IN TOUCH... WITH THE PUBLIC SERVICE
OF THE FUTURE
What is our perception
of the Public Services of the Future? What changes can we see coming our way
and will these changes be acceptable to everybody? In a recent seminar on
the Public Service of the future, the State Secretary, YB Tan Sri Datuk Amar
Haji Hamid Bugo spoke of his ideas on what the Public Service of the future
will be like. The following is an extract of his speech.
'Governing Without Government'
My view of the
Public Service of the future can perhaps be best understood by interpreting
the concept of 'governing without government'. This concept, does not mean,
of course, that there won't be any government at all. It simply means a significant
reduction in the direct involvement of the government in the administration
of the Public Service. But the invisible hands of the government will always
be felt. The move towards ' governing without government' is inevitable in
much the same way that globalisation has now become very much a reality that
we are all forced to contend with. We are all affected by globalisation. For
instance, many of us have access to and are to some extent, influenced by
CNN, the American satellite news network. What we are fed by the international
media may have a deeper influence on the way we perceive certain situations
and make certain decisions.
Are we prepared for 'governing without
government'?
'Governing without
government' is a good thing provided the Public Service sector is prepared
for it. And that is the question that we have to address - are we prepared
for it? Let me illustrate further what I meant by saying that 'governing without
government' is a good thing. Take public health, for instance. There are so
many rules & regulations governing our public health. The food caterers
should be knowledgeable enough to understand simple basic rules about hygienic
food dispensing otherwise they should not have been given a license to operate
in terms of food hygiene, food storage, food preparation and others. Customers,
as a matter of plain common sense, should also be able to make a choice of
whether to patronise eateries which do not observe hygienic and healthy practices
in their operations!
Future structure of the Public Service
Following the
concept of 'governing without government,' the structure of the Public Service
of the future should be very different from the present hierarchy. We have
to get away from this hierarchy. It has to be a flat structure and there has
to be much more devolution. If there is such a structure, it doesn't really
mean that leaders in the government would actually lose their authority. Devolution
here can be interpreted to mean administrative arrangement. The authority
will still be there but devolution in the Public Service would mean having
people who will be networking, and having teamwork; where people will put
up their ideas freely and they will argue and negotiate, but not directly.
The managers will no longer give directives - they will bring people together,
networking to get the best solution to a problem. Only in the event that there
is a crisis would an authority be required. In day-to-day working, you would
be working as a team. There is not going to be a leader. The one with the
best idea would have a bigger influence.
Intellectual Renaissance
The question now is
how do we realise this structure. I have recently spoken about Intellectual
Renaissance. The idea of Intellectual Renaissance is similar to the Renaissance
period of the 18th Century where there was a revival of the individual vis-a-vis
the feudal lords. Where there is such a revival, the individual is free to
able to contribute and give the best ideas they have. People will be learning
and continue to learn, able to think, become intellectual in the true sense
of the word. In that situation where you can get people of calibre, the system
which we want to transform will inevitably self-transform. This will in turn
bring a lot of other changes to the Civil Service itself - everybody will
be less procedural and probably be more transparent. In my opinion, the Public
Service of the future has to be reinvented, incorporating whatever is good
and desirable from the old system into the 'reinvented' Civil Service.
