Will the Government servant get a pay rise?

Well, Ijok election has passed. Today is 1st of May and it is a Labour Day. Early this year, Cuepacs had sent a proposal to request a pay rise for government servant to the Malaysia Prime Minister and Government of Malaysia. Will the government staff get a pay rise? Pak Lah said the government will announced on 22nd May 2007. I'm not putting my hope high on the announcement. Now concentrating my efforts in finishing my management system so I could use it for my project and show it to people who has interest in it. I'm trying to develop it using .Net but since I use the legacy ASP, so, all the functions on the system is built using ASP technology. I think sometimes later this year or early next year when I has enough time, I will re-write the entire system using .Net.

Back to the pay rise. For me, the pay rise is important for productivity of government servant. But increasing productivity by increasing pay rise is just a tip of the iceberg. There are other things I wish the government will execute. The most important thing that I really hope is by allowing system analyst or computer programmer like me to work from home maybe once a week. I already do most of my codes at home during my leisure time. Maybe its not exactly 8 a.m to 5 p.m but it will encourage me to work harder since my employer put a trust on me as the employee. Maybe some people will say how about meetings or other important thing that will need our attention. It is easy. Today most of us use handphones. So, if there is something important, people can still reach us. But the thing is in most government office, most of the important thing is a last minute arrangement.

How about the work that need to access into main servers? The problem can be solved by creating some sort of certificate authority (CA) in the government organization. We can create two types of certificate, PC certificate and user certificate. If the main server is a really important server we can autheticate users by using this way :

1. Certify the user's PCs. If the certificate is valid and same as the certificate generate by CA, let the user pass the first step.
2. Then authenticate the user's user certificate. If valid let the user pass.
3. Asked the user to authenticate once again by putting password or passphrase (any term that you like. It is same anyway). If the password valid as the store password in the system, let the user pass.

But this type of security is useless if the medium (in this case network) use by both server and PC are not secure (or encrypted). And also the password store in the system must also be encrypted. Https came into mind and also SSH. Or if you don't want to use SSH, we can develop our own secure connection.

Other thing that I asked is I can ignore people who are not included in my project. Just a week ago when I was checking some of the equipment installed by the contractor, one of the staff in one department said to me that one of the 'professor' want to meet me. When I asked what it is all about, she said she don't know. Some of the technicians there tell my friend (then the friend told me) that the 'professor' is always want to control everything in the school. I don't agree with that. When I want to pass this project to someone else, I want the whole project intact. I don't want any piece of this project fallen under other people jurisdiction. Until now, I didn't meet this 'professor'. I get permission from the dean, the registrar and deputy dean. So, why the heck I need to report to other people? Since I get this project (and another project) entrusted upon me, I manouver quite a lot just to keep this project intact.

Although I'm not putting my hope much towards the pay rise announcement, some of my colleagues really hope the government will care for us. Some of my colleagues already sell phone prepaid, perfume, headscarf, and etc. Sometimes it really interfere with our jobs (especially during busy time) but since most of them want to survive in this everything-need-to-pay era, I just shut my eyes. If me that receive 1600++ every month can barely survive each month, how about others that only receive 600 per month? Granted, some of them live with their parents and some have spouses who also work. Surviving 1600++ in Penang as a family is hard. Now imagine how they survive in JB and KL? What I do with my 1600++? 500 is rent payment, 500 is car payment. I left with 600. But remember, I still not pay my bills. After I pay everything, I is left with 300 per month and that is for everything. Petrol, food, and etc.

Thats why I do freelance jobs. Once upon a time, I sold PCs and laptops. But after I've got lots of complaints from customer than I stop. Sometimes, I get people who broke their keyboard pin and expect us to replace it with new keyboard since it is in warranty period. Some burned their motherboard and expect us to replace it for free. Some expect their RM1800 PCs will perform as RM3000 PCs. I quit after that. I trying not to sell PCs and laptops anymore. So, now some of you will know why I didn't send you the PC's specification that you requested.

Now I just waited for the announcement from our 'dear' PM. And most civil servant hope for the pay rise although not as high as Singapore Cabinet Minister pay rise or even our own cabinet pay rise (remember after the election the first thing they do is propose their pay rise in the parliament and heck they backdated the pay rise).