A call to civil servants: Chronicle your journeys

MALAYSIA’S civil service has long been the nation’s backbone, quietly carrying out policies, steering reforms, and holding firm during crises. Yet too many of its stories remain untold.

For decades, the Administrative and Diplomatic Service has been the intellectual engine of governance, producing leaders who navigated reforms and made decisions that shaped the country’s trajectory. A few, like Tan Sri Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, Tan Sri Samsudin Osman, and Tan Sri Ali Hamsa, documented their journeys in books.

These works are more than memoirs; they are case studies in public administration, rich in lessons on policy execution, crisis management, and balancing politics with professionalism.

But such contributions remain rare. Valuable insights risk fading away with retirement, never to be captured in writing. This is a call to all current and former civil servants: record your experiences. Chronicle the dilemmas when policy clashed with politics, the quiet moments of courage, and the human stories hidden behind bureaucracy.

These lived experiences are national assets – a compass for future officers, a mirror reflecting successes and failures, and a map to navigate the future.

If Malaysia is serious about preserving its institutional memory, the Chief Secretary must lead by incentivising documentation: establish a public service literary award, provide writing fellowships, and integrate manuscript preparation into leadership development.

Intan (Institut Tadbiran Awam Negara/National Institute of Public Administration), as custodian of wisdom, must also act. It could, for example, launch a public service legacy collection, inviting contributions and integrating these works into training.

If we succeed, we create a library of lived wisdom – a written legacy that inspires, educates, and guides. Civil servants shape the destiny of the nation in quiet, unseen ways.

By penning their journeys, they can continue shaping Malaysia long after their tenure ends.

DR POLA SINGH

Kuala Lumpur

The writer is a former administrative and diplomatic officer in the Economic Planning Unit, and a former director-general of the Maritime Institute of Malaysia (2009-2011).