Bribery Perception

16 February 2017 - I had a new insight today. I had a chit chat with one of my subordinates today. It's how people from a faith other than of mine perceive the act of "give and take" involving money and services rendered a.k.a. willing taker and willing giver of a bribery act. The staff said, it is not wrong to accept money if the giver willingly offer to pay money for a speedier service by a government staff. 

I'm trying not to make a connection of  this perception to any religion because I have a strong belief that all religions reject bribery. When I disputed that staff about this teaching belief, the staff further said their upbringing accepted this practice and it is not abnormal paying a staff/officer, either to the government servant or private company employee to get their application processed faster.

I just couldn't believe myself that such belief actually exists. We debated about this perception and presented examples to support our arguments. Lastly, my staff said to me "Sir, you won." and left my room and punched out the attendance card. 

My gut tells me, I won maybe because I am the boss.

President Obama Schools Silicon Valley CEOs

"Government will never run the way Silicon Valley runs because, by definition, democracy is messy,” Obama said. “This is a big, diverse country with a lot of interests and a lot of disparate points of view. And part of government’s job, by the way, is dealing with problems that nobody else wants to deal with."

“Sometimes I talk to CEOs, they come in and they start telling me about leadership, and here’s how we do things. And I say, well, if all I was doing was making a widget or producing an app, and I didn’t have to worry about whether poor people could afford the widget, or I didn’t have to worry about whether the app had some unintended consequences … then I think those suggestions are terrific." -- President Obama

Should Parliament Sits More Days In A Year?

The above title is a question in respond to a suggestion made by one of the MPs from an opposition party.

My answer is....

I DISAGREE!!! The current sitting days are long enough already. You may have reasons. But I also have excuses that seriously demand your attention. I know the more days the Parliament sits, the more questions you can ask to Ministers. 

But do you know that it also claims more time of productive working hours of the civil servants!!! The civil servant's true job is to carry out the government program for rakyat. Not to preoccupy themselves with too much time, I repeat "too much time" preparing answer to all questions from the MPs. Which, it is a great loss to the rakyat to enjoy benefits from the programs that have been planned for implementation but will be severely affected should their focus shifted to other unproductive jobs. In financial term, I call it an expensive opportunity cost for the rakyat.

Do you get it? Probably the MPs should maximise the opportunity to ask during the break. Over coffee session?

Author

-- saupee 

18 November 2015, Kuala Lumpur