By Xavier Kong
There is the saying that too many cooks spoil the broth, but what happens if there are many cooks, but still no broth? Tiger looks at just how many cooks are needed to run this particular kitchen and wonders if some of those saying “oui chef!” are actually needed.
There are definitely times when the Malaysian administration is like a kitchen, especially the way things get hectic when a crisis hits. The way the administration erupts into a perceived frenzied state of activity is really rather similar to the kitchen of a restaurant when the lunchtime crowd walks in.
Still, Tiger wonders if there may be too many cooks in this particular kitchen. Malaysia’s government is made up of a multitude of departments, agencies, and ministries, with several actually having overlapping segments of responsibility.
An example, you say? The first right off of Tiger’s head is the existence of two departments in charge of transport. The first (and the only one needed, in Tiger’s opinion) is the Ministry of Transport, with the other being the Land Public Transport Commission, which, as Tiger recalls, is actually under the Prime Minister’s Office, rather than under the Transport Ministry.
Oh, and what about the point that there are two separate ministries for education? Tiger would like to point out that the US government, the UK government, and even the government of neighbouring Singapore are all able to function with just the one Ministry of Education, rather than Malaysia’s approach of a Ministry of Education, as well as a Ministry of Higher Education.
Tiger would like to point out that while having over 30 differently named departments and ministries running the country together provides a lot of job opportunities, the efficiency of such a system will always remain a point of contention.
There is also the matter of remuneration and upkeep. The recently tabled Budget 2016 has shown that the expenditure of our government has increased slightly, which represents a lot of money used in keeping a large government running that could instead be channelled towards the betterment of the nation, had the government been a sleeker, leaner setup instead.
Really, why would the Prime Minister’s Office require 10 ministers? A bit much, is it not? To Tiger, there really is no surprise that the allocation for the Prime Minister’s Office in the recent Budget was so heavily criticised. Again, just for impact, 10 ministers. Field one more and the Prime Minister’s Office can field its own football team of ministers!
So Tiger would really like to know, is there really such a need for so many ministries and departments?
At the moment, the answer remains a “yes”. Before the pitchforks and torches are raised over Tiger’s rant, however, allow Tiger to explain. At the moment, the governmental departments and ministries are supporting the livelihoods of a large number of Malaysians, and to have a sudden trim to the government would deprive a large number of these civil servants of their jobs, which would definitely put a large dent in the economy, not to mention affect their spending power as consumers. As it stands, the government itself is part of what allows money to continue moving in the local economy, and not just stay stagnant and unused.
However, Tiger does advocate gradually streamlining and trimming the ministries and departments so that there are no overlaps, which, while an unpopular decision, would see government expenditure reduce in future. This in turn would allow more funds to be channelled towards infrastructure, healthcare, and the general uplifting of the nation.
Still, this remains a vision of this Tiger, and not one that is likely to be seen soon. But Tiger remains hopeful that, one day, in the hopefully not-so-distant future, the brigade of chefs that make up the Malaysian government will present a glorious Malaysia to the world. But until then, Tiger will stick to watching Chef Ramsay yelling at people. Purely for entertainment.
GRRRRR!!!
You must be logged in to post a comment.