THE RACE TO FAILURE MOUNTAIN

There is this governor, a former civil servant, who believes so much in the civil servants that he placed an embargo on using external expertise in any area he believes civil servants can perform, which is practically everything.

Now that it is obvious that civil servants, who are traditionally implementors cannot function as formulators, an act that has rubbished the governor's claim of administrative expertise, leading to one misstep after another.

I hope he would realize that his predecessor, who ensured a seamless synergy between civil service and external content providers to achieve a relative if not fantastic achievements, as well as his godfather, who brought in experts during his own tenure, most have known a thing or two to do so.

All over the world, political leaders create a parallel ideas and policy initiatives not because they don't believe in civil servants, but that a man brought up in the system cannot see the problem of the system, and that a fresh perspective never hurt anyone.

I know that the former governor overdid it which led to legitimate complaints from the civil servants, but it is a balance that must be struck, not a wholesale jettisoning of the template.

Because anytime he speaks, or announces a policy, the first question that normally comes to mind is, who the hell are this fellow's advisers? Don't they do the SWOT analysis on these ideas before it is announced? Do they place such ideas on the probability scale? Do they not have a backup plan? No Beta test?Is there and historical referal to see wether the idea was tried before and the outcome? Do they hold strategic sessions based on verifiable data?

So the man approves an announcement of policy, and two minutes later there would be an adjustment, and then a clarification, and then an appraisal, followed by a reversal, all done within a week. So something they should do first in private is now done later in public! It would have been so hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic.

Meanwhile, he is not alone in that mindset. Even the President believes civil servants do all the work and ministers are noise makers. And that is why today, six months after taking office, the country is adrift, surviving on instinct and being driven by body language.

Nobody has all the answers.But a leader with such public servants are always right mindset would end up spending more time reacting, and less time performing.

A word is enough.