My distinct first memory of getting to know Abdullah Ahmad Badawi – or Pak Lah – was when he was director-general of the Youth Department under the Youth and Culture Ministry, in the early 1970s.

We met as PTD Officers while we were both members of the Royal Lake Club. He was always friendly and a very personal human being; as much as he remains today.

Nevertheless, I want to respond to the one particular failure I fully attribute to the Pak Lah Administration and that is the focus of my column today. Mine will remain a view of one serving officer of the government of Malaysia.

First, let me set the context before getting to the text. Sometime in 2002 or 2003, I was asked by my boss if and when I would consider taking over the post of honorary secretary to the National IT Council (NITC). Mimos Bhd, or my division, was secretariat to the NITC. The incumbent had been the founding secretary of the NITC, set up in 1995.

I replied that I would do so only after Pak Lah becomes the prime minister.

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Immediately after Pak Lah became the deputy premier, we met him quite a few times privately in his office for briefings and updates about the NITC and National IT Agenda. At one of those meetings, I remember him introducing Khairy Jamaluddin into my life. He was not yet Pak Lah’s son-in-law at the time.  

I remember that Pak Lah greeted me with the Arabic/Muslim greeting of peace every time we met, and he had no hang-ups about that greeting being restricted to ‘Muslims only’. My response every time was “ Vanakum Salam , Dato Seri!”  After all, much of Malay language has deep roots in Sanskrit.

While working closely with Pak Lah and his version of National IT Agenda implementation, we even developed an ICT Agenda execution plan which focused exclusively upon “services delivery to the bottom 10 percent of the poor and marginalised population” that was not yet already served by government policies then.

I was therefore a 150 percent supporter of Pak Lah for PM because of the ‘Mr Clean’ look and feel about his style of administration. In fact for the 2004 general election, I even influenced everyone in my extended family to vote for the BN. It is a fact that the BN got the highest number of votes and support of any generation within Malaysia’s 50 years of existence.

In the next GE though, BN faced its worst loss ever. Why did such abject failure and reversal of fortunes happen and why was there such a deep sense of disappointment among Malaysians?

Was Pak Lah a mere victim of Umno’s larger politics and therefore, could not be held personally responsible for promises made and not delivered?  

How could Pak Lah make promises about good governance and even introduce the word ‘integrity’ into the public services life in Malaysia, but fail to deliver that very integrity to the people?

How and why did he bother to set up the parliamentary select committee on integrity but not  deliver on all the promises made to the people who gave their views to the committee at its public hearings nationwide?

I find it unacceptable that the committee’s report was never even tabled in Parliament when Pak Lah stepped down. The original chairperson of the committee resigned over explicit public service failures! Where then did all the requisite integrity go?

Final reminder

To me, all of this pales in comparison to a specific promise that Pak Lah made publicly at the Private Sector Dialogue in 2004. More than 500 CEOs and corporate leaders heard the promise when the moderator, federal minister Mustapa Mohamed, allowed me to ask a question.

Mine was a question framed as a proposal: Why not make every public servant sign off as Saya yang bertangunggungjawab instead of Saya yang menurut perintah ? 

Pak Lah, as a former PTD officer, knew the context of my question and comment. It sought to transfer responsibility for decisions to every public servant.

The problem I had noticed in the post-Mahathir years was that too many public servants were becoming blindly obedient to the government, with some even obedient to non-government leaders (read: Umno officials).

Public servants seemed to exclude their moral obligation to do what is right, blindly obeying their ‘external’ masters as if the human personality has no requisite conscience and commitment to do what is right and good. After all, all religions teach about doing what is right, good and true.

In fact within the Malaysian Public Service, much like in the British Public Service, public servants are deemed to be politically neutral and non-partisan entities with only one common agenda: to serve the public interest, always! That is why we are sworn to allegiance of the Agong and not just the government of the day.

Therefore, regardless of the party in power, we must serve the public interest without fear or favour. But this value of good and neutral public service has died out, especially in the latter half of the Mahathir years.

There are many stories of public servants who were transferred arbitrarily just because they refused to play ball.

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The most popular story is that of a Finance Ministry official who was transferred within 24 hours when he refused to do minister Daim Zainuddin’s (right) bidding.

After I made my proposal, Pak Lah responded that it was an excellent one and that he would bring it up to the cabinet and seek to translate it into practice. He even repeated this to me as he left the hall, within hearing of a number of MCA politicians and corporate leaders.

At a media event organised by the Star some months later, I reminded Pak Lah that he had not kept his promise to me, and asked his permission to keep reminding him of the same. He agreed again.

I have not met Pak Lah ever since and this is therefore my final reminder about his forgotten promise. I still do not understand why it is so difficult to make this a reality, especially when it is so much needed in Malaysia.

With tongue in cheek, my guess is: Maybe this policy needs full adoption at the Umno general assembly, for that is the head where the rot really starts!

Logically and professionally, that policy and its execution is the only way forward for Malaysia, given the reality of a two-party administrative system that has been adopted and confirmed by the people, especially after the 13th general election on May 5, 2013.

We will never revert to one-party rule since the peoples of Selangor and Penang have now come to experience the quality and difference that a capable Pakatan Rakyat can deliver in terms of good governance of a state, especially in terms of financial management.

Therefore, Pak Lah, my final request to you: Could you please keep your promise and get it done? After all you are a Tun and want to do what is good, true and right. I believe that you can do this even now, and that the PTD leadership will support you. It would only take political will.

May God give you the strength to deliver the integrity you promised to the people of Malaysia!