Pak Lah Kicks Ass

Interesting. Sort of "hidden" in an editorial by Brendan Pereira of the New Straits Times today, was the fact that some senior official at the Ministry of Education had his ass "kicked" not too long ago by the Prime Minister himself.

...the unfortunate civil servant who fudged and squirted nonsense at Abdullah at a recent briefing after being asked repeatedly to explain his tardiness got more than a verbal assault.

Those in the briefing room with the Prime Minister that day say he was stumped at the slow pace of some reforms in the education system. Excuses which had been in mothballs for a year were dressed up like original arguments and served up to Abdullah.

He was removed. No ifs or buts. The man — of considerable experience and seniority — was yanked out of his comfort zone and transferred out of the department.

Well, now I'm hung up on who this particular senior official is. Which reform was Pak Lah interested in which was "slow"? What excuse did this senior official provide which ticked off Mr Nice Guy? Arrrghhh.... why is our newspapers so polite in not naming the official and spewing more juicy details?

Anyway, it's good to hear that Pak Lah is wielding some serious stick (not super big stick, but hard enough nevertheless). However, Pak Lah cannot be expected to be going round wielding his stick to every ministry and department to hit everyone (and I'm sure there are plenty of deserving candidates). Here's some additional reasons why Pak Lah should ask the media to be less "polite" in their reporting.

Firstly, since Pak Lah can't possibly go round every department in the country, whoever who got his ass kicked should definitely be publicised as a clear deterrent to all other senior civil servants. Let the media do the stick waving on behalf of the prime minister. That way, I'm certain that productivity at our civil service will go up by a couple of notches, at least in the short term till the next "unfortunate" civil servant gets dipped in hot oil.

Secondly, many of us, I'm certain is getting wary and tired of waiting for Pak Lah to execute his reform pledges. While I'm certain that he means well, his actions (or lack of) results in an almost intolerable slow crawl towards a better Malaysia. Well, actions such as the above, will clearly improve the perception towards the Prime Minister and should hence be publicised accordingly. Name the office, let all know the exact punishment received and dare anyone else to perform equally feebly.

Let's look forward to more ass kicking by Pak Lah, for the good of the country.