This morning as I was parking my car here, I noticed this lady who was sweeping the street, when everyone else was having their breakfast at the mamak restaurant just a stone’s throw away.
A thought came, “What about just saying a word of ‘Thank you’ to her?” I decided I must do it even though the thank you costs hardly anything — just a few minutes of my time.
When I decided to take a picture of her, while in action, she immediately stopped, and asked, “Why?”
She appeared to be worried that someone may be complaining on her. After all, this is their fate. They work, but hardly anyone notices, but when the road is dirty, people just know how to complain, complain, and COMPLAIN!
To me, my feedback to the local authorities is nothing but just a feedback. It only becomes a complaint if it is not being attended to, and the problem becomes an issue if it is dragged on for too long. Once it becomes a big issue, it goes even to the press.
For me, because I care for our neighbourhood, and the facilities we are supposed to be provided for, I will make it a point to feedback to the local authorities that the potholes need to be fixed.
Put it this way, if not because of all the corruption and pilferages/wasteges, Malaysia would have been a first world nation by now.
When it is taken with an attitude of can’t care less, then, that’s when I naik behrang, and I would not hesitate to reprimand the officer. Ministers, or even the Prime Minister, should not try to shield the officers concerned, as i am doing a favour to help improve our civil servants’ mindset towards the complainants. Most complainants are amiable until they are being pushed around.
It is usually the junior officers who drive me up the wall. The senior officers are usually so much more amiable; in fact, I would hesitate to be discourteous with a senior officer, unless they are the little Napoleons.
Mindset Most Difficult to Change
Just this week, I had to reprimand the person (s) behind the ADUAN POTHOLES at DBKL. After my daughter and I took all the trouble to video a few sections of Jalan Lang Emas and Jalan Bukit Maluri just to show how badly damaged the trunk road has been, the response I received was: “This is under the purview of the DUKE concessionaire. Please forward your complaint to DUKE.”
I decided to use a voice message intentionally to display my tone of displeasure. The staff may have felt humiliated but, if he /she were in my position, how would he/she feel? It is easier for me to express my disgust with him/her because I don’t even know him/ her by name. When asked he/she did not even give me the name.
Nothing irked me as much as this experience with ADUAN POTHOLES (which I once praised for its prompt response in the past) because the junior officer represented the City Hall, which is supposed to have some form of authority over the DUKE Concessionaire. If they refused to budge, DBKL can writer to the Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA).
And if DBKL cannot instruct the concessionaire to repair the road, who am I, an ordinary citizen to talk to the DUKE concessionaire? I urge the mayor to look into this matter, and counsel its own staff on how to respond to complaints.
The behaviour of this junior officer is no difference to my experiences with Litrak and JKR Cameron Highlands and Tapah. Simple issues, but it has dragged on for a month or two now. If the minister reads my article here today, this unresolved issues being mentioned probably for the third time, he or one of his senior officers is free to use my blog post to evoke a change in mindset. I don’t mind to be the bad guy.
But, I seriously doubt if JKR is even serious about improving its internal culture; when the director-general was informed about this experience with two of its staff, he did not even respond to my email.
If replacing a rail guard that has been damaged apparently by an accident, can only be done with next year’s budget, I may be able to accept, but tell me what technical requirements are there to decide whether a public road on the way up to Cameron Highlands “qualify” to have streetlights? There was not even a single streetlight available for so many decades since the road was constructed. Sometimes, I also wonder what the local MP of Cameron Highlands has done for his constituents to deserve another term when such basic facilities were neglected for so long! I let the poeple in Cameron Highlands decide the fate of their local MP in the coming general election.
The culture of an organization is a reflection of the most senior officer’s attitude. And if it is a road concessionaire, like Litrak in this case, it is the Director -General of Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA) who should be doing something about rectifying the mistake fast instead of dragging his. feet.
Contrast with this Case
Let me illustrate. I had some problems when I called the Telelink of Bank Negara over an issue with MICARE. When I complained to Bank Negara Telelink, they also parroted what MICARE had said to me, that they are not an insurance company; hence, they are not answerable to Bank Negara.
The BNM official’s verbal response was followed by a written response as well, stating the fact that MICARE is an independent management company for the insurance company; therefore, BNM does not have any jurisdiction over them. What the hack! How could they say that. I wrote a strong letter which I emailed to a number of senior officers to highlight the flaws of the argument.
Before long, I received a phone call from one senior officer asking if I could meet with him for a drink so that he could explain to me. This led to a wonderful experience as a complainant I have now, with Bank Negara because of this officer’s phone call, and his immediate superior who joined in the casual meeting. Plus, I was able to meet my knight in silver armour whom his superior told me, “often worked behind the scene to solve many of my issues with insurance companies.”
What impressed me the most was their willingness to admit that their staff had made a mistake, and they had been given counselling. That settled it! They agreed that overall, BNM still has jurisdiction over the insurance company even though it may have appointed a third party to face off their clients.
Many of these experiences have been turned into pieces that I wrote for Malaysiakini, which became a lesson for most people on how to deal with insurance companies. Since then, I have always shouted praises about how proactive our national bank is. I sincerely hope that every officer at BNM is like these two gentlemen.
Mindsets Hardest to Change
Mindsets are the hardest to change. Although the present government believes in reforming the system (even limiting a prime minister’s term of office to only 10 years but it was rejected by parliament especially the Opposition). We all know our civil service system has been rotten over the past sixty years and every now and then, initiatives like Permudah, had to be introduced, it is the mindset of civil servants that is hardest to change.
Even with our Prime Minister trying to adjust the salaries of public servants to counter inflationary pressures, many of them are still attempting to sabotage the reform process. Because he adjusted their salaries — the last adjustment was 14 years ago - yet Malaysians criticise him for pandering to the civil servants.
The only way to change the mindsets of the public servants is, a change of our own mindsets.
As citizens, we should form the public pressure to see a change of mindset, rather than helping them achieve their objective of sabotaging the government of the day.
Unless the country hits rock bottom, and civil servants are forced out of job by a new government, their entitlement mentality will not change.
Think about this if this is true even for ourselves from my real life experience:
- When someone goes the extra mile to help arrange another garbage truck to collect the garbage, instead of saying Thank you, you just say, “Why should I? I pay the assessments every year!” My friend, I am talking about a staff from my zone who has nothing to do with the services provided by another supervisor in your zone. He took the trouble to help, even that, what’s wrong or difficult to just say Thank you?
- Several others whom I had helped in the past - in fact, not me, but some good civil servants we have in our government agencies who attended to the complaints - some have ignored their courtesy although it is not difficult to say thank you. The only person I can say is consistent with his appreciation is my senior pastor who was himself a former director of a private hospital in the past.
This was how I did it, and how I will suggest people to do it, too
Here, I recount the story of my encounter with a former FT Land and Mines’ director. I contacted him with a courteous approach regardin my Mom’s Hakmilik Sementara (Privileged Title). He told me, nothing could be done about it even though the problem is 40 years old.
It was only then that I learnt the privileged title is not that privileged after all! Technically, it was only a temporary title issued because the developer failed to carry out the land survey and subdivide the land to individual lots for the houseowners.
That means if your house is burnt down, and your neighbours on both sides decided to expand into your land, leaving only a walkway in between, you have literally lost your rights to rebuild your house on that piece of land that legally does not belong to you since there are no official records about the size of the land you own!
Many people are unaware of this issue since it has been left unattended for decades. In my Mom’s case, the house was already 40 years old but she did not get the real title we call “Geran” until a major campaign was launched against the FT Land Office.
The campaign through the media lasted for about four years. Meetings were held with the land office with the help of former Kepong MP, Dr Tan Seng Giaw. I give him the credit for a good job done.
Finally, a few thousand house owners of Taman Kepong received their titles, thanks to the help of Dr Tan. As for me, this was one of the more senior government officer whom I had to take the bull by the horn.
Most other senior officers that I was in touch with those days such as Halimah Hassan (director of Selangor DOE) and Tourism Malaysia director-general Abdullah Jonid, TNB Chief Executive Officer, Ani Arope, DOSH director-general Abu Bakar Che Man, and many more, were all mostly gentlemen. This is the reason why they were able to climb their career ladder.
Challenge Our Mindsets
I have given a number of examples that you can emulate from, and now back to this street sweeper.
I comforted her immediately. “I just want to say THANK YOU for helping to keep the streets clean. If not for your good work, the car parks would still be full of dry leaves!” She smiled back indicating that she felt appreciated.
And, I keep to my word. Not just wanting to say thank you, since I took her picture, I might as well spend some time to use this story to encourage others to treat the ordinary people on the street with some dignity.
Just spending a few minutes thanking them can make a big difference, not that the streets will be even clearer after that - as it is, the streets are already nearly spotless with just a few dry leaves as I can see it — but at least the street sweepers know someone appreciates their work, rather than going unseen. I hope their bosses in Alam Flora and SWCorp, just as what I have seen the local MP Lim Lip Eng has done to give them a small red packet during Chinese New Year. We don’t have to give money but just a drink would sometimes go a long way to encourage them.
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