Updated 4.03pm, 14 May 2009
PUTRAJAYA, 14 May 2009: Starting 1 July, officers in the support group who have served 15 years or more but are still in the appointment grade will be considered for promotion to higher grades.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in announcing this at the Public Sector Workers Day gathering here today, also said that several service schemes would be upgraded from the same date.
He said the move was in appreciation of the contributions of the 176,066 officers in the support group for the federal service.
The government had also agreed to establish two new schemes for food preparation officers and marine assistants and upgrade eight service schemes including those for data processing machine operators, junior administrative assistants and guards.
He said the exercise, also effective 1 July, would involve 20,637 personnel. The decision would cost the government an additional RM170.4 million.
In his speech, Najib said he wanted public sector employees to focus on increasing productivity which would raise the country’s revenue.
He said that if the revenue increased, the workers’ incomes would also rise.
Najib, who is also finance minister, said he was not a person who did not care for the workers, as was evident from his track record when he helmed the Defence and Education ministries.
“Ask the soldiers about my track record at the Defence Ministry. At the Education Ministry, ask the teachers what I have done. Never in history was there a time-based promotion for teachers.
“I was the first person to introduce time-based promotion. It means that we are always thinking of ways to raise (incomes) but the fact is that productivity and the country’s revenue must also be raised, he said.
Stressing that he did not want Malaysia to continue to be known as a low-wage nation, Najib said the government was drawing up a new economic model, a new formula to lift the country from the middle income group.
“We are not a low-wage country but we have yet to make the leap to a high-wage nation. As such, we need to formulate a new economic model based on the areas that we can find to achieve the leap as a value-added nation,” he said.
Najib said that to achieve this quantum leap, the country must transform itself from an industry-based economy, based on knowledge, to one of innovation.
“When the country’s yield increases, (whatever) Cuepacs president (Omar Osman who was also present) asks, I can close my eyes and give any time.
“This is because when we have the yield, the country’s revenue increases, surely the government will not forget the workers,” he said.
Najib also said that he was determined to foster good and close relations with the public sector staff, just like his late father, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, who was so close to the civil servants.
“I’ve said that after I take over as prime minister, the relationship between the government and the civil servants must be based on a deeper principle than merely saying that this is a partnership or consensus.
“I use the principle of al-wa’ad, meaning loyalty, I use al-bai’ah, meaning commitment to each other. If the civil servants display undivided loyalty, united commitment, God willing, the country will be more progressive in future,” he said. — Bernama
