Not Bureaucracy, but Attitude is what that Matters

Not Bureaucracy, but 

Attitude is what that Matters

A few years back, I went on a business trip to Malaysia.  I chose to use the Trichy airport, as it was nearer to my place. Here, I happened to encounter a stinking incident with the officer at the airport immigration counter, which really put me off. So, here is an account of what happened:

I and one of my staff were travelling together. To my staff, it was his first time trip, outside the country. So, he was a bit nervous about the various formalities like the baggage scanning, immigration, customs clearance and security checks.  His fears went right. The immigration officer who called him into his counter to process his passport, started asking a number of irrelevant and meaningless questions, like do you have enough money to travel abroad, have you made currency declaration in your passport and he also started to demean my staff by saying, “you have not even gone to a neighboring Indian state, but you wish to visit a foreign country”.  I was watching all this and at some point of time, I got so irritated by his attitude that I stepped into the counter to the rescue of my staff. I told the immigration officer, that he is my staff and I can clarify all his doubts. It is only after I could show some personal affluence, the immigration officer decided to keep his mouth shut and clear his immigration.

Now in contrast, to what happened in Trichy I saw something very pleasant and innovative at the Kuala Lumpur Airport, which is worth mentioning and appreciating. On our return from Kuala Lumpur to Trichy, we were passing through the Malaysian immigration clearance. At each immigration counter, there was a small board along with 3 push type buttons of different colours. The message on the board read, if you are satisfied with the service of this immigration officer, press ‘green’, if not satisfactory press ‘yellow’ and if you had a problem with the officer press ‘red’.

The lady who processed my immigration, did not ask me a single question. She saw my immigration form, my passport, did her work in less than 2 minutes and returned back my passport with a smile. I was so pleased with her service that in return, I simply expressed my thanks by pressing the ‘green’ button. Perhaps, if there was something like a ‘pink’ button for excellent service, I would have pressed that.

Just see the contrast. The work done by the immigration officer in Indian airport and Malaysian airport was the same. They both belong to the same bureaucratic tribe, yet one was able to give a heartwarming happy experience and another a heart aching miserable experience.

 ‘Bureaucracy’ is not so much a dirty word as it sounds. The dictionary meaning of bureaucrat just says ‘a non-elected government official’.  I appreciate that, bureaucrats are keen on following rules and procedures and doing their best to keep the systems in place. But in the first place they should realize that all rules and procedures were formed to ease the handling of people and issues, and not to create untoward hardship to them. The common man gets irritated, when these bureaucrats make use of the powers bestowed upon them to cause hardship to him.

Bureaucrats have got a key role to play in the execution mechanism of the government. If only they could do their work with a proper understanding of their work, with thorough knowledge of the process and with a positive attitude, they can create a visible difference in the country.

IT IS NOT BUREAUCRACY THAT MATTERS, BUT IT IS THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARDS THEIR WORK AND PEOPLE THAT MATTERS.

   D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com