Skip to main content

Posts

The Deep State Dilemma: How Malaysia’s Civil Service Continues to Outmaneuver Reformers

Another piece that may be worth reading to understand what is happening: Deep state means different things to different people but one cannot underestimate its potency  Whether in Malaysia or elsewhere, the concept of the 'deep state' is a frequent topic of discussion. While definitions vary, for the sake of this article, I define it simply: civil servants acting incongruently with their ministers. This explains why the uninformed are often left wondering why ministers say one thing, yet we observe actions that completely contradict their words. When Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over the reins of government from his toxic predecessor in 2003, the same venom spewed out against Pak Lah against the fifth prime minister was attempting to topple Pak Lah, despite his big mandate won in the 2003 general election. To most Malaysians, the support for Barisan Nasional returned but Mahathir’s loyalists did everything they could to topple Abdullah Badawi. This had been the same modus ope...
Recent posts

The Chessboard of Malaysian Politics: Why Everything Gets Linked to PMX and DAP

https://come-to-senses.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-deep-state-dilemma-how-malaysias.html Someone wrote this piece which summarise what I have been saying to all of you:   Aiming for a Checkmate: All arrows are aims at the king on the chessboard  Whether it involves deep-seated institutional challenges, regional electoral shifts, or judicial outcomes, the narrative frequently converges on the Prime Minister and his key coalition partner. But why does this happen, and what drives this persistent pattern in Malaysian political commentary? 1. The Broad Spectrum of Blame: Key Examples To understand this dynamic, one only needs to examine how vastly different issues—ranging from crime and governance to state elections—are connected back to PMX and DAP. Crime, Corporate Scandals, and the "Corporate Mafia" Narratives Whenever reports emerge regarding organized crime, syndicate activities, or corporate malfeasance (often dramatically dubbed "corporate mafias" or underlying...

The Hidden Reality of Malaysia’s Bureaucracy: Top-Down Culture, Little Napoleons, and the Need for Intervention

The power structure is synonymous to the feudal system in medieval Europe  When dealing with Malaysia’s  civil service, members of the public often find themselves asking a simple question:  Who are these public servants actually serving? To understand the friction between the general public and the civil service, one must look closely at how the system is structured, how power flows, and why the concept of "customer service" seems to be missing from the administrative vocabulary. 1. A Top-Down Structure: Serving Bosses, Not the People The Malaysian civil service operates predominantly on a rigid, top-down management structure. At its core, civil servants operate under the implicit understanding that their primary allegiance is to their Director Generals, Department Heads, and Ministers — not to the public standing at the counter or waiting for an application approval. Having adopted survivalist tactics to endure shifting regimes, they have perfected the art of ...