“Yes, Minister”(UK), “Yes, KSU” (Malaysia)

The BBC sitcom series "Yes, Minister” in the 1980s were a first-class political satire, admired not only by the British public but also by politicians in UK and the world, including serving Ministers and Prime Ministers. It was no exception in Malaysia, which modelled its form of parliamentary governance after the UK example.

The series depicted how the powerful civil service machine, represented by Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby – “a silky-smooth senior civil servant with a treasure trove of baffling phrases, paradoxical reasoning and enigmatic explanations" - made mincemeat of the good-intentioned but bumbling Minister, James Hacker.

Nuggets from the series:

To the civil servant, one minister (or prime minister) is just like the next: an unavoidable irritant who must not, at any cost, be allowed to run the country. That is the job of the civil servants.

The distinction between “ministry policy” from “minister’s policy”.

In Parliament on Monday, I asked whether Malaysia has moved from “Yes, Minister” to “Yes, KSU” where the curtain of civil service control and manipulation of ministers is dispensed with altogether. This happened in the midst of the storm kicked up by the letter to MPs by the International Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) Secretary-General (Ketua Setiausaha – KSU) Sidek Hassan that the selective list of MPs allocated APs given to me by the MITI Minister, Rafidah Aziz, on 20th September 2005 was not meant to be released.

The parliamentary usher came in to lay an officially-looking letter on my table when I was some 30 minutes into my budget speech on Monday, and I did not pay it any notice until MP for Tanjong, Chow Kon Yeow, stood up to draw my attention to what was the Sidek Letter, as it had direct relevance to what I was saying at the time – the Rafidah AP scandal.

When I read out the contents of the Sidek Letter to all MPs, all hell broke loose, with all MPs on both sides of the political divide, including Barisan Nasional MPs led by MP for Sri Gading Mohd Aziz and MP for Kinabatangan Moktar Radin, giving full support to my instantaneous motion under Standing Order 26(1)(p) to refer both the Minister and the KSU of MITI to the Committee of Privileges for contempt and breach of parliamentary privilege.

What transpired to the BN “resident firebrand” duo is not the purpose of this blog, which is on the Sidek Letter.

Among the reasons I submitted as to why Sidek should be referred to the Committee of Privileges were:

#Firstly, contempt of Parliament, for acting beyond his station, as any letter to MPs on correction or amendment to a Minister’s parliamentary reply must come from the Minister, Deputy Minister or Parliamentary Secretary but not the KSU.

#Secondly, usurpation of the powers and responsibilities of the Minister, Deputy Minister and Parliamentary Secretary, as a civil servant is only a “backroom boy” to advise the political leadership and not to get into the front-line of any cross-fire on the floor of Parliament.

#Thirdly, for the untruth in the Sidek letter that the policy decision to allocate APs to MPs was made by the Cabinet on 26th March 1997, as the then Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had publicly denied that the Cabinet had made such a decision.

#Fourthly, for the untruth that in my question, I had not asked for the list of MPs given APs, when in fact, I had asked for a full and complete list of all APs issued, whether open, franchise or individual, going back to 1987.

I expressed surprise that the KSU did not understand my question which asked for a full list of all APs issued since 1987, and that it was his subordinate, Salimi Sajari, Ketua Penolong Pengarah, Unit Perkhidmatan Perdagangan MITI – now the scapegoat who prepared the list - who had demonstrated greater powers of comprehension. Salimi should be faulted for preparing a partial and not a full list.

I expressed shock that Salimi was being interrogated and penalized for preparing the partial list of MPs with APs and called for the end of all such witch-hunt. In fact, I said that in terms of meritorious performance in this episode, Salimi should be made KSU and Sidek demoted to a Ketua Penolong Pengarah in MITI.

If the list of MPs allocated APs given to me last month was incomplete and carelessly done, a full, complete and correct list should have been substituted, instead of the KSU usurping the powers of the Minister and commiting contempt of Parliament by writing a letter making preposterous claims about its origin and mishaps.

When Rafidah made her rare appearance in Parliament yesterday for question time, I had asked her whether she had directed her KSU to write the Sidek Letter. She did not answer. Did Rafidah arm-twist the KSU to issue the Sidek Letter?