The challenge facing the civil service is the responsiveness and quality of delivery to the people. The 1.4 million civil servants must be passionate about their job for the expectations of the people are high.

The service culture must be continuously inculcated in civil servants.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has said that officers whom foreign tourists meet at Immigration and Customs checkpoints play a big role in displaying the professionalism of the civil service.

Our frontline staff must be people-oriented and must have good communication skills and solve problems faced by tourists.

The other critical area is human resources.

The civil service must employ the best people of various races in the spirit of 1Malaysia to tackle issues in the community.

This is possible if there is a balanced approach in the recruitment of non-Bumiputeras based on meritocracy.

The recruitment of talents should be based on qualification, work experience and leadership qualities, as well as having a good command of English and Bahasa Malaysia.

Ali has said that there would be engagement with senior government officials, chambers of commerce and non-governmental organisations to obtain feedback on how to increase non-Bumiputera applicants for the civil service and how to advertise in vernacular newspapers and Tamil and Chinese channels on Astro to attract the best talents.

With training and coaching and with support from the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (Pemudah), as well as the National Blue Ocean Strategy, the civil service can achieve the targets.

The new system of key performance indicators with challenging smart goals will measure objectively and reward them based on performance.

The civil service will then attract the best talents and there will be no place for dead wood.