Changing Mindset is More Critical than Reinventing Policies

Sometimes we really get confusing messages from our top leaders.

Civil servants really should not be asked to reinvent policies but they can be required to suggest better ways to implement policies.

Policies should come from the top down unless our top leaders do not do any serious thinking anymore.

Can you just imagine the havoc if civil servants are allowed to keep reinventing policies at their own whim and fancy? Each month will have a different flavour similar to the one enacted by the Negri Sembilan Education Department that effectively created education apartheid in the school but fortunately saner minds prevailed at the Education Ministry.

Still on the education front there must have been a sea change in policies that has created the situation in Malaysia where thousands of new graduates cannot write even a simple paragraph in English.

We cannot blame civil servants for that but their political masters. Official letters from the government used to end with something like “Your obedient servant” but nowadays the tone is more like “Or else!”

Care to share your experience with our civil servants?

Photo: thanks to http://www.zftr.com/uploaded_images/Thinking%20monkey-771567.jpg