Civil servants in Malaysia must learn good manners and smile more in a campaign to change their image of being rude and lazy, and government officials plan to monitor their progress by posing as members of the public, a report said yesterday.
The training courses for the 850,000-strong civil service are aimed at making those who deal with the public more courteous and helpful, the Star newspaper reported, citing Samsudin Osman, the chief secretary to the government.
Undercover
Senior civil servants will go undercover as members of the public for phone calls to government agencies to hunt for employees who are rude or inefficient, Samsudin said, though he didn't specify what punishment they might face.
"The courses focus on things like what it means to smile and how we should treat our clients or the polite way to answer the telephone," the daily quoted Samsudin as saying.
People often complain of bad service at payment counters for utilities: Cashiers can be found chatting about lunch plans or domestic problems while delivering withering glares at customers who demand service. Getting through to the right official on the telephone sometimes becomes a merry-go-round, with callers bounced from one department to another.
Victim
Samsudin said he himself has been a victim of slow government bureaucracy.
"I know how difficult it is to get through the person I want to speak to," the Star quoted him as saying.
Nordin Abdul Hamid, union chief for government employees, said the courses should be held more regularly, saying "I believe there is need for civil servants to be more courteous."
Young Chinese, many who fear age discrimination in their workplace after turning 35, are increasingly starting “one-person companies” that have artificial intelligence (AI) do most of the work. Smaller start-ups are already in vogue in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, with rapidly advancing AI tools seen as a welcome teammate even as they threaten layoffs at existing firms. More young people in China are subscribing to the model, as cities pledge millions of dollars in funding and rent subsidies for such ventures, in alignment with Beijing’s political goal of “technological self-reliance.” “The one-person company is a product of the AI era,” said Karen Dai
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS