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| Sunday, 29 May 2005 |
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Editorial |  |
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Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 11 2429239 / 2331181 Fax : 94 11 2429230 Bureaucratic apathy or criminal negligence A news story carried elsewhere shows how tsunami relief medical supplies received from abroad are lying undistributed at three stores in Colombo even five months after the disaster. These include substantial quantities of perishable goods like infant milk food, baby cream as well as much needed medical accessories like surgical gloves and syringes. While there are thousands and thousands of babies in need of milk food and hospitals in need of medical accessories this "hoarding" defies all logic. We are inclined to conclude that this is not a case of simple bureaucratic apathy but a case of criminal negligence. It is in this respect that we wish to question the work ethics in the public service, especially in health institutions. There is absolutely no commitment to serve the public who actually foot their salary bill and sustain their lives. If health administrators displayed half the zeal they display towards their career development for serving the public this sad state of affairs would not have arisen. This is not a problem confined to the health sector. Reports coming from provinces show that the situation is the same in many District Secretariats where loads and loads of tsunami relief items lie unutilised or undistributed. There is also a story to the effect that bicycles donated by the Chinese Government to be distributed among flood victims during 2003 still lie undelivered at a store complex of the Ministry of Social Services. It is sad that public sector administrative reforms are yet to take off despite loud talk by politicians and high officials. Nothing would come of any reform unless it is preceded by an attitudinal change among public servants. There is no commitment and dedication to work. The golden rule of the private sector that customer is king does not apply there. Anyone visiting a state institution would notice bureaucratic arrogance that permeates the service from top to bottom. Customers are sent from pillar to post or they need to pay several visits if they are to get a simple work attended to from state institutions. One has to oil many palms if one is to get a job done expeditiously. A recent survey conducted by our staff among newly recruited graduates revealed that some of them had given up better-paid jobs in the private sector to join the public service. When questioned why they confided that they value the "freedom' in the state sector meaning that they do not need to sweat to earn their pay. "No work, more pay" is their service motto. There have been loud complaints about excessive leave and lack of punctuality in the public service. The worst offenders are sometimes the executives who come late, spend two hours for lunch and leave early on various pretexts. Unless the higher officers show an example it is difficult to rehabilitate the lower ranks. Anachronistic practices coming down from the colonial days and outdated Administrative and Financial Regulations (ARs and FRs) have become fetters that have sapped dry the dynamism of the public service. There does not seem to be any monitoring and evaluation of the work assigned and work achieved. Nor is there any rational system of relating emoluments to work done. Neither is there any transparency. Good governance and transparency will not come by themselves as mushrooms crop up in wet forests. They have to be consciously brought about by will and sweat. A lesson from Mahathir Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia spelt out several home truths that Sri Lanka should well take note of. We refer just to some such truths expounded by the elder statesman. Muslim Malays, Hindu Indians and Buddhist Chinese, he said, inhabit Malaysia. It would not have been possible to develop Malaysia if all these three communities were not equal partners in governance and did not receive equal economic benefits. Majority rule or the majority alone enjoying all plums of office, both political and economic would have caused disaster, he opined. Having been under the yoke of colonialism for 450 years the Malaysians had an inferiority complex at independence, he said. It was necessary to give confidence to them that they could do what the Europeans did and do it better. The secret of their success owes much to this self-confidence, he said. The Europeans reached their developed stage after 200 years or so and have forgotten the difficulties they faced at the beginning. Hence it was futile to look West for inspiration, said Mahathir . Therefore Malaysia looked East, at Japan and Korea. They took not technology but the work ethics of Japan, he added. Political stability was a sine qua non for development, he stressed.
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