Introduction

SWOT analysis is a widely used common framework which can be utilized to inspect
an organization’s rivalry position and to innovate strategic planning to increase overall
organization performance. SWOT analysis does not focus only on an organization’s current
performance but their scope of inspection can extensively reach up to inspecting both
internal and external factors and futuristic opportunities that might be offered to the
organization. This model is developed and designed to accelerate a realistic, fact aligning,
data- based look displaying the strength and weaknesses of an organization, initiatives or
within the respective industry( Anthony,2016). The organization holds a large responsibility
in assuring the analysis performed is accurate by aligning limited only to facts and the
rejection of preconceived beliefs or gray areas. Accompanied by the aid of internal and
external data, the organization will perform a SWOT analysis on themselves to inspect on
certain important perspectives of business which is performance, rivalry between business
providers, potential risks that may emerge within the organization and from the competitors
and the potential of a business. The extraordinary part about SWOT is not the large amount
of data used to analyse, however it stands out because it can be used to either analyse a
business, a part of a business such as departments, a particular product line or even an
individual within the organization themselves. If we dig in deeper to understand the theory
and concepts of a SWOT analysis, the ‘S’ stands for the strength of the element being
analysed which normally discusses the aspect an organization excels in. ‘W’ in the theory
stands for weaknesses that beholds the organizations and prevent them from moving
towards a smooth operation. ‘O’ discusses the opportunities of an organization that might
move them much more towards success. ‘T’ on the other hand stands for threats or possible
challenges that may bring down the organization from the position they deserve
(Grant,2020).This model of business analysis can be used for multiple reasons inclusive of
organizational performance or general performance as per this paper.
In terms of this paper, we are performing a general SWOT analysis on the current
scenario of Malaysia’s public service. Malaysia’s public service is carried out by a
government body that is called ‘Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam’. Their objectives in performing
duties are encapsulated to streamline the structure of the public service through a
systematic and organized human resource strategy with the help of a comprehensive
manpower projection, to provide services schemes that satisfies modern needs and relevant.
Their focus on core values are extended but not limited to professionalism, wisdom and
credibility, teamwork, timeliness, excellence and continuous lifetime learning. Most of their
programmes and service schemes are usually citizen-centric as they strive to ensure a
sufficient and excellent management of human resources in order to develop the country’s
potential overall. Other than the Public Service Department, public services are also
managed by an upper management of them which is the Public Service Commission.

Strength of Malaysian Public Services

Malaysia is a multiracial company that manages to behold harmony despite of
interacial, gender discrimination and multiple issues that emerges within the country. The
performance of Malaysia’s public service must be carefully carried out as any form of
discrimination or rejection may form a problem in between citizens and damage the
reputation of the service provider. The key strength of Malaysia’s public service is
highlighted as their large base of employees. (Che n.d.) in their project paper has
successfully claimed that there are 1.2 million employees that are attached to public services
in Malaysia which means 4% from the whole Malaysian population. Large quantities of
employees means we have a better coverage on public issues and their solutions. It is never
easy to manage 31.95 million citizens which displays a large scale of population in Malaysia
especially during global pandemics like Covid-19. According to the current scenario it is
pretty obvious that everyone including big organizations and microsellers are all severely
affected by the lockdown imposed by the government in the initiative of saving the citizens
while the virus keeps on spreading amongst the public day by day. For example, due to the
strength of the manpower and healthcare professionals we are striving through the high
spread rate that reaches up to 8,000 infections per day. Without a large base of employees,
it is almost impossible to cover the rate of spread and give all the patients the treatments
they deserve. Thus, it is proven that Malaysia holds a strength in terms of public service
when it comes to a large employee base.
Next, another notable strength of Malaysian public services can be the diversity of
public service workers. The diverse availability of the workers enables each and every kind
of citizen to address their issues within the comfort of their own mother tongue. Despite the
fact the majority of the citizens are held by the Malay ethnicity, we also have two other major
ethnicities that are dominating the population in Malaysia which is Chinese and Indian. Some
of the elderly citizens fail to speak in other common languages except for their mother
tongue themselves which forces them to wait until they can find a third party who could
speak the communication language to help them.For example, most of the public service
departments has a provision of manpower for all the three major ethnicities of Malaysia to
promote a mix of languages. When the elderlies or lowly educated individuals come in for
service or even call to inquire on their issues they can easily choose the language they
would like to converse in and address their problems. This way, there will be zero
communication issues and the public will get the service they deserve at the fastest time
possible.(Xavier et al., 2015) in his literature suggested that government’s transformation
programme on initiating a reform of the public services in Malaysia also encapsulates the
diversity system in government jobs through an appropriate quota system which enables an
equal level of dispersion among multiracial staff that displays the true meaning and effort in
moving towards ‘1 Malaysia’.
Moving on, another strength of Malaysian public services that is worth discussing is
the availability of public service departments’ communication channels that ease the
accessibility of the public towards the services offered. In modern day Malaysia, users prefer
instant replies and solutions which require the usage of modern and innovative technologies
such as live chat and agent bot chat. Luckily, Malaysia has never minimized their provisions
of finance and budget for the development of current technology and always supports them
instead. This way, the public has more options of contacting the public service departments
in resolving their issues and does not need to have a long queue before being attended by
the customer service. In relevance to the current Covid-19 situation, there are limited
movements due to the imposed Movement Control Order and Enhanced Movement Control
Order in Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur which can be referred to as two
major cities that have government office headquarters in Malaysia. This situation requires
the public to stay isolated in their homes to break the Covid-19 spread chain which might
challenge the public service workers as they are asked to work from home and will be
receiving a tremendously high number of phone calls and emails daily. In several public
service departments such as the National Registration Department the task is even more
intense as they will be handling inquiries regarding new registration of citizenship, birth
certificates, MyKad provisions, Marriage and Divorce and so on. This is why the government
developed bot chats and online applications such as the I-Sinar Elya bot that resolves
common issues regarding the withdrawal of Employee Provident Fund.
Last but not the least, the final strength of Malaysian’s public service is the
continuous effort placed by the government to ensure public services to be delivered
throughout Malaysia let it be Peninsular or Sabah and Sarawak. Obviously, bigger cities do
not have any issues in accessing public services but this is not the case for rural areas and
small towns as they will have to travel several kilometres before reaching the public service
departments and usually they cannot afford the transportation fares to the places. The
hardest part is they usually do not possess any internet coverage, mobile devices or
telecommunication coverage in their area which makes communication and follow up with
these people much harder. As we are informed, government services usually take up to 5-7
days to be responded to on average as the amount of applications and inquiries normally
pours out as millions, just like the AstraZeneca vaccination applications. However, the
strength of Malaysian public service is displayed when the government strives to make
continuous improvement on their system to enable the low income parties who are mostly
from rural areas to access to the modern day technology in acquiring public services. For
example, the public is given up to a RM 300 subsidy for mobile devices or free devices and a
monthly internet package for the B40 members to enable them to be more reachable by the
government. Overall, it is proven that Malaysian public services have a strength in
continuous improvement of public service delivery by the government.
Weaknesses of Malaysian Public Service

Just like all the other elements, everything will have its bright and dark side,
so does our public service sectors. We have some notable weaknesses that can be
repaired in order to establish a much first class worthy service from the government.
The initial weakness that I would like to address in detail is the occurrences of
technical glitches in the system of government portals. Though the government
works very hard on making the current system user friendly and introduces an
excellent User Interface the main issue rises when the system is usually interrupted
due to technical glitches and system error. It is undeniable that the traffic of the web
system is usually very high and it is completely understandable to have numerous
technical glitches as millions of users access to the site spontaneously at the same
time. For example, during the AstraZeneca vaccination registration over a million
users tried to make their applications until the system became hang and the technical
glitch resumes for the next few hours causing rage and uncomfortable feeling among
the users. Same goes to the Ministry of International Trade (MITI) system where the
code 504 error keeps emerging due to high traffic of usage. The CIMS 3.0 system
could not withstand the number of applications which is according to Astro Awani
100,000 applications within 12 hours of opening the site for applications.
Other than that, the next weakness that we can inspect in terms of Malaysian
public service is the delay in delivering public services due to large database issues.
The 31.95 million population cannot be stored into computers in the form of data
easily as it requires a large capacity database that has great backup on the system
where it is trustworthy and scam free. Well, good for security but the main
complication fluctuates when the database is way too big to access by all the
departments that offer public services. This time consuming database search causes
the services to be delivered later and sometimes even take up to months which
causes a hassle to the public. In modern day life, the public prefers receiving instant
help instead of waiting for months or weeks as they need to resolve their issues
earlier to attain peace of mind. For example, the eGumis money which is supposed
to be the non-returned funds found in various banks and financial institutions without
being claimed due to inactivity may take up to 6 months to process the returns and
retrieve the funds due to lack of accessibility to the large database.
In a contrary perspective, the other obvious weaknesses displayed by
Malaysian Public Service can extensively reach up to is corruption issues that take
place between public service departments. As mentioned in their portal, the public
service department shall be citizen-centric and only focus on the wellbeing of the
citizens instead of focusing on materialistic or monetary needs. However, several
staff may cross the line in the desire of getting better offers and compensation which
motivates them to bend the law as a step to achieve their life goals simply without
considering the after effects and morale of their actions. Corruption is usually a big
deal in Malaysia and seldom tolerated if it is found out despite the high position of the
officers but revealing corruption is a long and tiring process as without proper
retrieval of proof, the whole investigation process may go to waste as nothing. When
a corruption process happens, Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission always takes
the lead and investigates the matter to its roots but without the proper evidence it
might be a long and tiring process. For example, on 21st June according to Utusan
Malaysia four marine companies’ directors were arrested for practicing corruption to
obtain approval for documents which is a bad thing because it not only damages the
image of the organizations but it also damages the reputation of Malaysian Public
Services.
Last but not the least, the next weakness displayed by Malaysian Public
Service is the vulnerability of public service department portals to scammers which
reduces the reliability of it within the public. Scams and cheating calls are one of the
most disturbing issues that we might face in Malaysia as there are some
irresponsible adults who like to take advantage of other people’s possessions and
monetary values without thinking about the effects. While our cybercrime department
and Media Commission is very careful in this matter, black hat hackers are growing
stronger and skillful day by day which can be said as a petrifying truth to Malaysians.
With the help of numerous modern technologies inclusive of device jammers, VPNs
and other applications it is now a trend of hacking and causing hassle to another
party with no humanitarian values at all. This might not look like public service related
problems but in truth it affects the delivery of public service in terms of
trustworthiness. Scammers may impose as public service departments to retrieve
their personal data which will turn against the real public service officer as the public
has reduced trustworthiness on the actual workers now. For an example, the Macau
Scam has involved Employee Provident Fund withdrawal which is in relevance to the
scammer acting as an officer from Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja (KWSP)
department.
Opportunities for Malaysian Public Service
Futuristic developments and evolutions are significant to hold a competitive
position in the global market. However, the opportunities that may arrive must be
analysed first in order to prepare ourselves toward the success and its process. One
of the biggest opportunities that Malaysian public service possesses is the
establishment of modern and effective programme schemes that works on
improvising the lifestyle of Malaysian citizens. The performance and delivery of public
service are very crucial and need to satisfy certain standards to ensure the suitability
of an individual in engaging public service. This is clear because as we are pre
informed the government officials and staff undergo multiple screening processes as
well as a long and tiring hiring process before being verified as a qualified public
service worker. However with the help of both Public Service Commission and Public
Service Department, the potential talents can be found and placed at the service in
assuring a flawless customer service. Their notable programmes starting from the
recruitment of staff from the public until the delivery of services to the public are
creative and innovative. The public’s welfare is set as the priority and the method of
delivery is frequently assessed for efficiency and improvise in conjunction with any
mistakes. As an evidence, we can refer to the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (BPN)
provisions to the B40 individuals and households, which is an amazingly brought up
system as Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) filters the income tax declaration of
the individuals and households before helping those in need. However, the small
business owners have a problem with this method as their businesses are being
affected and they do not have sufficient funds to carry out their lives too. Malaysian
public service departments got the idea of it and decided to unleash Geran Khas
Prihatin (GKP) to help the micro and small businesses to aid their survival during the
pandemic. So, we can assure that the establishment of modern and effective
programme schemes that works on improvising the lifestyle of Malaysian citizens is
an opportunity for the Malaysian public service. (Super User,2020) the website
clearly lists all the available aides for the public that is generously given to the public
as an effort in retrieving the country’s condition from the ‘economical tsunami’ caused
by the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia. Thus, it is evidently proved that the Malaysian
public service system holds the capability to establish a range of modern and
effective programme schemes that works on improvising the lifestyle of Malaysian
citizens
 In addition, other opportunities that Malaysian public service holds is excellent
press or media coverage in regards to the public service. Media is the most powerful
agent in delivering the message we intend to the public as their coverage does not
know boundaries and over the years, humans decided to rely on media as a reliable
source of message. Accessibility and reach of information is very crucial in terms of
public service as any form of programme may not succeed without the public
knowing its being carried out in the first place. Media was back then encompassed
only based on radio, newspapers and magazines but in this era of modernization
media extended its scope up to social media, e-news portals and even live telecasts.
Through public service portals and public sharing, the reach of a certain news
nowadays regardless of positive or negative is very high and convincing. This
process shows us how the efficiency of delivering messages regarding public service
can contribute to the efficiency and success of a government programme within a
particular time frame. For example, when the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR)
application and appeal is opened, there will be numerous social media sites,
guideline portals and TikTok videos on how to apply them accurately and access the
sites step by step will be released. Even Though, this is just for the sake of views for
certain individuals, unknowingly they are actually promoting public service and
engaging in it.
If we dive deeper into this element, another opportunity that knocks on the
door of Malaysian public service is the engagement of public universities in supplying
manpower for the public service sectors within Malaysian government. Over the past
years, our government has shown a significant reduction in sending Malaysian
students overseas by funding them with scholarships, instead the government
decided to offer them seats at public universities in Malaysia themselves such as
Universiti Malaya, Universiti Teknologi Mara and even local polytechnics. While a
controversy is developing that these actions are done because they do not have
enough funds to support the education of local students, the truth is Malaysian
government realizes that sending our mini heroes and heroines overseas may divert
their attention from serving their own nation to settling in a western country and
serving their nation. Statistics have shown that thousands of Malaysian students who
are offered scholarships by the Public Service Department choose to break the bond
and pay instead of engaging themselves into national service by returning back to
Malaysia. While this does not look like a problem as they pay us back the money, if
we are attentive enough we can discover that it is a waste of time training these
people for an average of four to five academic years before they decide to pull back
themselves from performing public service. For example, JPA sends students with
high potential and good grades in their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination to study
overseas such as Germany, India, Russia and much more. However, after some
academic years they realise that the western currencies are worth more and decide
to settle overseas. (Official Portal Public Service Department JPA, n.d.) is the
evident in the statement above as they promote local based learning nowadays
compared to overseas courses except if the course is not available in Malaysia or
limited resources are available in Malaysia.Thus, public universities set up locally are
now training our local students to perform their public service within Malaysia
nowadays.
Last but not the least, the final opportunity that is held by the Malaysian Public
Service is the introduction of online services instead of manual practices.
Convenience and instant services have become important elements in life nowadays.
Public grows more and more impatient as they are rushing to conduct their lives
rather than wasting time waiting for a single task to be completed.With the help of
online services introduced in almost each and every public service department,
Malaysia is able to serve better and at a shorter time. Essential activities and
applications can be done at the comfort of the public's own home which reduces the
queues at government agencies and offers a better service especially for the
handicapped, elderlies and pregnant ladies. The idea of travelling to the government
offices is usually tiring and takes a long time to complete, however with the help of
online systems we are able to have much more smooth operations by having
appointments to prevent long queues or rejection of service due to incomplete
documents. For example, the e-JanjiTemu system for most of the public service
departments such as KWSP, JPN and LHDN reduces the queue as each individual is
provided with their own time slots and the system will monitor the provision of time
slots for a respective range of service to avoid an overwhelming amount of clients
coming in spontaneously causing longer time to get served.
Threats of Malaysian Public Service
Just like opportunities, there are also several threats that stop Malaysian
public service from taking the lead in comparison to other countries across the globe.
However, the key importance is we shall not give up and it is important to impose
continuous improvisation of our current standards in order to achieve world-class
public services and serve the nation the way they deserve. One of the major threats
faced by Malaysian public service is the shortage of modern technology in
comparison to other successful countries such as Japan and the United States Of
America. While we are trying our best in enhancing our technology from time to time
we are far more left out in comparison to countries like this as they develop more
technology based initiatives in order to attain a much satisfying public service
experience. They practice modern technology applications earlier and amazes other
countries by their capabilities. As an example, the public transport system in
Malaysia is now only evolving to Electric Train Services while Japan has established
a much more powerful bullet train that transits underground in a shorter time and
longer distance.
In conjunction with that, other threats that emerge in relevance of Malaysian
Public Service is the public's trustworthiness on Malaysian political system. Malaysia
has been declared independent since 1957 and is verified as a country that operates
by democracy ever since then. However, in the past few years there have been some
political issues that cause the political position of the country to be challenged and
questioned by the public. This had significantly reduced the public's trustworthiness
and reliability on government without studying deeper into the idea. No matter how
concerned and hardworking the government is during the pandemic season to
ensure the whole Malaysia receives help the way they need, the political issue keeps
emerging as the live videos of parliamentary members arguing and not acting
professionally is going viral all over the screens. The privacy of the parliament was
not prioritized nowadays and certain irresponsible members are leaking out the
private discussions causing a doubt of reliability within the public. For example, a
minister from Baling throws a disapproving racist statement to Batu Kawan minister
to ‘wear powder’ as she has a dark complexion (Jun, n.d.). This news has caused a
big issue in between them and the public is devastated as Malaysia is supposed to
be democratic and all ethnic groups deserve to be respected and treated well. In a
nutshell, it is further proven that the Malaysian political system is a big threat to the
Malaysian public service and the quality of the delivery of the service.
Moving on, another threat that is imposed on Malaysian public service is the
current financial position of the country due to Covid-19 pandemic. Public are surely
happy as the government is continuously providing us with monetary and resources
help with the budget, however little did we know what is the current financial position
of the country? The country was already in debt in 2018 when Pakatan Rakyat took
over the country’s rule due to some financial scams by the previous government. Just
a year after the retrieval of the country, the Covid-19 pandemic emerges, leaving a
greater economic inflation in history than we can ever imagine. Despite all the efforts
the government is putting in for us, it is important to note that our country’s economic
damage and financial position at the present day is irreversible and comparatively
weak. The continuous financial aid packages we are receiving till date is not from the
country’s fund solely while some of the ministers are warm hearted enough to donate
their entire monthly salary only to ensure the affected people are receiving help from
their side. Country’s resources at present day are limited and can be easily
challenged due to multiple big expenses and causing an unstable financial position.
As an example, our Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Khairy
Jamalludin Abu Bakar has contributed a part of his salary to the purchase of
vaccination for Malaysia.
Last but not the least, another important threat to Malaysian public service is
the increasing population level in Malaysia. Malaysia has a comparatively high
amount of population count in comparison to the neighbour country, Singapore. The
efficiency of Singapore’s public service is often used as a counterattack to complain
about the issues in Malaysian public services. However, what the public fail to
inspect is the population rate of Singapore which is nearly 5.9 million in comparison
of Malaysia’s population rate of 31.95 million. Our public services require a longer
time frame to deliver due to the high rate of population and the vast mix of ethnicity
that emerges from sensitivity among the public. Delivering public services nowadays
are very critical as any sort of rejection due to information errors are considered as
ethnicity and racial issues. For example, Malaysian vaccination process takes a
longer time than expected in comparison to Singapore because our population is
higher and we require islamic friendly vaccinations to avoid any sort of cultural issues
to emerge during the process that can damage the government’s image severely.
Conclusion
Conclusively, the SWOT analysis briefly addressed the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by the Malaysian public service in
relation to the current or present day situation in conjunction with the Covid-19
pandemic in Malaysia. The strengths are addressed as large base of employees,
diversity of public service workers, multiple channels availability to access to public
service departments and continuous effort of Malaysian government to deliver public
services to all over Malaysia inclusive of rural areas. The weaknesses are suggested
as technical glitches and system errors in government portals, delay in delivering
public services due to large databases, corruption issues that are present internally
within public service departments and vulnerability to scam. The opportunities for
Malaysian public services in future are establishment of modern and effective
programme schemes that works on improvising the lifestyle of Malaysian citizens,
excellent media coverage, engagement of public universities in supplying manpower
and introduction of online practices. The threats are shortage of modern technology,
political imbalance, financial position of Malaysia at present day and increasing
population.
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