KUALA LUMPUR: The Congress of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) has urged national tycoon Koon Yew Yin to retract his entire statement on civil servants, including the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM).
“Koon’s apology (on his blog), was only directed to the ATM and not the rest of the civil servants whom he has also insulted in his blog post last Monday,“ said Cuepacs president Datuk Azih Muda.
Azih said that comments made by a businessman, along with the post by Koon, have brought disgrace to both men in the eyes of the public. He felt that Koon’s statement was uncalled for as civil servants have no hidden agenda except to serve the government and the people.
“It is utterly irresponsible and shameful for the national tycoon ... Cuepacs wants him (Koon) to retract his statement against the ATM and the entire content of his post, including his ridiculous suggestion to sack the less important civil servants,“ Azih said at a press conference at Wisma Cuepacs today.
Just Monday this week, Koon in a blog post entitled “My proposal for the reduction and improvement of our civil service”, stated that the Malaysian armed forces personnel were doing nothing but “eating and sleeping”, and that almost all of them have probably never fired a shot except during target practice.
His post went on to say that many of them (armed forces) who never fired a shot should take the place of foreign workers employed in Felda plantations in a bid to address the bloated civil service situation.
A businessman who chimed in with Koon’s comments on the army personnel, voiced his opinion on civil servants and linked it to the increasing annual government management expenditure. He also compared the figures to that of civil servants in countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Korea, China, Japan, Russia and Britain.
Statements drew backlash and criticism from various parties including government leaders, the opposition and NGOs who described the blog post as insulting the ATMs.
Koon’s apology to members of the ATM states that perhaps his suggestion on the how to reduce the number of reduction of civil employees, especially in the military, was not to everyone’s liking.
