Civil unrest

Idea of 'guerrilla units' welcome; sceptism prevails on acceptance


LAST week, without tabling a white paper on the matter, two top civil servants, aided by an "outsider", virtually asked the rest of their kind to move into a state of civil "unrest".
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Leading the call for change was Second Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Bilahari Kausikan, who said that there was a need to overhaul the "politics, bureaucracy and unthinking procedures" inherent in the system. Mr Bilahari also asked for "subversive" thinking within the service, in order to effect change.
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Civil service chief Lim Siong Guan was quick to follow with his own pet peeves, blasting managers and supervisors who are just caught up with the "numbers game".
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Then came the private sector view in the form of Banyan Tree Resorts chairman Ho Kwon Ping's suggestion of forming small, independent "guerrilla" units of young civil servants who report directly to the permanent secretary, free from the shackles of the hierarchy.
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Exciting ideas indeed, but were the intended agents of change, for whom the message was crafted, sold on the ideas mooted?
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And is the civil service itself, often described as being resistant to change, ready for such a revolution?
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Junior civil servants Today spoke to were divided on the issue.
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"A guerrilla team would help open up the channels for change. Currently, only the Work Improvement Teams (Wits) structure is an avenue where your voice can be heard," said Mr T Lee, 27, a civil servant who preferred not to give his full name.
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Such a unit would help "flatten the hierarchy" and "empower the rank and file", said Samuel Tay, 29.
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He added: "With political will to push for change, staff on the ground will have their hands free to make quicker decisions and craft more timely policies."
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Another civil servant S Gunalan, 26, said: "It is an innovative idea as it gives you access to the guy at the top. Otherwise, the many restrictive procedures in place at the lower to middle level make it hard to go against the grain."
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Others, however, were more sceptical, almost dismissive that the civil service could cope with terms like "insurgency" and "subversion".
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"Ideas like Mr Bilahari's are still a top-down initiative and not going to percolate down to us. You have to walk the talk with concrete programmes. You need to offer small rewards for small changes to enable insurgency or risk-taking to permeate through the whole service," said Ms R Wee, obviously not willing to give her full name.
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Sceptics like her believe that many institutional facets of the service have to be altered before any real progress is seen.
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Said Mr Tay: "The appraisal system for civil servants must be expanded to encourage and reward independent decision-making and performance judged not only on outcome but also on the thought process that led to that outcome."
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"Induction programmes at the civil service college are still taught by retired civil servants who had once held high positions," said Ms Wee. "We're not allowed to come up with our own fresh ways of doing things and stick to the tried and tested."
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So is there room for insurgency?
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"The consensus among junior officers is that you keep your opinions to yourself — or you risk being shot down and blacklisted for suggesting things outside your job scope, for making your boss look bad," said Ms Wee.
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Said civil servant K Andrew, 30: "'Insurgent' implies a person who is very critical. Most of the time, the culture is to sugarcoat criticisms or not criticise at all."
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Mr Lee said: "To move from a procedure that is familiar to one that's more efficient and rational — that's shunned because it's unknown. The culture in the civil service is not one of continual change."
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Not everyone agrees, though. Mr J Lee, for example, says he can already see the service moving in a new direction.
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Said the 27-year-old: "Already, they've hired administrative assistants to help teachers in non-teaching duties.
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"If you create a controlled environment for renewal and 'subversion', you nip the cynicism in the bud by encouraging those who naturally think out of the box to come forward and be rewarded for their efforts."