Pennington’s perspective was warped, Abdul Razak told FMT.
The article, carried by the Asean Today portal, advised Malaysia to learn from Singapore’s efficient civil service.
Pennington highlighted a 2015 World Bank report that ranked Singapore as the world’s best for government effectiveness. Malaysia was placed 43rd among 170 countries.
Among the reasons for the Malaysian civil service’s lower proficiency, Pennington claimed, were its hugeness and its dominance by Malays.
He also said Singapore’s decision to pay its civil servants well and its willingness to embrace new technology were some of the reasons for its civil service’s proficiency.
Razak said he would advise Pennington to get a better perspective of things before making such comparisons.
“I would like to quote our great Dr Mahathir Mohamad who once asked: ‘What’s so difficult about managing Singapore? It’s like managing Kuala Lumpur,'” he said.
“In terms of diversity, population size, physical size and much more, managing Singapore is just like managing Kuala Lumpur. You cannot compare oranges and lemons.”
He pointed out that Singapore also did not have to deal with the unique challenges Malaysia faced, such as affirmative action policies.
“Even the decision-making in Singapore is different from Malaysia. In Singapore, there’s a lot more unison in that if the prime minister says this, everyone follows. There’s a unison of purpose.
“In the case of Malaysia — despite the fact that everyone keeps talking about political masters — the civil service is actually very powerful. The political masters can say ‘I want A’ and if civil servants do not agree with that decision, then all they have to do is sit on it.”
He said it would be fairer to compare Malaysia with Britain.
“You think the British civil service is efficient? You’ve got to be kidding me. It’s not. I’ve spent a lot of time in London. I know how inefficient they are.
“I think the Grenfell Tower incident brought to the fore a lot of the things that is rotting in the British system. Everyone was saying that this shouldn’t happen to a city like London, and it shouldn’t happen to a country like Britain. And yet it happened.”
A fire broke out on June 14 at the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of public housing flats in North Kensington. At least 80 people died and more than 70 were injured. A definitive death toll is not expected until at least 2018.
Had Pennington compared Singapore’s civil service to Britain’s, Razak said, he would have most likely got the same result. He cited in particular the difference in cleanliness between the two countries.
“Do you know how filthy London is? Try being in London in the morning. Go and tell the mayor of London to make his city more like Singapore.
“You have to keep in mind that the whole population of Singapore is about 5.9 million. You know how many people live in London? Probably just as many as the whole of Singapore.”
He also claimed that Malaysia’s civil service had made “tremendous progress” compared to how it was before Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became prime minister.
“You can say a lot about the Malaysian civil service, but to be fair, we have improved significantly,” he said. “I remember when it would take weeks for you to renew your passport. Now, you can go in the morning and have it ready in the afternoon.
“Malaysia is ranked 43 out of 170 countries in terms of government efficiency and you could say that’s not bad. But there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”
Commenting on a common allegation that the Malaysian civil service is bloated, Razak said one had to remember that in Malaysia, unlike in many other countries, everyone under the government’s payroll, whether a doctor, a nurse, a teacher or a lecturer, is considered a civil servant.
Bloated civil service affecting proficiency, say ex-civil servants