RIGHTSIZING: A STUDY ON OPTIMIZING THE MALAYSIAN FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE TOWARDS ADDRESSING THE MIDDLE INCOME TRAP
Farrell Rasu
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Abstract
The emergence of Malaysia in the late 90s from a low to a middle income nation progressed rapidly with the intervention of policies and contingency plans. The middle income nation attainment came as a blessing to Malaysia as growth sustained for a decade but remained at a plateau as inflation and regional development geared in. This subsequently posed as a stumbling block to Malaysia as we found ourselves locked in the Middle Income Trap (MIT). With the MIT crisis, the civil service takes the centre stage as the main agent to craft an escape plan for Malaysia from the MIT. With the huge expenditure channelled towards maintaining the civil service in terms of emoluments, pensions and other public sector pay-outs in the Operational Expenditure (OE), the feasibility and optimal significance of the federal civil service becomes a necessity to be studied. Hence, a call for rightsizing is pivotal as posited by many stakeholders. Rightsizing is key in optimizing the federal civil service that will further enhance skills development and productivity in service delivery. When the federal civil service is optimized, the MIT crisis shall be dealt with more strategically towards attaining a high income nations status as we progress towards the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030.
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