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."
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS