1.

INTRODUCTION

The first systematic study of bureaucracy was made by eminent sociologist Max Weber. According to Weber, bureaucracy is a system of administration characterized by expertness, absence of humanity, neutrality and impartiality (2000:397)1. Gordon and Milakovich (1995:6), define public administration as a process, organization, and individual that are involve in the implementation of law and order from the legislative, executive and judiciary, also being involved in the process of legislation of law and order. Dimock et al. (1983:5), define public administration as an operation of manufacturing products and services to fulfill the needs of the public which is also in accordance with Woodrow Wilsons opinion. Dimock et al (1983:3) viewed public administration as the implementation of state affairs in order to achieve the goals of providing services to fulfill the needs of the public. Ahmad Atory (1983:1) quoted two classical definition of Dwight Waldo which described public administration as: (i) An organization that manages people to achieve state goals. (ii) An art of managerial science that can be associated with state affairs. Therefore, it is clarified that public administration is a body that implements state govern through the execution of policy and laws by the government in a certain state. In public service, any action taken is to have the consideration of the publics interest. Any issue that arises which causes conflict between personal interest and the interest of the state, the individual shall put the states interest above his own interest. Public servants must understand that it is their sole responsibility and duties to execute and deliver services to the public. Any disputes and complaints to the state policy must be channeled through a proper method without causing any conflicts that can lead to collision between the duty of a public servant and the state policy. In this era of multimedia technology, the mentality and way of thinking of the public servants of the latter are much different than the previous. It is seen as being influenced by the social media such as Facebook and Twitter which can lead to opposing the government in an open or closed manner. 2

1 2

Urmila Sharma et al. (2000). Principles and Theory of Political Science. Atlantic Publishers. Feb 2012. Dewan Masyarakat. Muhammad Nizam Ab. Ghani. Penjawat Awam Perlu Neutral (http://dwnmasyarakat.dbp.my/?p=2260.) 4 Feb 2012

2.0 2.1

DEFINITION OF CONCEPT Neutrality

According to Talisse, political Neutrality can be defined as, "State action and policy must be neutral among the various conceptions of the good which citizens may rightfully adopt." 3 2.2 Impartiality

The term impartiality is defined as: i) ii) iii) iv) Fair; neither partial nor prejudiced; Not favoring one person more than another; Free from undue bias or preconceived opinions; Independent and open-minded 4

Political Impartiality in public service can also be understood as the civil service which requires being loyal and with equal commitment to serve Governments of all political persuasions. In other terms, a public servant: i) Shall not publicly defend the decisions and views of the Ministers (as distinct from explaining them), including by writing to newspapers ii) Avoid giving any comments which could be quoted as demonstrating personal agreement or disagreement with Ministers decisions iii) Explain and implement your Ministers policies with real commitment, regardless of the individuals personal views.5 Rothstein and Teorell (2011) described impartiality in the context of quality of government as a procedural norm that does not affect the contents of specific policies. Graham Wilson (2008), explains that impartiality is also defined or specified by the injunction that When implementing laws and policies, government officials shall not take anything about the citizen/ case into consideration that is not before-hand stipulated in the policy or law.6
3

Robert B. Talisse, Democracy After Liberalism; Pragmatism and Deliberative Politics 16-20 (2005). (http://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1061&context=lawreview&sei-redir=1&referer=http %3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.my%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%2522political%2Bneutrality%2Bis %2Bdefine%2522%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D5%26ved%3D0CD0QFjAE%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F %252Fscholarship.law.stjohns.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1061%2526context %253Dlawreview%26ei%3DyOItT9GvOYWsrAfYuOG9DA%26usg %3DAFQjCNHs9AeCQEhe5JsfFNCZbq6IRgzPdQ#search=%22political%20neutrality%20define%22) 5 Feb 2012. 4 http://www.bfgnet.de/community/docs/support/pps/Impartiality%20policy.pdf (5 Feb 2012). 5 http://www.civilservant.org.uk/c21.pdf. (5 Feb 2012) 6 Graham Wilson. (2008) The Quality of Government. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2008.00393.x/abstract) (5 Feb 2012).

3.0 NEUTRALITY AND IMPARTIALITY: THEORY AND PRACTICE IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION OF MALAYSIA Muhammad Nizam Ab. Ghani (http://dwnmasyarakat.dbp.my/?p=2260) explains that it is human nature to have political preferences. However, public servants must have the right personal value and ethics in life. As what have been stated in the Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993, Article 4(1): Seseorang pegawai hendaklah pada setiap masa dan setiap ketika memberikan taat setia yang tidak berbelah bagi kepada Yang di-Pertuan Agong (YDP), negara dan kerajaan. The philosophy of loyalty to the Yang di Pertuan Agong eventually means the appointment of every public servant are regardless of their scheme or grading and are through the consent of his royal highness by the power of Public Service Council (SPA). Therefore, every public servant must put into priority the interest of the state above their own political ideology7. The impact of such occurrence and incidents of political intervention in public services leads to dualism that shows inconsistency in maintaining professionalism or personal preferences. Secondly, it occurs that neutrality amongst the public servants are began to decrease and shows level of preferences and partisanship to certain political parties. It can further lead to other major problems in the public service which includes cronyism and decreasing in the value of transparency and accountability of public servants. These is the significance and effects of public servants not being neutral or impartial towards the execution of State policies as the action taken on behalf of the public are often more in favor towards the interest of politicians. As seen through various reports in this newspaper on land grabs, the development of buffer zones and continuous operation of illegal outlets, be it gambling dens or funeral parlors, among others, many civil servants are at the behest of powerful politicians-.8 Another example can be seen in the case of September 2010, when political parties tried to intervene in the issue regarding headmaster and teachers giving racial comments with the students in teachings. This had led a few non-governmental organizations to voice out opinions demanding no political intervention in the teachersstudents affair. That it is a internal issues of the public administration and therefore the matter shall be solved in accordance to the Perintah Am and Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan Dan Tatatertib)9. 4.0
7

SUMMARY

Feb 2012. Dewan Masyarakat. Muhammad Nizam Ab. Ghani. Penjawat Awam Perlu Neutral (http://dwnmasyarakat.dbp.my/?p=2260.) 4 Feb 2012 8 http://www.pemudah.gov.my/web/guest/b19 9 Mohd Anwar Patho Rahman. 27 September 2010. Parti Politik Usah Masuk Campur Isu Dalaman Pentadbiran. (http://belia.org.my/v2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=323:parti-politik-usah-campur-isu-dalamanpentadbiran&catid=107:tempatan) 5 Feb 2012

When conflict occurs between interested parties where state political neutrality might conflict with moral autonomy. While some members of the society might err towards ensuring state political neutrality, others may favor moral autonomy. Civil servants sometimes find themselves in situations of having to implement dubious and technically incorrect decisions due to instructions from people higher up often translating to politicians. Incidence of civil servants being made to carry out unofficial or undocumented instructions by politicians is a worrying trend. The issue is whether civil servants are able to ignore such instruction without risking loss of their careers. But implementing such "politically-instructed" decisions also opens to accusations of acting without authority or committing fraud.10 Therefore, the need of being neutral is a big challenge among the public servant these days. The public servants shall be able to differentiate and think rationally for the interest of the state regardless of the political tension that is being put up by the political scenario or political powers above them. The role of the civil service is to implement the policies of the government and live up to its election promises. Even so, Malaysian government employees should ideally be politically impartial and work under the control of elected leaders. Following the desires of political masters is one of the many dilemmas of civil servants today. Civil servants are supposed to work on the principle of neutral competence and provide services directly to the public. This means they should be apolitical when implementing the policies of the government of the day, and their decisions made based on merit and technical criteria. But how independent are they in carrying out their tasks. So much so that adhering to the principle of neutral competence and acting on technical criteria can sometimes be a challenge, more so at the local level. 5.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Urmila Sharma et al. (2000). Principles and Theory of Political Science. Atlantic Publishers. Gordon and Milakovich (1995). Public Administration in America. Cengage Learning Inc, USA. Ahmad Atory Husain. (1983). Pengantar Paradigma Baru. Utusan Publications and Distributors Sdn Bhd, Malaysia. Rothstein & Teorell (2011). Quality of Government. University of Chicago Press, USA. Dimock et al (1983). Public Administration. Longman, USA.
10

(Ibid)

Feb 2012. Dewan Masyarakat. Muhammad Nizam Ab. Ghani. Penjawat Awam Perlu Neutral (http://dwnmasyarakat.dbp.my/?p=2260.) 4 Feb 2012 Robert B. Talisse, Democracy After Liberalism; Pragmatism and Deliberative Politics 1620 (2005). (http://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=1061&context=lawreview&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F %2Fwww.google.com.my%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%2522political %2Bneutrality%2Bis%2Bdefine%2522%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D5%26ved %3D0CD0QFjAE%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fscholarship.law.stjohns.edu %252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1061%2526context%253Dlawreview %26ei%3DyOItT9GvOYWsrAfYuOG9DA%26usg %3DAFQjCNHs9AeCQEhe5JsfFNCZbq6IRgzPdQ#search=%22political%20neutrality %20define%22) 5 Feb 2012. http://www.bfgnet.de/community/docs/support/pps/Impartiality%20policy.pdf (5 Feb 2012). http://www.civilservant.org.uk/c21.pdf. (5 Feb 2012) Graham Wilson. (2008) The Quality of Government. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2008.00393.x/abstract) 2012). (5 Feb

Mohd Anwar Patho Rahman. 27 September 2010. Parti Politik Usah Masuk Campur Isu Dalaman Pentadbiran. (http://belia.org.my/v2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=323:parti-politikusah-campur-isu-dalaman-pentadbiran&catid=107:tempatan) 5 Feb 2012 http://www.scribd.com/doc/16771025/ASAS-PENTADBIRAN-AWAM (4 Feb 2012) Feb 2012. Dewan Masyarakat. Muhammad Nizam Ab. Ghani. Penjawat Awam Perlu Neutral (http://dwnmasyarakat.dbp.my/?p=2260.) 4 Feb 2012 http://library.perdana.org.my/Digital_Content/PLF/000003/354.595AHM %5BPolitikDanDasarAwamMalaysia%5BAhmadAtoryHussain.pdf http://eprints.oum.edu.my/497/1/Pemantapan_profesionalisme_anggota_perkhidmatan_a wam.pdf Improving the Efficiency of the Public Sector: A Case Study of Malaysia (http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan000762.pdf) Pemudah. 4 Feb 2008. Civil Servants Must be Apolitical. (http://www.pemudah.gov.my/web/guest/b19) 5 Feb 2012.

David M. Levitan. Vol. 2. No. 4. The neutrality of the Public Services. (http://www.jstor.org/pss/972951) 5 Feb 2012. Ross Tanner. The political neutrality of the State Services: issues and principles. (http://ips.ac.nz/events/downloads/Political%20neutrality%20Ross%20Tanner.pdf) 5 Feb 2012 http://www.bfgnet.de/community/docs/support/pps/Impartiality%20policy.pdf