Public Statements

When I was a public servant for more than three decades, the rules and regulations governing conduct and discipline of government officials especially at the higher echelons was an integral part of one's career and any infringement of the Chapter D of the General Orders would land an officer in jeopardy if a prima facie case is established and disciplinary proceedings is instituted. Although the Cap D of the G.O. went through several name change, but generally speaking all civil servants refer it by its original name.

When I became the Secretary of the Public Service Disciplinary Board for the higher grades officers in the civil service, I rarely came across any civil servant who was charged with an offence pertaining to making public statements which were deemed to be an offence under Cap D. However a public officer need not get prior approval if the public statement issued to the press or aired over the electronic media is related to his departmental functions, role and responsibility.But he should not make any comment as to the merits or demerits of any policy matters in making public statements.

The reason for this code of conduct is to ensure that public servants do not speak out of turn, thus causing embarrassment to his Minister or the Government.

But of late it seemed that such a code of conduct which is only applicable to civil servants should be equally applied to Members of the Administration. The Federal Constitution states that a politician who holds a designated position in the Government such as a Cabinet Minister is regarded as a Member of the Administration . Being elected representatives they are not subject to Cap D and thus they have to exercise self discipline where conduct and discipline is concerned. But when new MP's or Senators are appointed to hold high office, they only take an oath before the Agong or the PM whichever the case may be, and they have to go on a learning curve which sometimes can be quite costly in terms of credibility of the government. Often times they make public statements which contradict even their own Ministry's stand and this can cause unnecessary embarrassment. I think it is high time a provision not unlike Cap D of the G.O. should be also be applied to those who hold office at Cabinet level. A glaring example is the statement made by the Minister of Defence on the tragic incident of a new boy who died due to ragging in the RMC. The Ministry issued a press statement that a Board of Investigation would be set up to look into the tragedy but a few days later the Minister himself announced the expulsion of one Budak boy and four more suspended. Thus it looks as if a verdict is handed down to the culprits even before the Board began its work. This is just one case, and I recalled the incident of the RMN landing ship which caught fire at the Lumut Naval Base when he said that the fire was due to a short circuit even before investigations was conducted. He went to the extent of announcing that the Government was looking to procure another similar ship to replace the vessel which was still in embers.

The standard ruling by the Cabinet Division of the PM's Dept in the past was that no public statements should be issued on matters that falls within the purview of the Cabinet, which literally covered a whole operations of Government. It is no use to come out with another law to solve this problem, if the political will is lacking. Members of the Administration should not become the laughing stock of the global village.