After almost three years of being one, I thought I have heard all possible connotations for PTD. Of course, in actuality the acronym stands for Pegawai Tadbir dan Diplomatik (Administrative and Diplomatic Officer).
However, PTD could also be Pegawai Takdak Duit (No-Money Officers) or Pegawai Tidur Duduk (Sleeping-While-Sitting Officers) – which at times, could be true too. PTDs are not paid well compared to our peers working in the private sector – hence Pegawai Takdak Duit.
And honestly – many of us had, at one time or another (or even often, like yours truly was infamous for) doze off during lectures/classes we had to attend in the six-month course of Public Administration Diploma. So, PTD = Pegawai Tidur Duduk? Possibly true too. * grins *
It wasn’t until recently that I heard of another possible term for PTD – “Pegawai Tanggung Dosa”
And that had me thinking hard.
If we were to paste the organization chart of a ministry/government agency against the private sector’s normal chart, the Minister would probably be described as the Chairman. The Secretary General would be the CEO/President, and the PTDs would often be the senior officers – General Managers, Assistant General Managers, Senior Managers, Managers and Senior Executives. The rakyat would be our clients. The current members of the Cabinet would be the stakeholders/board members.
Just as the Chairman or CEO in a private company could drive the officers crazy, so could the Minister and Secretary-General (often held by a PTD. In fact, the highest position available in the civil service – the Chief Secretary to the Government a.k.a. Ketua Setiausaha Negara - is a position that has traditionally been held by a PTD) in the civil service.
And just like the Senior Executives having to deal with complaints, grumbles and all sort of unpleasant stuff coming from the clients, so does the lower ranking PTDs with the rakyat.
PTDs are in between the politicians and the rakyats. If the PTDs do a great job, make the rakyat happy, then the politicians will claim it’s all thanks to them. However, if the politicians fail to carry out their duties efficiently, the rakyat complains, then the PTDs will get the blame.
If the politicians want anything, even against the advice of officers who are concerned about unnecessary spending of the rakyat’s money, their wish must still be carried out and if the rakyat finds out about this, it’s the PTDs who would be treated to the hostile glares first. If the rakyat demand something but these tasks could not been carried out as effectively or efficiently by the government, again the PTDs will get the blame.
Hence, Pegawai Tanggung Dosa, eh?
7 comments:
Norzu-san: If u like travelling and is thinking of staying overseas for some period of time, PTD would be a good option. Not only as diplomats but also as trade commissioners, advisors to certain national representatives at international agencies e.g. UN, etc. Despite my take on negative connotations of PTD - it's a worthy job & most of us feel proud serving for the rakyat.
atashiwa nihon no daigaku no gakusei janaiyo. 2002 no sangatsu ni Tokyou ni kimashita. Asoko ni juyokka dake imashita. Demo I managed to memorize a few important phrases like "toire wa doko desu ka?" *grins*. Fell in love with nihon no dorama since last year. Soshite kyonen ni Maraya daigaku no nihongo kaiwa no kurasu ni kimashita. Takara, ima wa, nihon go o sukoshi hanashimasu.
there's no doubt Pegawai Tidur Duduk suits you well. bukan dalam kelas je, dalam mesyuarat pun boleh tidur duduk... heheheh ;-)
-kita kawan
PTD = Pegawai Ternak Dugong...
- Daeng Peletih
PTD = Penuh Tipu Daya
PTD = Penuh Tipu Daya
In my ministry, the PTDs are well-known to always wanted to take over our administrative positions when they have no knowledge about the system and work processes...
PTD is human therefore to err is human [to rewind is devine – tu policy blockbuster –roza, tmpt rent video kat US tu J]. Doesn’t gives them the right to but they do. I guess our problem is we are too quick in categorizing [to tiru the writer: yours truly are guilty – i.e. my initial hate (for lack of word) of **** and therefore ‘I hate ****’ no matter what!!]. One the other hand, these singkatan actually does have its significant/bearing.
P’wai tidur duduk = actually I heard it masa my DPA kursus time - 1996 [could be coined then or way before, I don’t know]. Can you imagine sitting in a lecture hall/room/class for one whole day. You can’t even sit still/concentrate when you’re a student. Imagine what it does to ‘adults’? Plus you don’t get to choose your class with interesting eccentric lecturer. [our intan lecturer basically is the pegawai tidur duduk sebelum kita?] Harmless just a joke among us.
P’wai tak dak duit = way back our pay is pittance (M3 esp early ’90 – basic gaji RM1200+ okay?) compare to the responsibility (if we are truly into work); at some places amount of work done; the level of people we met. e.g (i) kena meeting travel oversea dok hotel tapi tak dak credit cardßwakil negara nih!! (ii) a jr officer once told me, during a meeting with the then “Prime Minister” she was so terrified she went to the ladies and never came out. She left the service after a year though. My point is: in the private sector you might get a sum of like RM4K a month to deal with one apek contractor and here you are with less to survive at the end of the month tapi have to deal with the head of the nation/nation interest somemore. Somehow we have to note the obvious (PTD services should be given due recognition based on current development which I think is the case now with better pay, evaluation of SSB – no doubt SSM tengah batuk sekarang nih). How to really be committed, how to justify “berkhidmat untuk negara” – aren’t we (PTDs) also the ‘rakyat’? Someone have to also look at our welfare too. This is serious.
The irony is we are ‘them’ but we are helpless when it come to our own welfare – that bring me to my comment on P’gawai Tanggung Dosa. To be frank, I have one senior PTD who straight out blurt that I “makan gaji buta” because I told her that I feel I am not able to perform in MITI – imagine how I feel. After all these years, and I got that. I bet in her life as a PTD kan at one time or another she’ll make use of the officer car for her own personal use; any provision dalam pekeliling yang she can to her benefits. Nilai kemanusiaan dalam diri PTD yang dah terlalu lama dalam service agaknya dah hilang sbb rasa keberkuasaan dia. Itu baru peringkat dalaman. Kalau semangat ‘esprit de corps’ [dunno spelling betui ke dak] tu agak keterlaluan pun jadi masalah. Bayangkan kalau dia berkuasa kat satu daerah kecil? Melibatkan orang luar yang kurang pengetahuan [kononnya la]. Senang² boleh tipu. Mana tak tanggung dosa? Ini lagi serious.
I suppose it’s not fair to chart the public sector organization a private sector establishment (i) we have totally different goal (profits (ii) the responsibility/and implication of any wrongdoing/abuse in the public sector has a far more impact on the nation as a whole whether, short term or long term. At the end of the day, sendiri mahu ingat laa kot. Personally, I hope PTD can be more professional in their work, environment and evaluation of the service. I guess knowing what we did wrong is an obvious hint that we are trying to do something about it. The problem is we might end up with the “somebody, anybody, everybody and nobody” syndrome.
-hamdeeya
daeng: heard a better one from Nafis - PTD = Pegawai Tahan Dugaan :-)
rama-rama: yes, there are some overbearing PTDs around. the current PTD muda though are of different generation, different blood, different ideals - so i hope, when the time comes for us to be in charge, we'll be able to change and make things better, insya Allah...
meanwhile - sabar je lah...
kak ham: *speechless*
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