WILL APPOINTING A LOCAL HEAD SUFFICE?

I read with much interest the column by Datuk Stan Yee (DE 19 October), entitled, “ Will appointing a local head suffice”?

The topic of locals heading federal departments had generated some heat recently, and I was hoping he would hit the point. But after reading his meandering prose, I am led to conclude that somehow  we cannot trust  Sabahans to head federal departments because they would be too beholden to their federal bosses. In other words, he missed the point altogether.

In the first place, there is no policy that federal departments  must be headed by officers from Semenanjung.  Period. 

Secondly, administrative policies, ultimately, must serve to answer local needs, and being beholden to the central bosses does not arise.

Sadly, we must put most of  the blame on Sabahans for what is happening now because, being a former federal officer, I remember well the time in the early 70’s when a lot of federal posts were going begging. There were too few Sabahan graduates, and those in Semenanjung were reluctant to come to Sabah because we were considered then, an ulu place.

A great number of Sabah graduates who were given federal scholarships abandoned their respective federal postings. Who could blame them, for at that time, the expatriate heads of departments were just leaving, and there were opportunities of  speedy promotions.

Some of us persevered in federal postings, and though the perks were not as good as in the State service, it did not turn out too bad for most of us. At the tender age of twenty-six years  and three months, I was already head of department holding Superscale “F” post,  because there was nobody else around. There were also other Sabahans then,  holding  head posts in Telecoms, Customs and the Medical Department, to name a few.

I remember too, the concerted effort of the Federal Establishment Officer to ensure as many Sabahan filled vacant posts, and special fast-tracking exercises were done for officers with good potentials.

By the late 70’s federal vacancies  were practically nil, and the so-called integration exercise has been put in place. From then on all vacancies were filled on a competitive basis.

There was also a time when the RTM needed a Director, and a state officer was loaned out to then for a few years. It showed the state establishment office and its federal counterpart were acting in concert to address the state’s administrative needs.

There were some forward-oriented internal policies of some federal departments, notably the Telecoms which filled jobs with Sabahans after giving them  scholarships to pursue engineering degrees overseas. They were superb fellows. I remember while still in school that children of these officers bring me to their homes to meet their parents and they would treat me like I was one their children.

What we have now is a consequence of failing to subsume our practices to the values and needs of the people.

However, there is a tendency of things to work out in ways that reveal the truth behind reality, and the reality is that  officers from Semenanjung cannot be trusted to head federal departments, because they would  naturally be beholden to different  socio-cultural norms. Some make it worse by allowing  even their lowest posts to be filled by people from Semenanjung Malaysia.

Now is the time to make things right, not because we like our peninsula brothers less but because we love a stable Malaysia more.  This can only happen when the administrative machineries are in sync with the real needs of the locals.

I believe that once this problem is recognized, the state leadership will know what to do. For the moment I would like to propose that all incoming non Sabahan federal heads must undergo a structured orientation period. Secondly, all non-graduate posts for all federal departments  must  be filled by qualified Sabahans within five years.