Infusion of Islamic values in the Malaysia civil service: a prelude to Islamic HRD?

Abstract

The Malaysian government has introduced two Islamic based policies to improve its civil service. First is the Infusion of Islamic Values in Civil Service which was inaugurated by the then 4Ih prime minister, Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad in the 1980s. On the othe hand, the 5" prime minister, Dato Seri Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi continued by introducing the Islam Hadhari Concept which tries to bring forward the realization of Islam as a civilization. Both the policies were constructed to enhance the quality and efficiency of the publc office and in the same time to show the commitment of the Malaysian government to adapt to the Islamic resurgency which was a global phenomenon in the 1970s and 80s. Bothe the policies undergone extensive planning, promotion and implementation in the civil service and the Malaysian society at large. This includes the organizing of trainings, talks and workshops and widely promoted by the electronic and printed media. According to Nadler, the effort by an employer in instilling values and working culture related to current , fbture job needs or even needs not directly related to job, could be identified as a HRD intervention. Thus, the implementation of the two policies could be seen through the lenses of a HRD intervention initiated by the employer. In that light, it is important that the implementation of the two policies be evaluated using HRD models such as the ADDIE or ASSURE model and through the existing program evaluation models such as the Kirkpatrik model, the CIPP or the Hamblin model. Only then will the real impact of the implementation of the two policies could be seen in the interest of human resource development and organizational renewal. These paper tries to argue retrospectively the importance of viewing Islamic policies in the enhancement of the Malaysian Public Services from the perspective of HRD.