by Lim Guan Eng

(Petaling Jaya, Monday): DAP is not shocked by news report today that bureaucratic red tape and an inefficient civil service in Malaysia cost billions of ringgit in lost revenue as well losing a crucial six-year head start in the global IT outsourcing and disaster data backup recovery industry. This discovery was made in Bangalore by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak after being told by India’s leading software exporter, Infosys Technologies Ltd’s mentor and chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy.

Infosys had wanted to set up such a centre in Malaysia as early as in 2000 and Malaysia was the second choice after Mauritius as the best and safest location for such a centre. However, looking at Malaysia’s advanced infrastructure and commitment to IT development, Infosys picked Kuala Lumpur and planned to move 15,000 people for the centre.

Narayana said that “Unfortunately, the Malaysian bureaucracy did not appreciate it. We faced numerous delays in trying to get approvals for sending people over and finally reverted to Mauritius.” The loss of 15,000 highly talented professionals working in Kuala Lumpur in 2000 is incalculable now considering the Infosys is a Nasdaq-listed global Indian firm, currently valued at US$17bil (RM61.2bil). In 2005, Infosys has 52,000 employees and reported US$17.2 billion (RM63.22 billion) in profits with a projection of US$50 billion in 2008.

Reinventing government should be one of the urgent priorities of Datuk Seri Abdullah to stem such losses in monetary investment as well as human capital in Malaysia. Creating a “first-class” mentality will not succeed so long as civil servants are not productive, competitive or continue to behave like “little Napoleons” with powers not to facilitate investment but to hinder progress and impeded development.

As of June 2005, there were 899,250 public servants, of whom 77.04 per cent or 692,736 were Malays.  The rest were: 84,295 Chinese (9.37 per cent), 46,054 Indians (5.12 per cent), 69,828 other Bumiputeras (7.77 per cent) and 6,337 of other races (0.70 per cent). Before the launch of the New Economic Policy in 1971, the racial breakdown of the Malaysian civil service comprised 60.8 per cent Malay, 20.2 per cent Chinese, 17.4 per cent Indian and 1.6 per cent others.

Some 35 years after the NEP, the already under-represented Chinese percentage in the Malaysian civil service had fallen further from 20.2 per cent to 9.37 per cent, while Indians who were somewhat over-represented with 17.4 per cent before the NEP are now under-represented with 5.12 per cent. The government knows the causes why the civil service is so unrepresentative of Malaysia. Not only is it politically unhealthy, merit and culture of excellence is sacrificed as competition is reduced.

Reinventing government is two-fold. One relates to administrative where the work processes and procedures must be streamlined and simplified to make it transparent and accountable. Two is human resource training employing only the best, rewarding and promoting those who perform and sacking those who don’t. Only be reinventing government can the country not only save billions by cutting down on waste as well as earn revenue by getting billions of investment. The country can no longer afford losing high-tech IT companies like Infosys.