The Need for Ombudsman Malaysia

By Stephen Ng


For many years, I have been waiting anxiously for the setting up of both the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) and Ombudsman Malaysia (Ombudsman).

I have written about it. But, under the Barisan Nasional government, we saw the great resistance from the police to block the setting up the IPCMC.

It therefore brings me great joy when the Pakatan Government agreed to also set up the Ombudsman.

A quick check on the Internet, the Ombudsman is defined as "a government official (as in Sweden or New Zealand) appointed to receive and investigate complaints made by individuals against abuses or capricious acts of public officials."

A lot of issues affecting us have to do with the lack of good work ethics in the mindset of our civil servants. Many of our civil servants are one-eyed Jacks. Now they see, now they don't!

With over 1.5 million civil servants, it is not difficult for anyone to imagine how advanced we can be as a nation if our civil servants have good work attitudes. Sadly, the reality is just the opposite despite a new government has taken over Putrajaya.

Corruption has long been entrenched in our civil service society to the point that even the office boys will ask for kickbacks if we want our documents processed fast. This gives rise the runners who pay to get jobs done.

But, when you as an ordinary person complains, you do not get the attention that you deserve unless, of course, you are a member of cabinet. Does this sound familiar?

For the past 25 years, I have been following up on a number of government agencies, departments and ministries -- from City Halls, Municipal Councils to the Land Office and the , and from Ministry of Housing & Local Government to the Ministry of Education.

To those that are good, I give the credit, but mostly, I had to crack the whip in order to see the results. Because I am persistent, I take the trouble to go all the way to the top or expose the issue in the press.

Often, with a camera in hand, I would write about issues affecting people, and the moment the article appears in one of the newspapers, solution would be at hand. This was particularly true during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's tenure as the fourth prime minister of Malaysia. But things deteriorated, and it got worse during Najib Abdul Razak's time.

A number of years ago, when I was working with an private institution of higher learning, I discovered a number of our local and international students using a monsoon drain below the highway to get across to their apartment.

After I wrote an article for The Star Metro using the pseudonym, David Ng, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) finally responded by building a flyover across the highway.

In another case, a housing estate has been without streetlights for at least 25 years. After I wrote a one-page article in Malay Mail, on the same day, Tenaga Nasional employees came to plant the streetlights.

They worked non-stop from noon till very late at night to install the streetlight poles. There was a lot of joy in the residents when their streets were finally lit up. I later learnt that it was the late Tan Sri Ani Arope who acted upon reading my article. His personal assistant and I became good friends since then. Tan Sri Ani and I also communicated frequently in the last few years of his life. A great man of virtue, indeed!

To solve problems, I had to use the media to hype up the issues in order to get some attention. For example, when I discovered that my Mom had a Qualified Title (Hakmilik Sementara) for 40 years, it took me two to three years with the help of the Member of Parliament, Dr Tan Seng Giaw and a lot of publicity in the media to finally get the titles changed to Full Titles (Geran) for the entire housing estate.

Not many people know this but I was the one who forced the predecessor to the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Celcom, Maxis and Telekom to look into the use of 999 as an emergency line on mobile phones. It started when I discovered that if you dialled 999 on the mobile phone back in the 90s, it would go to the nearest district police station (IPD). At night, there would be no one picking up the phone. After much negotiation following my highlight, finally the telcos agreed to use a central emergency response unit. You can now dial 999 (or 112) on your mobile phone, and the line would be connected to a centre that manages all emergency calls. 

There were many other issues that I had to pursue at great length before I saw the outcome. Even at this point in time, I am involved in a number of issues affecting others and I am pursuing all the way to achieve the results.

Despite many letters and meetings with the civil servants, often nothing gets done at the end of the day until you kick up a big fuss. But, why should this be? If the civil servants adopt a positive attitude towards serving the taxpayers, we would not have so many problems.

People would not have to run around just because some lazy officers refuse to solve the problem brought to their attention.

This is why we still need the Ombudsman to put civil servants on their toes. I look forward to the establishment of Ombudsman Malaysia.



END