By Sharan Raj
SINCE the formation of the Malaysia Federation in 1963, the federal Cabinet had grown from 29 members (Tunku Abdul Rahman’s third Cabinet – 1964) before peaking to 93 members (Tun Abdullah Badawi’s second Cabinet – 2004).
The position of Parliament Secretary has never been filled since Abdullah’s 3rd Cabinet – 2008. Constitutionally, the prime minister is given the privilege to determine the number of ministries and its office bearers.
The current Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s Cabinet is made up of 70 members, comprising of 32 federal ministers and 38 deputy federal ministers, excluding the prime minister’s position.
The Muhyiddin Cabinet is made up of 62 elected MPs and eight appointed Senators. Excluding the position of prime minister, 27% of the elected MPs are members of Muhyiddin’s Cabinet. This comprises 55% of the 112 MPs that provide confidence and supply to him.
According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), there are 32.75 million people living in Malaysia as of the first quarter of this year. The ratio of ministries to population is 1: 1,056,000 and the ratio of Cabinet members to population is 1:467,857.
The truth is, the number of ministries should be declining to reflect the increased efficiency of public administration.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad undertook a large-scale privatisation policy during his first tenure as prime minister, which shifted the Federal Government’s role from a public service provider into a public service regulator. Dr Mahathir’s argument that privatisation leads to a smaller and more efficient Government did not materialise at the Cabinet level.
Instead, Dr Mahathir’s Cabinet grew by 33% between 1981 to 2003.
The Muhyiddin Cabinet introduced the position of Senior Minister for Infrastructure Development. Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof from Sarawak holds the post. The Senior Minister for Infrastructure Development coordinates the fragmented federal infrastructure sector under the purview of six different ministries.
The federal infrastructure sector is unevenly divided under the purview of:
- Environment and Water Ministry (KASA)
- Housing and Local Government Ministry (KPKT)
- Energy and Natural Resources Ministry (KeTSA)
- Communications and Multimedia Ministry (KKMM)
- Transport Ministry (MOT)
- Works Ministry (KKR)
The Federal Government did not focus on building the administrative capacity of the state and local governments, which would involve devolving of federal powers. Instead, Putrajaya had consolidated greater power from the state governments. The bloated federal Cabinet led to fragmentation of public administration, which led to higher non-renumeration costs, wider bureaucracy, redundancies and inefficient central planning.
Malaysia could not effectively solve critical issues such as climate crisis, welfare reach and disaster response under the fragmentation of the federal infrastructure sector.
Implications on the performance of non-infrastructure related ministries
Several agencies that should be in other ministries are attached to these six infrastructure-related ministries. For example, the Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) under KPKT should have been merged with the Malaysia Civil Defence Force (APM) and placed under the Home Ministry (KDN).
The merger of APM and JBPM would improve cohesiveness and response capability towards disasters, saving precious lives.
The jurisdiction to regulate community finances under KPKT such as moneylending and pawnshops should be merged into Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). BNM possess better capacity, regulatory and enforcement to deal with community financing. BNM is already regulating other community financing such as P2P lending, microcredit schemes and foreign currency kiosks.
The Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) should take over broadcasting and media development-related agencies such as RTM, Bernama and National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS). KPWKM should also take over the management of residents’ associations (RA) and joint managed bodies (JMB). KPWKM is the prime mover of targetted community projects which requires access to media, RA and JMB to propagate Government’s social agenda.
The Department of Social Welfare under KPWKM could improve its community reach through the network of RAs and JMBs.
Inter-Ministerial conflict of interests
KPKT currently is pushing for incinerators under the veil of Waste to Energy (WTE) to deal with rising municipal waste. According to the National Solid Waste Management Department, organic wet waste such as food and garden waste makes up more than 50% of total solid waste composition. Thus, incinerators are the least viable method to attain energy from the waste.
The best method to deal with organic wet waste is to produce bio-methane under controlled anaerobic digestion. The bio-methane could be fed into gas power plants to displace the amount of fossil-methane (natural gas) used to generate electricity.
This reduces carbon emissions from both landfills and fossil fuels. Currently, landfill operators can only sell the electricity generated from bio-methane but not the bio-methane itself as fuel for electricity. The cost of anaerobic digesters could be recouped by selling bio-methane to the nearest gas power plants.
The cost of acquiring an electricity generator to convert bio-methane into electricity is uneconomical for the landfill operators. The regulatory power to execute such solutions is divided disproportionally between KeTSA and KPKT. Instead of pushing for bio-methane injection into gas power plants, KPKT is pushing hard for incinerators under WTE.
Utilising the Industrialised Building System (IBS) will reduce cost, time, and reliance on foreign labour to build public infrastructure such as Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and affordable homes. Hence, there is a strong motivation within several ministries such as KPKT and MOT to make IBS mandatory. However, construction standards are regulated by KKR, through the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). Fragmentation prevented KKR from feeling the motivation to impose new regulations onto the construction capitalists.
The fragmentation of infrastructure-related ministries led to exploitation of energy resources to power the national economy. KeTSA and KASA are pushing for environmentally friendly buildings to reduce consumption of electricity and water respectively.
The regulatory powers to impose construction standards for environmentally friendly buildings are under the KKR. Fragmentation prevented KKR from feeling the need to enforce environmentally friendly buildings standards, and instead made it as voluntary measures to appease the construction capitalists.
The fragmentation of infrastructure ministries led to failure to impose efficiency standards on electricity and water for industrial and household equipment leading to overconsumption. The electrical appliances efficiency benchmark rating is issued by Suruhanjaya Tenaga (ST), under KETSA.
Meanwhile, water appliances efficiency benchmark rating is issued by Suruhanjaya Pengurusan Air Negara (SPAN), under KASA. The fragmentation between KeTSA and KASA for electricity and water prevented the creation of singular efficiency standards for electrical-water appliances such as dishwasher, washing machines and water heaters.
Fragmentated standards spiked compliance cost, which increases resistance from manufacturers for adoption of efficiency standards. The rate of wear and tear of the existing electricity and water infrastructure increases in tandem with overconsumption for electricity and water.
The overconsumption and exploitation of resources demands unnecessary public investment for newer energy power plants, upgrading the electricity grid, new water treatment plants etc.
This deprives public resources and tax money from other critical sectors such as public transport, rural electrifications and rural roadworks. The failure to enforce efficiency standards for buildings and equipment had hampered the demand needed to stimulate green technology industries and create green jobs to stem unemployment and underemployment.
The fragmentation of federal infrastructure leads to poor urban planning leading to excess reliance on private mobility. Urban planning, roadworks and public transportation are three important sub-components of public infrastructure on any town planning to sustain growing populations.
However, the jurisdiction of urban planning, roadworks and public transportation are fragmented under KPKT, KKR and MOT respectively. The tolled highways developed by KKR had made some cities and urban spaces inaccessible by pedestrians and public transport operators.
MOT works through the Road Safety Department of Malaysia (JKJR) but MOT also carries the responsibility to reduce road accidents. Potholes and poor road maintenance have led to multiple road accidents in Malaysia but the jurisdiction of road quality is under KKR.
Blending used plastics and/or used tyres into road construction improves road durability but it is a bit costly. This contradicts with KKR’s focus to increase the kilometre of road surfaced per ringgit.
The way forward
The operational mechanism of the Federal Government needs to be revisited to ensure top-notch efficiency and eradicate unproductive bureaucracy. Putrajaya should have established an Infrastructure Ministry to consolidate all infrastructure affairs decades ago. This would have sped up policy execution timeframes, reduced costs, optimised assets lifespans and even saved lives.
The consolidated Infrastructure Ministry would increase coordination for transport, energy, water supply, sanitations, waste management and the infrastructure corridor.
The positive impact of establishing such a ministry will be felt in other ministries as it allows for relocation of certain agencies and departments hoarded by the six redundant infrastructure-related ministries. The prime minister’s main priority is to optimise public services and goods from the public resources and taxes.
The fundamental question remains unanswered, which is does the federal political establishment have the political will to reduce the Cabinet by five ministries? – June 13, 2021.
Sharan Raj is a human rights activist, environmentalist and infrastructure policy analyst. He is an engineer by training.
The views expressed here of solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
