On civic duty and saving face

There are a few tales relating to civic duty that seem to have penetrated the silver screen as well as word of mouth. One such tale captured in movies is that of Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York. In one scene of the HBO production, two women not speaking to each other due to bad habits at a coffee machine were slowing down the entire bureaucracy; thus costing it millions.

Closer to home, we had Indonesia president Joko Widodo during his tenure as mayor of Jakarta throwing a fit because the people who knew the password to the computer approval system in their city hall went out to lunch at the same time, thus slowing down the process.

These issues may seem trivial to us and to the point of ridicule. Yet it happens not only in the public, but also the private, sector as highlighted by Scott Adams, the popular writer of the Dilbert comic strip in his iconic book, “The Dilbert Principle”.

That said, one can only wonder why the civil service, particularly the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and its mayor, is criticising someone for just doing their civic duty for the safety of road users? When even the Road Transport Department (RTD) is setting a KPI for reducing the number of deaths as its main goal, you have to wonder where the KL mayor is coming from.

If it is purely to save face, then I opine he is wasting his time criticising people who see it their civic duty to just patch up a road for RM2,500 out of his own pocket.

Instead of taking the matter gracefully, like Minister of Women, Family and Welfare Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim in admitting micro-water-supply projects costing less than RM10,000 were the way to go for Sabah, Datuk Seri Ahmad Phesal Talib instead said the Good Samaritans needed to refer to City Hall first.

Not so much of a smidgeon of a “Thank You” or even a promise to do better and act faster, mind you.

There is a need to harp on meaningful things to make sure the government does its part, and honestly, these individuals carried through without a care because DBKL was taking too long to work. Those individuals do not deserve a telling off, they deserve a medal for doing what they did.

The civil service from parliamentarians all the way down to local councils need to hunker down and think hard over the concept of actually doing their civic duty, be it the resurfacing of roads to the passing of laws to stop single parents from converting their kids out of selfish gains.

The family laws in Malaysia have amendments to be passed in Parliament pending since 2009, as highlighted by the attorney-general. Yet, not a single parliamentarian has asked why this is taking so long to be tabled to legally stop this issue from resurfacing. Perhaps, both sides want this issue to continue to affect Malaysians? Who knows.

There are multiple points of civic duty any Malaysian can fulfil, from just helping throw trash in a rubbish bin to perhaps writing a letter thanking those for their good work and efficient service. The latter, of course, would also be a good public relations booster for many in the civil department.

It is also a civic duty to indirectly educate the public: Dapur Jalanan showed us just how many homeless are living in Kuala Lumpur and dependent on their service. Or directly through the “I Want to Touch a Dog” programme while having someone explain just what needed to be done afterwards to counter stigma.

From a company’s perspective, it is perhaps the offering of a better taxi service than the current cabbies in the Greater Klang Valley which is suffering from an image issue.

And, yes, there will be those who try and save face and discredit something honestly done out of the need to do a civic duty. But for every naysayer, you will have thousands upon thousands, or hundreds, or even the few, who think otherwise.

But in the end, the idea of a civic duty is simply to put your own heart at ease with the notion of doing something for the sake of doing it. In Malay, it is the concept of “ikhlas”, and it is truly a sad day in Malaysia when a sense of duty which is ikhlas is attacked just to save face. – December 16, 2014.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.