How to manage the local councils
Please do not ask me who wrote this Whatsapp message (screenshot above), but this is not shocking as I was also informed that Selangor's contract with the KDEB group did not even include cleaning up of illegal dumps. I am glad there are still many conscientious people in Selangor.
From my observations, workers are also poorly paid and not provided with the proper equipment to do the job. A lady sweeper, for example, had a makeshift bin tied to what is the leftover of an office chair with rollers. My neighbour had a picture of her makeshift bin, but was concerned that if she posted it in the chat group, she would be penalised.
The question of how local councillors can manage the local councils is something that I had addressed since 2008. However, I find that our local councillors are too smart, and would not listen to advices. Since PH took over Selangor, I had expected sabotage to be carried out by the local council staff but some of these councillors said they should not criticise their own councils if they fail to do the job. As a result, everything is swept under the carpet.
Identify the Ringleaders
Not everyone, but those who want to see the downfall of PH in the general election -- these are political animals who should not be in public service at all. Do not expect, after so many years under Barisan Nasional, that these people would immediately turn around to support PH.
As members of the civil society, we do not care whether it is PH or BN. Civil servants are supposed to work hard to serve the public. Many of these people have been taking gaji buta even during BN era. If you do not believe me, go to any local councils and sit around their cafeteria for a few hours. Or, follow an enforcement vehicle out on their operations. I am not surprised that these officers have a different set of objectives when it comes to enforcement.
And if the contract has been allowed to lapse, it means that the local council has failed to do the job. Who is it that was supposed to renew the contract? Why was it not renewed? Pull that guy out to be disciplined. If not, things can and will only get worse because Monkey A sees Monkey B can get away without doing the job, so why should Monkey A work so hard?
Get the council to come out with a masterlist of all the contracts that need to be renewed based on the months and dates and publish it online so that local councillors can also monitor. Why has the President of the Council not done this in the first place? A captain of a ship would require such a timetable to manage all the details of his ship.
If the ship fails, the captain's head is the first to roll. YDPs are not appointed to enjoy the perks, but to ensure that the Majlis deliver better services to the public. After all, this is the reason why there is a third tier of government known as Kerajaan Tempatan (or Local Government).
Easier said than done? I would tell these local councillors and smart ADUNs and MPs, please go to Penang now that we have a state government that appears to be doing a good job at least at the face value. I also hear corruption is a problem at certain tiers, but since the complainants are not willing to provide the evidences, I will not say anything further about this but I would not dismiss the fact that, when a new political party is in power, there will also be the 'cari makan' people who will take advantage of the platform.
Despite having the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission, I wonder why the level of corruption in the country is still so high. The blame should not be on the givers, but on the recipients. After all, if a job can be done promptly without delays, who would want to fork out the money to pay the bribes? Pak Hadi Awang has to answer this question!
However, not everyone in the Majlis is bad. There are some good ones. When the 'bad' ones are in control, the good ones cannot perform even though they want to do a good job. They, too, are waiting for the time when the bad ones are removed so that they can start shining.
A client of mine once shared with me that when he was working with JPS, most people hardly perform the job. The department head was more interested in buying shares using the pink forms and Identity Cards of their junior staff. Bear in mind, it's nothing racial, but this department head was a Chinese. There are many Malay heads of department or even Director-Generals whom I am in touch with over the years who are very hardworking. I can name you many of them so that you know it's not racial but the individual's work ethics.
It's a matter of identifying who the ringleaders are. Once identified, it is the State Government and its State Exco in charge of the Local Government to implement disciplinary measures.
Although Malaysia has a system that would not allow civil servants to be dismissed easily, there are other measures that can be taken. For example, move them to some menial jobs or move them to another department away from their homes that can create a lot of inconvenience. If they fail to turn up on time, they can be disciplined. The rest is up to the people at the state exco. You people are "smarter" people.
My Own Experience
But I want to share my own experience turning around a factory which was producing spray paint. With just two years of experience working as a chemist with an ink company, I was accepted a new job to manage both the factory and the R&D of the products.
It was a tough job as I had a weak supervisor, and two ringleaders who were giving me a lot of headaches. I took the advice of a more senior colleague of mine from a sister company. Together we tried to identify the ringleaders.
The non-performing line leaders and supervisors could not be removed without rocking the boat. Yet, they were not paying attention to their work. If I had to be too hard on them, they would gang up with the rest of the workers against me.
Once the ringleaders were identified, I made one of them as a line leader. This was an opportunity for promotion, where he was concerned. Of course, he was happy only for a while. But, gradually, his performance got worse. And, finally, after catching him red handed napping in the store, while his colleagues were all working hard, that was the last straw. I had to sack him, and place one of the ladies as line leaders.
My decision to sack was not a difficult one as the staff knew that the line leader should not be napping while they were all working very hard. They also agreed with my decision to replace the lineleader with a lady who was identified as a good staff. I also made attempts to raise their salaries because I felt they were not properly paid to do a good job.
To cut the story short, after the non-performing supervisor and lineleaders were removed and replaced from within the ranks and files, we saw a major transformation in the moral of the people. For the first time, we were able to achieve our monthly target that impressed the big boss from Singapore.
I was rewarded with a trip to Indonesia where his son organised a special dinner for me at an expensive restaurant. Before the dinner was served, the son told me, "Mr Ng wants to reward you and asked me to specially arrange for a dinner to an expensive restaurant!" I felt flattered, but I truly appreciated the big boss' word of commendation and I immediately attributed this success to the staff themselves.
Of course, I asked myself why my visit to Merak, Indonesia. It was only later that I was learnt that they also wanted me to relocate to Kuantan when a new plant was to be set up.
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