Teachers are threatened with action if they support the Pakatan, but how real is the threat?

In recent news, the Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid allegedly told teachers and officers of his ministry that they will get disciplinary action if they backed the opposition.

That means no joining the opposition party and no criticizing the gomen, because that’s like sabotaging and ruining the government’s image. While we can’t find a clip of him saying that, there is a clip of him citing an example of a state education officer, supposedly after the warning.

“We had to take swift action in that case although he was not suspended. The way he criticized showed the amount of contempt he had for the government. I also found out that one of the school principals was a PKR leader and another officer held a position in PAS. This is not allowed… We won’t allow any of our officers to join any opposition party or hold any party post. But it’s okay if they were to join the government.” – Mahdzir Khalid, as quoted by the Malaysian Insight.

He went on to say that people in education should focus on reforming the education system, and complaints should be sent through proper channels instead. Mahdzir, who is also the Padang Terap MP, had also been said to ask those who are against the government to resign from their government posts before the ministry asks them to do so.

Mahdzir’s statement isn’t really a new thing, as there had been instances before where civil servants were seemingly forced to support the ruling party, i.e. the government of the day in the past. In 2016, for example, Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz, the advisor to the Jabatan Hal Ehwal Khas (JASA) had asked for public servants who cannot support the government to resign, as there will be many more who are willing to fill their posts.

There’s quite a few questions about the issue, but the first one would be…

Why would civil servants vote for a particular party?

In a sense, civil servants are just like any Malaysian voter out there, but with a few factors that set them apart. Last year, the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) have put the number of civil servants in Malaysia to be around 500,000. That’s not a small number, as civil servants represent roughly 12 per cent of all registered voters.

“The civil service forms an important support base for the government and can usually be counted upon to show up and vote for the ruling party during elections.” – Chia Shuhui, an Asia analyst at BMI Research in Singapore, as quoted by Bloomberg.

Civil servants make up the single largest voting bloc in the Malaysian electorate that’s most likely to be loyal to the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, due to them being mostly Malays and being the recipients of various perks over the years, such as the recent cash bonus in the 2018 budget. While a RM1.5k donation may not seem to be enough of a reason to support the gomen for some, Cuepacs had reported between 700,000 to 800,000 civil servants are in the bottom 40 per cent of Malaysian households, and 100,000 of them are in danger of being declared bankrupt.

However, according to Tracy Yeoh, the chief operating officer of the Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs, the opposition is well aware of the situation, so Selangor and Penang, both opposition-led states, have been announcing generous cash bonuses to state civil servants in their 2018 state budget. This may show that monetary bonuses and other perks may not be exclusive to one ruling party, so perhaps bonuses can be ruled out as a factor.

Another possible reason for the civil servants to favor the current ruling government may be the fear of unemployment. The number of civil servants had been a hot topic last year, with some calling the civil service bloated and others calling for it to be trimmed down. There had been concerns that if the government were to switch, many civil servants would lose their jobs.

“If they (opposition) are in power, with arrogance, they would want to reduce by half the number of civil servants. The opposition could even go to the extent of labelling civil servants and giving negative perceptions, besides callously describing the civil service as inefficient, earning ‘gaji buta’ (salary for not doing anything), and in the extreme, the opposition leaders are willing to insult civil servants by calling them ‘kucing kurap’,” – Najib Razak, for the Sun Daily.

We’ve written about this issue in more detail before, but the bottom line is it’s not that easy to trim down the civil service for any ruling party, as it’s a big move that may hurt their chances in the next election. Other than the factors of perks and job security, we can say that the factors influencing a civil servant’s preference for a political party is the same as for any other Malaysian voter.

So can civil servants support the Opposition if they want to?

Some may think that the answer to that question is an obvious “yes”, but perhaps surprisingly the answer is more of a “that depends on how you show your support“. The simplest way is by voting for the Opposition in the next election, and despite rumors of action against Opposition voters, there’s really no way to know which party a person votes for in a General Election.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia of 22 years, had assured that Putrajaya had no way of tracing a person’s vote that he know of.

 “Actually, the government doesn’t know who is voting for whom. Maybe many might be afraid that if they vote for the opposition, the government will take action against them… That’s why a lot of people were unhappy that I got the position and was prime minister for a long time.” – Dr Mahathir, for the Malaysian Insight.

Dr Mahathir had also said that even if his party is to win in the coming elections, there will be no way of knowing exactly who supported him, so there’s no real pressure for anyone to vote for anyone.

Even Nur Jazlan, the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, had admitted that although Putrajaya may know voting trends, they have no way of knowing exactly who voted for whom. He had stated that there’s no benefit for BN to punish people who didn’t vote for them, as BN wants people to understand their fight.

“If the government knew who didn’t vote for BN during 2008 and 2013’s GE, and a lot of government officers were suspected to not vote for BN back then, there would have been many government officers being subject to negative action,” – Nur Jazlan, for The Malaysian Insight.

The secrecy of votes is also protected by the law, specifically Section 5 of the Election Offences Act 1954. So yes, civil servants can vote for whoever they want with no repercussions whatsoever.

There are indeed certain restrictions on other forms of support, especially for the top management tiers of the civil service. According to a Public Service Department circular dated 6th April 2009, officers the Highest Management Group and Professional and Management Group are not allowed to take part in any political activities or show their affiliation with any political party, either by

• Making a public statement with a political slant,
• Publishing or distributing writings about a political party,
• Being involved in vote garnering in any way,
• Becoming election agents or voting area agents,
• Competing for any post in any political party, or
• Holding a post in any political party.

These restrictions were put in place to ensure neutrality and impartiality of the public service. However, according to Cuepacs president Datuk Azih Musa, some slack is given to civil servants who want to be involved in politics provided that they have the permission from their respective heads of department.

“It is not a problem (for civil servants) to be involved in politics or even to aim to be the leader of the country, but before they go into politics, they must first obtain permission,” – Datuk Azih Musa, for the Borneo Post.

However, this leeway is only given to certain grades in the civil service, and civil servants who decide to join politics are still bound by the Official Secrets Act, so they must take care not to violate their code of conduct or ethics. While some may feel that this exception can be twisted to favor a certain party, the bottom line here is…

Civil servants can actually support whichever party they want

Following the news outbreak, Mahdzir Khalid had since denied that he warned Opposition-supporting teachers to quit their profession, saying that it’s just a ‘fatherly advice‘.

“I only reminded them of their positions and that they must ‘fine tune’ and put a ‘buffer zone’ between their career and political ideology. They cannot be going on the same stage with Opposition leaders since they are civil servants who are meant to carry out government policies. I have never made any threats or asked them to quit if they support the Opposition,” – Mahdzir Khalid, for the Star.

He did not deny the fact that some teachers, including principals, hold posts in Opposition parties, and he believes that students’ parents would not want the school to turn into a place of political indoctrination. Mahdzir claimed that he had given the same directive to teachers who support the Barisan Nasional.

While ideally the civil service should be impartial regardless of the current political atmosphere, Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, a lawyer, had said that the law does allow teachers to choose their political allegiances and activities, so Mahdzir’s explanation still amounts to a form of intimidation. Azmi Sharom, a law professor for the UM, had said that although there are standing orders that prevent civil servants from being politically active, they could probably be challenged on constitutional grounds.

“Choosing political beliefs and affiliations was the right of every citizen, even civil servants. If you are not a member of Barisan Nasional, why is it wrong to join and be active in an opposition party? A civil servant is bound to do his or her duty. Political loyalty is not part of that.” – Azmi Sharom, UM law professor, for the Malaysian Insight.

So, to sum up, if you’re a civil servant you can vote for any party you want, and no one should scare you into voting a certain party. As for being politically active, as long as your duty is not neglected and you don’t mix politics into it, you’ll probably be fine. You may get punished if you hold a high rank, but you can probably challenge the order that prevents you to be politically active. As Maria Chin, the Chairman of Bersih had said,

“Civil servants are not the living property of the ruling coalition. They are citizens of the country, and their rights are enshrined in the federal constitution,” – Maria Chin Abdullah, for the Malaysian Insight.