10
INTERVIEWS VIEWS
Treading lightly
in high office
FOR YEARS HE WAS KNOWN AS A MAVERICK
PROFESSOR. AS AN INTERNATIONAL MEDIATOR,
HE HELPED TO BROKER A PEACE DEAL IN ACEH.
ON MARCH 8, LAST YEAR, PROF DR P. RAMASAMY
WON STATE AND PARLIAMENTARY SEATS IN
PENANG, AND WAS APPOINTED A DEPUTY CHIEF
MINISTER. HIMANSHU BHATT TALKS
TO RAMASAMY ON THE CHALLENGES HE FACES.
AFTER serving more than 25 years as
a university professor, how does it feel
being an administrator in government?
As an academic I had the kind of freedom
which I really envy right now. At times, I wish
I could operate in that context again. When I
contested the elections and won, I was thrust
into the mainstream of political governance.
So I suppose I had to take on a responsibility
that I never had before.
It’s not that we academicians are not
responsible. But this was a responsibility that
you have to deal with, in terms of not only
managing the state with your colleagues,
but also in terms of implementing policy
decisions.
We had to find our bearings and anchor
ourselves before we started seriously translat-
ing those things we had made pronounce-
ments about in the past. Against corruption,
for example. We needed to be more account-
able, we needed to be more responsive to the
concerns of the ordinary people.
When I was an academic, and when I
joined DAP in 2005, we could lash out at the
regime. Now suddenly here you have been
given the responsibility, given a mandate.
Now how are you going to translate all these
into practice?
And to me that is the most formidable
question. It’s also not so much about putting
this into practice, but about how you really
dismantle a system. You are dealing with a
system that has been there for over 50 years.
A system that has been put in place for vari-
ous interests.
At least you have to provide an opening.
If not, it would be difficult to address some
serious concerns like corruption, lack of ac-
countability, lack of efficiency, and address
various concerns of the ordinary people.
Is the civil service part of this opening
up?
We have been given this political mandate and
people are expecting to see change, especially
in the civil service. I touched on this in the
state assembly; that the civil service employ-
ment is skewed in favour of one group. We are
not against that group but we are concerned
about the policies that brought about that
situation, especially the dominance of Umno.
We are not blaming the Malays, Chinese or
Indians. That’s not my concern. My concern
is to reverse some of the hegemonic policies
that were put in place and actually gave rise
to a lopsided aspect of employment, especially
in the public sector.
How do you think the civil service has
reacted?
So far, I don’t think the civil service has re-
acted. I think that nationally there is a concern
that obviously there is something seriously
wrong with the civil service. We have a civil
service with 1.3 million people. And today the
Malaysian civil service is very much a bloated
civil service. When we had a (civil service)
population of about 800,000 – we thought the
civil service was big enough. Now it’s gone to
theSun | THURSDAY FEBRUARY 12 2009
1.3 million. And with 1.3 million, if you look at
the statistics, it seems to be skewed in favour
of one group.
This has also been raised by others. The
earlier Penang government never took up this
issue. And I don’t need to explore why they
did not take it up, but obviously they were not
in a position to criticise or even to request for
change. So I think now we are saying: “Look
here, we are not beholden to anybody.”
I did a lot of interviews much earlier
and my colleagues themselves told me how
departmental heads dealt with application
forms. And the applicants were never even
called for interview.
What inspired you to go into politics and
join DAP?
I was always a political person. I was a pro-
fessor of political science. I didn’t join any
political party, I was involved in NGOs. When
I came back from Canada after graduating in
1981, we organised ourselves to form Insan
(Institute of Social Analysis). We were all these
idealists coming back from overseas, having
gone through all kinds of radical literature.
We read about Che Guevara, we read about
Ho Chi Minh, we read about Marx, we read
about Mao, the Vietnam War. And we were
engaged in polemics inside and outside the
university on various issues, such as those on
developing countries. So when I came back to
do my fieldwork in 1981, I got a job and de-
cided I would not do my PhD at McGill. I then
completed my PhD at Universiti Malaya in
1990. Throughout my university years, I had
one foot in the outside world. While I was a
lecturer, I was organising plantation workers,
I was organising strikes. We were concerned
with the upliftment of workers and peasants.
There was an ideological basis for that. While
I was at UKM, I was spending most of my time
outside, basically championing the cause of
the working class. We had a purist approach
to things. It was basically a non-ethnic ap-
proach to the question of politics and political
empowerment.
Was there any experience that you par-
ticularly remember from this period?
I exposed the Selanchar labour camp, where
the workers were treated like near slaves in
1983. It was big national news. It was in a
Felda scheme in Pahang. We had many press
conferences against the use of child labour,
against plantation workers, housing for the
poor, and also for urban workers.
Academia is one thing, but at the same time
you have to be on the ground. Workers would
come and see me in UKM. Most of the time
you could see estate workers and kampung
people coming to see me. They even told their
employers: “If you are not going to resolve
it, we are going to see the bearded man.”
Because I had a big black beard (laughs).
These were the times in Insan until 1987
when we had Operasi Lallang, and some of
our members were taken under ISA. And
Insan’s activities basically came to an end.
Some joined the Socialist Party. I felt I should