The leadership challenge in the civil service

IF he was surprised by his appointment as the Chief Secre-tary to the Government (KSN), many civil servants in Putrajaya were even more surprised!

Just days after he was confirmed in the coveted No.1 civil service post, Datuk Seri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar admitted to the media he was quite surprised by the appointment, considering there were several other equally qualified candidates.

One year ago, this columnist wrote about the search for a new chief secretary since Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali, who was serving the first year of a two-year contract, was considering retiring earlier (“The search is on”, Sunday Star, July 23; online at bit.ly/star_civilsearch).

Intense lobbying by several senior government servants was on then, and also in the fray was a state secretary who was said to be the preferred candidate of a Sultan. Mohd Zuki eventually completed his contract this month, and retired as expected.

What was unexpected was Shamsul Azri’s elevation as there were earlier indications that the job would go to a more senior civil servant.

“He is the dark horse. He was not on the list,” said a government official.

In a video circulated on the social media, Shamsul Azri addressed the congregation in a mosque at his kampung in Pekan, saying he had not expected to be appointed, and up to two weeks before his appointment, his name was still not on the shortlist for chief secretary.

“This is Allah’s will. I never lobbied,” Shamsul Azri said in the video.

“The KSN post is a big one. I aspired to become secretary-general, that is already a big position, and from my discussions with the higher ups in the government I thought I may be a ketua setiausaha, but ‘negara’ was not mentioned,” he said.

Prior to his lofty appointment, Shamsul Azri was the director- general of the Public-Private Partnership Unit (Ukas) in the Prime Minister’s Department.

He joined the civil service in 1994, and from 1996 he served in the Selangor state government in different capacities, starting with assistant district officer in Gombak district, then Klang and Sepang.

He was promoted to local housing section deputy director in the Selangor State Govern-ment State Economic Planning Unit in 2005, and from August 2006 served as the Selangor state assembly secretary until early January 2008. He was later made the state deputy finance officer until June 2012. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was the state economic advisor from 2009 to 2014.

Shamsul Azri later returned to Putrajaya where he joined the Finance Ministry, serving in various sections including pensions and government investment companies before being promoted to Ukas director-general in October 2022.

The man himself says in that video that he was 26th among the Administrative and Diplomatic (PTD) officers, often referred to as the crème-de-la-creme of the civil service; in other words, he was a relative junior in terms of ranking. Above him were seniors in top positions; ie, secretaries-general of the various ministries, most of whom are in his batch in the PTD.

So being elevated to the chief secretary seat is a massive jump for someone who had never served as a secretary-general.

In fact, one of his predecessors, Tan Sri Ali Hamsa, was appointed as chief secretary in 2012, when he was with Ukas as its director-general, and for a long time he served at the Economic Planning Unit and did a stint with the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry.

Maybe because of his perceived “lower ranking”, Shamsul Azri has felt it is necessary to justify his elevation, judging from the recent video as well as remarks to the media.

I think the less said is better, however, because more words coming from him will only leave room for speculation.

Whether he likes it or not, that Putrajaya seat is hot and under the watchful eyes of all politicians and 1.6 million civil servants.

His predecessor, Mohd Zuki, stayed above the political fray, and credit should be given to him for keeping the civil service intact through the change of four prime ministers and governments from 2020 to 2022. Never before had a chief secretary been summoned by Istana Negara so many times in a short period to support the transparency process of interviews by His Majesty the King of the heads of political parties and the members of Parliament; Mohd Zuki was required to be present as one of the witnesses, along with the Speaker and Attorney General.

Mohd Zuki kept an elegant silence throughout the process. He was the bridge between the civil service and the government of the day. And that is expected of the new chief secretary.

Shamsul Azri’s immediate task is to show firm leadership of the civil service.

The tide has turned. His “seniors” in the ministries will now have to treat him as the boss.

“His leadership is important, and please don’t go out there to just please the politicians. You are in the civil service top position. You must look out for us,” said another senior civil servant.

When the Pakatan Harapan government took over in 2018, there was a lot of mistrust between the new government and the civil service, which was seen as pandering to the previously ruling Barisan Nasional.

However, relations have improved tremendously over the years since.

“Look, Rome was not built in one day,” a government official said. “Yes, it’s true that the politicians wanted everything to be quick. When they were in the Opposition, they kept on criticising the government of the day about certain things being too slow.

“When they were in the government themselves, they began to understand there are procedures, checks and balances in doing things.”

It is a good start so far for the new chief secretary. The Prime Minister on Friday set the right mood for the civil service with the biggest jump in civil servant salaries and the introduction of the new Public Service Remuneration System. On his part, Shamsul Azri must see that reforms are implemented instead of allowing the service to be stuck with old habits and business as usual.

This is the golden opportunity for him to show his ability to create a team to execute and implement policies effectively. He needs to prove that he is the right man for the job, and that he will leave behind a legacy that the civil service can be proud of.

As a mid-level officer said: “The choice has been made. We have to move on and show support, otherwise how do we expect him to do well?

“This is not the time to be emotional. Time is gold.”