Boss Keluar Minum

"Boss Keluar Minum" is a very popular phrase in many government departments. It could be an excuse for unfinished job or it could be true that the boss or officer in charge has gone out for morning or afternoon tea. However the tea time seems to take forever.

It has become a habbit for some government servants to be late in the office because they were loitering (lepak) in the in-house canteen or the coffee shops nearby. Nothing serious discussed in the coffee shops other than gossiping. They even shamelessly display their name tags as if these tags give them the right to waste time.

Although punch card system has long been implemented in government offices, but there were no monitoring system to check if employees really punch in and out on the correct time. There were no enforcement to take action against those who are found coming late or leaving the office early.

There are at least four times a day, government servants could waste the tax payers' time. Once in the morning where these people sit through their breakfast time to almost time for morning tea. They lazyly drag their over sized body to their place of work, flipping through the news papers, slowly arranging their desk, making jokes with their colleagues, switch on their computers, walk to the rest room to fix themselve a cup of coffee, sit down and finally look up at the long que ...... All these happen in the full view of the waiting public.

By the time works started to get smoother it is already time for morning tea. So gracefully they put on the 'next counter please' or the rude 'kaunter tutup' sign and leave for their tea in group. They don't even bother to clear the que first as if it is a taboo to do so. Time to leave is always very punctual, but never the other way round.

Tea time continues to lunch break moving on to afternoon tea. Some would leave for prayers. Out of eight hour's work a day, not less than three hours are wasted. Take a look at JKR, Education Deparments, and more.

These are the breeding grounds for bribery and corruption. If you want fast and good service, you pay. You will know when to pay when they tell you "Boss Keluar Minum" or "Saya belum minum". But they have forgotton that they have been well paid by the government (from the tax payers) coupled with allowances, insentives and bonuses. They get increment every year without fail. Yet they still play tricks to get paid more!

Who to blame? The boss. First, the bosses are ususally late for work to see what's happening in the departments. They thought to be late is a sign of authority. That's why the VIPs are always late.

Second, the bosses always leave early, as early as 3 in the afternoon for golf. Visit any golf course in Sabah, you will surely find many government department heads golfing around during office hours.

Third, the bosses are hardly in the office. They have to attend seminars, meetings, briefings, discussions and whatever terms you could think of. How true are they, no one knows except the bosses themselves.

Fourthly, the bosses, who got promoted to such positions through cronism and favouritism, do not really know what is happening around them. They dare not offend his staff.

Next, the bosses themselves were breeded from the same culture. So he or she have to keep the tradition.

And these are the bosses, the heads, the so call think-tank, who have time and again formulated a lot of the ad-hoc and ridiculous rules and regulations which further burden and depress the people.

Are we going to allow the "Boss Keluar Minum" culture to stay or "Mari Kita Minum Sama-sama"?