Political parties banking on votes from the civil servants, the sacrosanct!

The civil service is sacrosanct, politically speaking. If you are a politician, you better think twice before speaking up against it.

ALTHOUGH more non-Malays are beginning to join the civil service, the fact that Malays make up the overwhelming majority of the 1.4 million-strong public sector remains.(The highest ratio of civil servants in the world)

It is said that nearly every Malay family has someone either in the civil service or the uniformed services.

Thus, the civil service is home to a sizeable percentage of voters. Therefore, their welfare and livelihood is a key priority of the Barisan Nasional Government which likes to project itself as its protector and benefactor.

On the other hand, the Chinese and Indians predominate in the private sector as small businessmen, professionals and wage earners.

They are largely cut off from the civil service. They have little clue how the civil servants, as a unified special interest group, think and respond in a crisis.

This is the reason why some Chinese and Indian politicians and even some thoughtless Malays make insensitive remarks about the civil service and pay a price for their faux pas.

The more seasoned politicians in Umno and other Barisan component parties managed to avoid making insensitive remarks, preferring to work with the civil service rather than against them.

When civil servants die in the line of duty, Barisan gets all worked up. It immediately moves in to comfort and reassure them as it is mindful of the civil services' vote bank.

When security personnel were killed by Sulu insurgents, the Government's game plan changed as well.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak ordered an all-out assault by a combined force of army and police personnel.

Resources were rapidly mobilised, villagers told to move out and security forces encircled the red zone and the shooting war started in earnest.

When Najib announced the decision to attack on March 5 at a gathering of religious leaders at Putra Stadium, he was given a standing ovation.

The civil servants had rejoiced that the initial decision to negotiate was over and that the army and police were on attack mode.

The Opposition, on the other hand, had fallen flat. They had failed to connect with the powerful emotional impact the crisis had on civil servants and the Malay voters.

In fact, they committed a faux pas of the worst kind imaginable when PKR vice-president Tian Chua remarked that the Lahad Datu crisis was a sandiwara by Umno and Barisan Nasional.

His remarks, published in Keadilan Daily on March 1, had riled up the Malay groups, including former servicemen, who vented their anger and demanded an apology and retraction.

Not a day passes by without someone burning or stomping on pictures of Tian Chua and lodging a police report and urging stern action.

At one anti-Tian Chua session, even former IGPs and former deputy IGPs were out condemning Tian Chua and rooting for the Malaysian security forces.

The message out there is simple while the armed forces are risking their lives in protecting the country, Opposition politicians are playing politics.

The civil service is sacrosanct, politically speaking. If you are a politician, you better think twice before speaking up against it.

Former Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo had angered civil servants when he gave out a broom as an “award” to two underperforming local councils in Novem-ber 2007.

While he wanted to improve the service, the civil servants saw it as demeaning and felt slighted. They took it out by spoiling their votes when the general election came, contributing to the fall of Barisan in Selangor.

In more recent times December 2011 Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua was forced to eat humble pie after he announced that Pakatan Rakyat would slash the civil service by half, if it takes power.

Pakatan leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had to step in and assure the civil servants that Pakatan would do no such thing if it is in power.

Even Pua, who stands in an overwhelmingly Chinese seat, was forced to clarify that he did not mean “slash by half” but reduce its numbers through synergies.

The civil service is overwhelmingly Malay and largely pro-Barisan, who is their protector and benefactor; although PAS and, to a lesser extent, PKR are making a dent.

However, it is not big enough a dent for the supposedly neutral civil servants to change direction as yet.

Comment by BARADAN KUPPUSAMY

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Using radiation to grow herbs: Tongkat Ali, Kacip Fatimah and Ginseng

BANGI: Low dosage radiation has been used to spur the growth of Tongkat Ali, Kacip Fatimah and ginseng in a pilot project by the Malaysian Nuclear Agency.

This technology can produce about 100kg of Tongkat Ali within 60 days and ginseng within 30 days, said the agency's Agrotechnology and Biosciences Division mutation breeding and plant biotechnology senior research officer Dr Rusli Ibrahim.

“For Tongkat Ali that grows in the wild, it would take 20 to 25 years to produce only 4kg,” he said after the launch of the Symposium on Radiation and Nuclear Technologies for Crop Improvement and Productivity in Sustainable Agriculture.

Dr Rusli said they would use low dosage radiation, such as gamma rays, on the roots of Tongkat Ali, Kacip Fatimah and ginseng.

“This will accelerate the growth of the root,” he said, adding that the pilot project was located in the Industrial Park in Nilai.

“The system is the first of its kind in Malaysia and South-East Asia,” he said, adding that he had studied about the technology in South Korea.

Toxicity tests will be conducted at the end of the production to ensure they are safe for consumption.

He said the three plants were chosen as there was high demand for them in the United States, South Korea, Europe and the Middle East.

“We are looking for industry partners who are interested in taking up the technology for commercialisation purposes.”

Dr Rusli stressed that the agency had come up with a safe way to use nuclear technology to increase the productivity of agriculture products in the country.

It is a common misconception that nuclear radiation is dangerous, he said.

“We are talking about using gamma rays and X-rays in small amounts to accelerate the growth of the plants.”

“X-rays are being used on humans for health check-ups. So, it is safe,” he said.

Its director-general Datuk Dr Muhamad Lebai Juri said they had been able to increase the productivity of certain plants in a shorter time due to the use of nuclear technology.

“This advanced bioreactor system was developed for the production of raw materials and bioactive compounds from herbal and medicinal plants for commercial production.”

Earlier, Forum for Nuclear Cooperation in Asia coordinator Dr Sueo Machi said the use of nuclear technology played an important role in agriculture.

“It reduces the excess use of pesticide and chemical fertilisation. The overuse of chemicals can possibly pollute the environment,” he said.

By WONG PEK MEI 

The Star/Asia News Network

China massive restructuring to boost efficiency, fight corruption

China’s Communist Party Chief Xi Jinping reads as attendants serve tea at the Great Hall of the People during the third plenary session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, yesterday.  


VIDEO: LC: TIAN WEI ON NPC CPPCC CCTV News - CNTV English

(Reuters) - China unveiled a government restructuring plan on Sunday, cutting cabinet-level entities by two and dissolving its powerful Railways Ministry, as the country's new leaders look to boost efficiency and combat corruption.

The reforms mark the biggest reduction in ministries since 1998 when then-premier Zhu Rongji oversaw the overhaul of the State Council, and coincides with growing public concern over transparency and overlapping bureaucracies.

The government will join the Family Planning Commission -- the agency that controls the controversial one-child policy -- with the Health Ministry, and strengthen the powers of the food and drug regulators, it said in a report released during the on-going annual meeting of parliament.

"Currently, numerous operational, organizational and division of labor problems exist in State Council ministries," State Council Secretary-General Ma Kai said in a speech on the plan to the National People's Congress.

Ma added that "breach of duty, using positions for personal gain and corruption" under the structure had not been effectively constrained.

China's president-in-waiting Xi Jinping and premier-designate Li Keqiang assume their new roles after the annual congress concludes next week.

The Railways Ministry and Family Planning Commission have been particularly unpopular, and their restructuring was widely expected.

The Railways Ministry has faced numerous problems over the past few years, including heavy debts from funding new high-speed lines, waste and fraud.

Railways planning will be coordinated under the broader transport ministry. The government has pledged to open the rail industry to private investment on an unprecedented scale.

Family planning officials, meanwhile, have been known to compel women to have abortions to meet birth-rate targets. High profile cases have sparked national fury, such as when a woman in inland Shaanxi province was forced to abort her 7-month pregnancy last year.

Some analysts have said the merger of the health and family planning agencies would be a blow to the political base needed to maintain the one-child policy, which many demographers say should be relaxed.

The report said family planning must continue "on the basis of stable and low birth rates", but added that policies would be "improved". China's one-child policy is still generally enforced, although there are a number of family situations exempt from the rule.

A recently retired official from the Family Planning Commission who maintains close ties with the agency, said the merger does not mean the commission's power will be reduced.

"For such a long time, hundreds of millions of people had to have contraception and birth control, this kind of work is necessary. But it's possible that there will be fewer things done by force," the retired official said.

SUPER MINISTRIES

The restructuring plan, which will cut cabinet-level agencies to 25, will also boost the role of the food and drug regulators, placing it within the cabinet in response to an almost never-ending series of scandals over product safety.

Prosecutions for producing or selling fake drugs or toxic food jumped to more than 8,000 in 2012, more than five times the number in 2011, according to a report by the office of China's top prosecutor also issued on Sunday.

China's maritime enforcement agencies will be consolidated, as well, giving the National Oceanic Administration control over coast guard forces, customs police and fisheries enforcement as China faces growing tensions with Japan and South East Asian neighbors over disputed seas.

The move will bring China's maritime law enforcement forces, currently scattered among different ministries, under the unified management of a single administration, according to a report delivered by State Councilor Ma Kai at the annual parliamentary session on Sunday.

The new agency will still be named the National Oceanic Administration (NOA). It will have under its control the coast guard forces of the Public Security Ministry, the fisheries law enforcement command of the Agriculture Ministry and the maritime anti-smuggling police of the General Administration of Customs, Ma said in his report about the plan on the institutional restructuring and functional transformation of the State Council, China's cabinet.

The NOA currently has only one maritime law enforcement department, China Marine Surveillance.

The proposed administration, administered by the Ministry of Land and Resources, will carry out law enforcement activities in the name of China's maritime police bureau and under the operational direction of the Ministry of Public Security, said Ma, who is also the secretary-general of the State Council.

In addition to law enforcement, other functions of the new administration include outlining the oceanic development plan, supervising and managing the use of sea waters, and protecting ocean ecology, Ma said.

A high-level consultative and coordinating body, the National Oceanic Commission, will also be set up to formulate oceanic development strategies and coordinate important oceanic affairs, Ma said.

One parliament delegate said on the sidelines of the congress session that the move was not linked to the military.

"Our coastline is very long and our oceans cover a vast area. There is no military thinking behind it," said Zhang Guibai.

China will also merge its two media watchdogs -- the General Administration of Press and Publication and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television -- and restructure the National Energy Administration, Ma said.

The move is meant to coordinate the resources of each sector and promote the reform of cultural institutions, Ma said in his report on the plan for the institutional reform and functional transformation of the State Council, China's cabinet.

The new administration will be responsible for promoting the development of these sectors and supervising related agencies and their businesses, said Ma, who is also secretary-general of the State Council.

The merger will be conducive to establishing a modern communication system, which is rapidly shaped by digital information technology, and boosting the country's cultural influence, said a statement from the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform, which explains the reason of the institutional reform

Sources: Reuters - Reporting by Michael Martina, Shen Yan, Sui-Lee Wee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jonathan Standing and Michael Perry; CCTV, Xinhua

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