force the government to dump the elites and employ average public servants.

"I believe in picking the best and do not believe in skin colour or quota; otherwise it will drag all of us down in the end."

He cites an example that, when he went to Makkah last year to perform the Haj, in his 16 days absence from the country, everything was taken care of by his right hand men and he did not have to worry.

However, Mohd Sidek does not deny that, from the past till present, most people who wrote to apply for public servant jobs are Malays, and the number of applicants entered the second round of interview were even fewer than the past.

He said the race ratio of public servant nowadays may have been formed since the implementation of NEP in 1971.

"Under the goal to eradicate poverty regardless of race, many Malays joined the public service sector, while the Chinese were interested in doing business and the Indians joined the plantation industry. This has caused the current imbalance in the public service sector."

He said that with the economy developing and the economic boom in the 80's and 90's, the situation had worsened. Many Chinese felt that there was no future in the public sector and joined the business sector.

He believes lack of advertising and publicity is also one of the reasons many non-Malays have misunderstood the public sector.

However, Mohd Sidek stressed that the cabinet is very concerned with this situation and has worked hard to adjust the present situation.

Low salary should not be an excuse anymore

Starting pay for graduate is RM2,800

(Jan 10, Putrajaya) Following the sharp revision of salary by the government since July last year, non-Malays should not use salary as an issue, reason or excuse to stay away from the public sector.

Mohd Sidek said, new graduates can get RM2,800 to RM2,900 in salary and subsidies in total. The income is not bad and even better than the private sector.

Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek had said this in an exclusive interview with China Press.

"Therefore, I do not agree that salary is a factor that has deterred the non-Malays."

Unfair situation was caused by human factor

As for promotion, he said, everybody has an equal chance, as long as one performs.

"In this area, I also enforce colour blind policies and attitude, and emphasis on merit."

He cites an example of somebody who is critically ill and lies in the surgical room. "Do you think he will insist to have the best doctor or a doctor of the same skin colour? "

Mohd Sidek said that like the private sector, the public sector also implements annual assessment system, especially in the promotion of senior staff, other than direct assessment and rating by immediate superior, the secretary-general, deputy secretary-general and officers of the ministry, and also JPA and he himself, have all been involved in the assessment to ensure fairness.

"However, human factor could cause unfairness, and this exists everywhere including private companies. Ultimately, we have tried our best to be impartial and fair," he added.

Public servant should stay still

They must add value to attract foreign investment

Nowadays, government departments should have a dynamic mentality as Malaysia is now competing with the rest of the world.

Mohd Sidek said that just like the private sector, government departments have to be fast and efficient in their work, otherwise foreign investment will not come and even withdraw the capital to invest in other countries.

He said, "When you step into a restaurant and find that the waiters have poor attitude, what will you do? My experience is I will go away immediately, after all, I have many restaurants to choose from."

Similarly he stressed that, "Public service efficiency is also the same. If foreign investors feel that our service is poor and takes longer time, will they choose to invest in our country? The answer is of course No!"

He said foreign investors will opt for other countries, such as Thailand , Singapore , Dubai , and even Vietnam , but not Malaysia .

Therefore, he has time and again urged public servants to improve and add value to themselves at different places, including working hard to improve the public administration service efficiency system, so as to compete with other countries.

Only 3.4% of public servants are Chinese

When Malaya gained independence, the government recruited 4 Chinese public servants which stood for 16.7%, but the percentage has slipped gradually, 50 years later or in 2007, the percentage slipped to 3.4% only.

According to statistics provided by Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek, upon China Press' request, the government has recruited 24 public servants in 1957, of which 16 were Malays (66.7%), 4 were Chinese, 2 were Indians and 2 were other races.

25 years later, in 1982, out of the 9224 public servants recruited by the government, 7820 were Malays (84.7%), 728 or 7.8% were Chinese, 394 or 4.2% were Indians, while 282 were other races.

Out of the 728 Chinese public servants, 123 were administrative and professional staff, while others were support staff from different categories.

38,569 public servants were recruited in 2007, Malays were still dominating at 31,675 (82.1%), 1326 were Chinese or 3.4%, 1188 were Indian while 4380 were other races.

Assigned important mission when he assumed the post

PEMUDAH is becoming better and better

Mohd Sidek was assigned an important mission when he first assumed the post in PEMUDAH, which is aimed at improving the delivery system of public service.

In order to ensure the effectiveness of PEMUDAH, Mohd Sidek has insisted that all Secretary-Generals and Director-Generals of all ministries must be a member of PEMUDAH and must attend all its meetings.

As all head of departments are under him, this is not a problem, but it was tough to invite participation of private sector representatives.

Mohd Sidek said, when he first set up PEMUDAH with the joint president of PEMUDAH Tan Sri Yong Poh Kon who represented the private sector, the mentality of the private sector were mostly "Not wiling".

After a year of hard work, PEMUDAH has made significant improvements with many innovative programmes. The monitoring system for the public sector has also improved and has won praises from various parties.