Institutional Foundations of Malaysia’s State Capacity

Abstract

State capacity is widely seen as an essential institutional underpinning of successful late development of East Asian newly industrialised countries (NICs) and as a defining element of the so-called developmental state. This article addresses issues of state capacity in the case of Malaysia. However, in fathoming the nature of administrative capacity in Malaysia, it does not focus on the socio-economic planning machinery, which often stands in the limelight of such analyses. Rather, it highlights the evolving institutional foundations of capacity-building in the civil service per se. Thus, institutional arrangements related to human resource management, quality assurance, and performance monitoring in the civil service are discussed in greater detail. It is concluded that the Malaysian government has generally been well aware of the necessity to continuously improve the administrative capacity of the civil service so that it can assist national development effectively. Eventually, complementary state agencies that perform self-reflexive or introspective functions have been put in place. However, given the nature of the sources consulted, which are mainly official self-descriptions for public consumption, further research would be needed to analyse more systematically the extent to which the discourse of civil service excellence and reform actually translates into superior public administration outcomes beneficial to late development. Furthermore, the likely shortcomings and biases of government-sponsored administrative monitoring and reform may only be overcome if the system is subjected to effective public accountability.