Public good must motivate transfers

The controversy over senior government officials being reassigned by politicians, particularly after a change of government, continues to generate heated public debate. Top bureaucrats who are replaced and usually transferred to inactive posts tend to portray themselves as victims of overbearing politicians bent on filling government's top jobs with servile officials who will pander to their every whim and fancy.

The conventional thinking here is that politicians are corruption-prone and that's why they want to appoint someone willing to turn a blind eye to their transgressions, like stealing taxpayers' money or influence peddling, if not collude with them in such acts.

Government officials who are promoted want everyone to believe that they were handpicked because of their demonstrable virtues - not because of their good connections with the powerful politicians who appointed them.

Meanwhile, the new prime minister and his Cabinet ministers insist that as democratically elected leaders they have the prerogative to appoint senior bureaucrats to top positions, based on their qualifications and compatibility. Politicians say that effective implementation of their policies requires good cooperation from top government officials. Even problems such as personality clashes between a Cabinet minister and a top bureaucrat could negatively affect an effort to put a policy into practice.

The Samak government's handling of its high-level reshuffle of civil servants has stirred up unusually loud public criticisms partly because it has a serious image problem to begin with and also because the manner with which it is being carried out looks very much like a vengeful political purge. Four top government officials were removed from their posts, including the chief of the Justice Ministry's Department of Special Investigation, the secretary-general of the Food and Drug Administration, the director-general of the Public Relations Department and the chief of the Royal Thai Police. More senior officials at other ministries are expected to be replaced by the Samak administration.

The reason given by the Samak government for most of the replacements thus far is that these officials were replaced by more suitable candidates to ensure the smooth implementation of government policies. Pol General Seripisut Temiyavej's removal from the post of national police chief was the exception; he was also slapped with serious charges, including a corruption charge, which is being investigated by a disciplinary committee.

It is worth noting that most of the top officials who faced the axe had something in common. They either rose to their respective positions after the 2006 coup or they were exceptionally cooperative with the interim Surayud administration's implementation of its policies.

Let's not forget that before the December 23 general election, People Power Party leader Samak Sundaravej admitted that he was a nominee of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been barred from politics for five years after his Thai Rak Thai Party was dissolved by the Constitution Tribunal in 2007 in connection with electoral fraud. No matter how hard Samak now tries to deny being Thaksin's puppet, his credibility problem remains.

The argument over whether it is at all justifiable for politicians to promote senior officials at the expense of incumbent office holders, or under what circumstances such actions are justifiable, will remain contentious as long as there is no public consensus on the issue.

To be fair, any democratically elected government has the right to total freedom to reassign top bureaucrats as they see fit. That is, it wouldn't be fair to politicians who promised to implement policies that they claim will benefit the people to be hamstrung by uncooperative top civil servants. We don't want to hear politicians offering the excuse that they failed to translate their policies into reality because of the uncooperative attitude of civil servants. As a matter of principle all top civil servants at all ministries should expect to be replaced whenever there is a change of government.

But at the same time, members of the public must keep a close watch on what happens after politicians have their way appointing officials they prefer over the incumbents. We must make sure that the promotions of top officials by politicians are made for the benefit of the public - not to facilitate corruption.

The Natioon