Educating civil servants

                                                         Be brave to embrace change

Many of the public services have improved tremendously over the past 30 years or so and we Malaysians should be grateful for same.

The hospital services in Kota Kinabalu over the past thirty years have definitely improved greatly.

We can get our passport ready within hours unlike a few years ago. Etc.

However, there are many civil servants who need to be educated on matters that have changed over  the years. They should also be taught to think.

Here is a question for us to ponder. If I am not a member of a club that Ali belongs to and if Ali complains about the wrong doings of his club and even shows me documentary evidence of the wrong doings do I have a right to complain to ROS and to the police. 

I was told both by officers of ROS and the Investigating officer in the police department that I do not have the right to complain if I am not a member of a club that I am complaining of.

Of course as a non member I will not be allowed to get information about the club but surely I should be allowed to report something that has come to my attention.

Another question is whether I can give evidence to a complaint I had made as a member after I have been expelled. According to the Investigating Officer I am not allowed to give evidence of events after my expulsion even if it supports my report while I was a member.

I believe these officers should all be briefed on the changes to the term ‘Locus Standi’.

I wrote an article on Locus Standi (legal standing) which you can find here.

In 2014 it was decided at the Federal courts that genuine interest is enough for locus standi.

Here, I am only talking about making a report and not even about taking legal action.

The government needs to educate our public servants, at least the top civil servants to learn English to enable them to read material written in English.