This is going to be an unusually long entry. The preamble itself is going to take over an hour of typing, before I get to the actual story. So, here’s the preamble…
Yesterday I dropped by at my old office. No particular reason, just that at times I'd just come over to see if I have any new mail or anything else that might be important. Nothing for me yesterday, so I went around to all my previous divisions where I'd been attached for the past six years or so.
As usual, I'd make my ritualistic stop at the HR Division, since that was where I served longest and that was also where I learnt stuff the most. After making sure that all my service matters were in order, I hung around with my colleagues. One of them had an interesting story to relate to me. He narrated what happened to him and another co-worker and asked for my opinion on stuff. As we were sitting outside the office talking about his issue, another person came by from the neighbouring division. He asked me whether I've heard the so-called "shocking" news of how one of my friends got a "shocking" promotion. But to fully deliver the impact of the so-called "shocking" promotion, I gotta give you some background info about the Government promotions system.
[Start Background Info]
A freshly-appointed officer to the Government usually starts with his/her scheme abbreviation followed by his/her grade. For example, a Systems Analyst brought into service at an officer level would be an F41, the F being the abbreviation for his/her scheme of service (Information Technology) and the 41 being the entrance grade for his/her position. Under the Skim Saraan Malaysia (SSM) or the Malaysian Remuneration Scheme, anybody hoping for a promotion in grade would have to successfully make the grade in Penilaian Tahap Kecekapan (PTK) or Competency Level Assessment. Now, the PTK is different for different schemes, but basically it is an exam-only or “exam-plus-coursework” kind of assessment. In theory, an officer who makes the grade in PTK, consistently achieve high marks in his/her yearly performance appraisal and, for-lack-of-a-better-word, is “acknowledged” by the organization (s)he works in, is eligible for promotion. Barring small differences for different schemes, an entry-level officer starts at grade 41, followed by grades 44, 48, 52 and 54.
In terms of promotions too, there are a few categories of promotion. The first one is called Khas Untuk Penyandang (KUP). There are two instances of KUPs, either paid (in very rare instances) or unpaid “promotion”. Usually, it’s the latter. In this instance, the officer is supposedly “promoted” but in actual fact, (s)he is just doing the work of a higher post without being paid anything extra. Not a single sen. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. The only thing you get is usually extra stress, less hair, extra wrinkles, less quality time with your family, extra reprimanding from your superiors…. you get my drift. Although to me this is a direct violation of existing Labour Laws or even simple common sense, it happens. Believe me, it happens a lot. It even happened to me at one time, but that’s a different story.
Okay, the next category of promotion is Memangku or sometimes called Pemangkuan. Same root word, same meaning. Here, the officer is gets extra stress, less hair, extra wrinkles, less quality time with your family, extra reprimanding from your superiors…. but gets paid extra for it all. Not to say that his/her actual salary is bigger, but (s)he gets the difference between the grade salaries as an extra allowance. Let’s say his/her F41 salary is $2000 and the salary of an F44 officer is $2800. In this case, the officer who gets the Pemangkuan is actually getting $2000 of his/her own salary, plus the difference as allowance ($800) to a grand total of $2800. So it seems like it’s a good deal, but it’s only good for short stints. Why, you might ask. Well, let’s keep the same scenario. Officer F41 is drawing a salary of $2000 in 2007. (S)he gets Pemangkuan in 2007, so for the rest of 2007, (s)he gets a monthly total of $2800, inclusive of the $800 Pemangkuan allowance. However, in 2008 (s)he gets a measly annual salary increment of $85. So his/her basic salary is now $2085. However, (s)he does NOT still get Pemangkuan allowance of $800. Remember, (s)he only gets the difference between the grade salaries. So in this case, (s)he is getting $2085 of basic salary, but her Pemangkuan allowance is now only $715 instead of the original $800. That, my friend, is why Pemangkuan for long periods of time is not such a great idea.
Finally, the last category of promotion is an actual, full-fledged promotion. Here, you get extra stress, less hair, extra wrinkles, less quality time with your family, extra reprimanding from your superiors…. plus getting the actual salary of the higher post/grade. But at least, you get actual annual increments based on your grade level. So basically, this is what a vast majority of us are looking for. However, in normal circumstances, you don’t come up to this kind of promotion just because you’ve already made the grade in PTK, consistently achieve high marks in your annual performance appraisal and acknowledged by your organization. Even after you’ve achieved these three criteria, what you can hope for is to get KUP first, followed by Memangku of at least six months, and finally, Insya-Allah, you get the actual promotion. [End Background Info] I warned you it’s gonna be a long entry ;)
Okay, finally we get to the actual story that I want to relate. If I’ve lost you by now, flashback to “shocking” news about “shocking” promotion over a hundred lines above. Anyway, the news is one of my friends got a promotion. Nothing shocking there, but here’s the deal. Her actual grade is 44. Right now, she’s Memangku 48. That means she’s getting the difference between her 44 salary and the 48 salary. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But at the same time, she is also KUP 52. That means, although her real grade is 44, she’s bypassed one grade above i.e. 48, to go straight to 52. This is strange, because this kind of scenarios is not usual. What is even more unusual is that there are already quite a few people more senior than her, who are actually due to be promoted to 52, who got bypassed. Naturally, this would piss some people off. Because if either one of these more senior people were put at that post, (s)he would not get KUP but actually get Memangku and got paid for it since they are already due for promotion. So this guy who came to me was one of the people who were due for promotion, and he was not happy with the whole fiasco. He kept blaming the poor girl who actually got the KUP for bypassing him and many others. You see, this guy is a Type A personality. The go-getter type, the always-on-the-move-trying-to-get-higher-posts-and-higher-pay kind of person. And he was ranting and fuming to me, relating this story of how unfair the whole thing is.
Eventually, I got angry at the whole thing and started my retort to him. First, I asked him why he was so angry at her. He said that she’s still a junior and she shouldn’t bypass that many people. So I knocked some sense into him. I said, if I were offered that position, even if I were paid handsomely for it, I’d hightail out of there as soon as I can. The post in question is the “hottest” post around. The person in charge of that particular post is basically in charge of over 70% of the Ministry’s annual budget! It’s the make-or-break kind of post, the so-called biggest reason of the Ministry being there in the first place. Forgive me, but I’m not up to it. I don’t want to haul my ass up to the Minister’s office at his every whim and fancy. I don’t want to have to explain why progress is slow for certain projects. I don’t want to be compelled to have my mobile switched on 24 hours a day and answer questions about projects in the middle of the night or during weekends or when I’m taking a crap. That’s not for me, thank you very much please. So I asked him, is that what he really wants for an increase of income of about $1k? Is that really worth all the shit that you have to deal with?
He mellowed down a bit, but it wasn’t over yet for him. He changed tactics. He now attacked the HR Division for proposing her name to the top management. Again, I had to make him understand how things are run there. First, I gave a disclaimer. I said, what I’m about to say has got nothing to do with the fact that I was in the HR division before. I said, as far as I can remember, the HR Division has always been objective in proposing people for promotions. The way they work is to take into account all factors: qualification, adherence to current laws and practices, competency, seniority and so on. But at the same time, the final say has always been with the top management, not the HR manager. Because in the end, the name submitted to JPA would carry one person’s signature and one person only, and that would be the Pegawai Pengawal of the Ministry, the Secretary-General. Not the HR Manager, not the HR officers. So, I said, who actually is to be blamed here? Is it the officer who got the so-called promotion? Is it the HR Division? Is it the Secretary-General? Or is there any one party that deserves blame in the first place? Is blaming other people the last resort? That question shut him up for a while. But he mumbled something about the whole thing not being fair. Again, I had to retort. Of course injustice will occur when it comes to human dealings. As long as the power to decide resides in one person, there would always be casualties. As long as decisions are made not through musyawarah or an actual, functional council of minds, injustice will prevail.
It's 16:54 and I'm tired. I've been at this since 14:00 and I need a break.
to be continued
