Civil servants
The worst thing in the life of a common man is a visit to a government office. He is kept waiting for hours, days by members of administration-- from clerks to officers. This is the norm of offices in our impoverished country. Although the world is changing, our bureaucracy is static for the last two hundred years. People's expectations have gone high over the years. But high officials have agendas other than moving with public interests.
This is to draw the attention of our civil servants to the wisdom of a Malaysian officer who changed a set-up that existed for years. A home ministry secretary of the Malaysian govt. named Mr. Aeche Che retired last week after serving his govt for 34 years. He was accorded a public reception for his splendid job in many places of the country. Before he took charge, it took months and one had to wait in long queues for getting a passport. One day, Prime Minister Badawai took the home secretary to visit a passport office.
The secretary called all the staff from clerks to officers to know the causes of such a mess in a passport office.
The officials, as usual, cited many causes. But the secretary told them that it was not people's job to know about their problems. Civil servants have to find ways to respond to people' s expectations. Within one month people started to get passports in a few hours.
Our civil servants should follow his example.
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