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Holding pg15
her own
SINGAPORE: Civil servants in the city
state are the most efficient among their
Asian peers, a business survey on 12
economies released yesterday showed,
but they tend to clam up unhelpfully
when things go wrong.
The survey ranked Hongkong
second. China, which has been
campaigning to fight corruption in its
bureaucracy and improve efficiency on
the civil service, was ranked 9th in the
poll, two places down from 2007.
Ties based on trust
NAJIB PLEDGES TO TAKE RELATIONS WITH CHINA TO GREATER HEIGHTS
EIJING: Prime Minister
B
Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak
pledged yesterday that as the
son of Tun Abdul Razak Hus-
sein, who established diplomatic
relations with China 35 years
ago, he was determined to take
Kuala Lumpur-Beijing relations
to greater heights.
He said the cordial relations
between Malaysia and China
over the years had been based on
trust between the leaders of both
countries.
“This bond of friendship
between Malaysia and China is
based on the word trust. If my late
father trusted the Chinese leaders
(then), I have the same respect
with regard to the current leaders
(of China),” he said after receiving
an honorary doctorate in interna-
tional relations from the Beijing
Foreign Studies University.
Najib said when his father and
Malaysia’s second prime minister
made the historic visit to China
in 1974, he was unable to come
along as he was a university
student then.
However, he said, he still
remembered vividly a meaning-
ful sentence which his father had
used then, which was “I can work
with (Prime Minister) Zhou Enlai
and I have the greatest respect for
him”.
Najib said when his father
uttered that sentence, it reflected
that the relations between the two
countries must be based on trust.
“If we have the trust, every-
thing can be possible,” he said.
Najib, who was welcomed by
students beating the kompang
and carrying bunga mangga, also
mentioned the Chinese proverb
“A journey of a thousand miles
begins with the first step” and
said that when his father took the
bold step to initiate diplomatic
relations between Malaysia and
China, he might not have thought
that his first step or two would
have reached this stage in the
bilateral ties.
“But it took courage to make
that decision (to establish diplo-
matic relations) and it was the
right decision,” he said.
Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations (Malaysia)
» Panel formed to probe Jaya collapse pg2
Asia’s best and worst civil service
Ranking by most efficient to least
efficient economies: Singapore, Hong-
kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan,
Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China,
Philippines, Indonesia and India.
Singapore was ranked first for a
third time in a poll of 1,274 expatriates
working in 12 North and South Asian
nations on the efficiency of bureau-
crats in those countries. The poll was
last held in 2007.
“During normal times, when the
system is not stress-tested, it operates
He said the journey had
reached a stage whereby even
his father or Zhou could not have
envisioned the world of today 35
years ago.
“Who could have imagined a
China of 35 years ago with (the)
capital Beijing congested with
bicycles today packed with modern
and sophisticated automobiles? At
TELLING IT AS IT IS
very well,” Hongkong-based Political
& Economic Risk Consultancy said
in a 12-page report of Singapore’s
bureaucracy.
“However, during difficult times
– or when mistakes are made that
reflect badly on the system – there is a
tendency among bureaucrats to circle
the wagons in ways that lack transpar-
ency and make accountability difficult,”
the report said.
India’s “suffocating bureaucracy”
was ranked the least-efficient by the
that time, no one in China wore
lounge suits. Everyone wore
the grey Mao suits in emulating
leader Mao Zedong. Today, many
Chinese are wearing lounge suits
with the cutting no different from
Zegna or Cerruti,” the prime
minister said.
He said today China was
regarded as an economic power-
Award winning newspaper
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and opinion writing.
No. 4773 PP 2644/12/2009 (023092)
Thursday
June 4, 2009
www.sun2surf.com
» Scottish sensation pg19
survey, which said working with the
country’s civil servants was a “slow
and painful” process.
“They are a power centre in their
own right at both the national and state
levels, and are extremely resistant to
reform that affects them or the way
they go about their duties,” PERC said.
Thailand, despite four years of
on-off street protests and a year of
dysfunctional government was ranked
third. “For all the country’s troubles – or
perhaps because of them – respond-
GOH CHAI HIN/AFP
Close
friendship
... Najib and
his Chinese
counterpart
Wen Jiabao
at the
official
welcoming
ceremony
outside
the Great
Hall of the
People
next to
Tiananmen
Square
in Beijing
yesterday.
house and he felt that no one could
deny that in the efforts towards
global economic recovery, the role
of China was most important.
Najib also referred to another
Chinese proverb, “When you
drink the water, think of the
person who dug the well”.
» Turn to Page 2
Entertainment
ents to our survey were impressed with
the way Thai civil servants have been
carrying out their duties,” PERC said.
It said state offices associated with
corruption presented the most difficul-
ties for Thai citizens and foreigners.
PERC managing director Bob Broad-
foot told Reuters that the controversy
around huge investment losses by
Singapore sovereign wealth fund
Temasek was a good example of how
things could become less transparent
in the island-state. – Reuters
State wants
exco man
on PKA board
by Maria J. Dass
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
SHAH ALAM: Selangor wants to appoint a
state executive councillor to the Port Klang
Authority (PKA) board where it has a seat.
Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim
said this is pending agreement from the PKA,
which comes under the Transport Ministry.
“We would like an exco to sit on the board
to report to the state on the changes to the
free zone and other issues pertaining to
ports in Selangor,” he said after launching a
programme to upgrade the performance of
Tamil schools.
The previous state representative on the
PKA board was State Economic Planning Unit
director Datuk Noordin Sulaiman. “His tenure
ended two months ago and we felt that it was
important to name an executive councillor,”
Abdul Khalid said.
Asked if the state was prepared to take
over the operations of the troubled Port
Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), he said: “The state is
agreeable provided there is a write-off of the
excessive development cost.
“We are leaving it to the federal govern-
ment to resolve all the problems,” he said,
adding that the state supports the setting up
of the free trade zone as it will boost trade.
“It will also boost the building of factories
and tax-free operations and thus boost the
demand for workers from Klang, and boost
the growth of certain industries like the halal
food industry,” he said.
“If the free trade zone operates at the
current cost, it will not become competitive
and die a natural death. The best way is for
the federal government to write off the actual
cost and allow the free trade zone to operate
effectively and efficiently,” Abdul Khalid said.
Earlier, he said the state had allocated
RM4 million to upgrade the 97 Tamil schools
with 34,000 pupils – 80% of whom are from
low income families.
Executive councillor for health, estate
workers, poverty and caring government
Dr Xavier Jayakumar said the state will give
RM1.6 million in grants to the Child Informa-
tion and Learning Development Centre, the
Tamil Foundation and the Education Welfare
and Research Foundation to carry out various
programmes.
These include the setting up of 15 pre-
schools, helping slow learners, improving
Bahasa Malaysia and English language skills,
motivational and leadership programmes
with outdoor camps and nature study and a
magazine for Tamil schools.
“These programmes have been rolled
out over the past two months and are ex-
pected to continue into the first quarter of
next year,” said Xavier who will oversee the
programmes.