Your obedient servant and “Saya yang menurut perintah”

I read with interest and full admiration for Marina Mahathir Musing article today Star under the title Signing off for the niceties.

Marina Mahathir has rightly said civil servants,when writing to others,sign off with the phrase declaring themselves as servants of the people,their real masters in theory.

Our civil servants many have become the masters themselves,least they know that that they are supposed to be "Your obedient servant".Always they have their own way of interpretation of law and execution of the policy of the government.Some even go against the will of government of the day,least we talk about the people.

I fully agree that "Saya yang menurut perintah" on government letters was in fact a translation of that quaint colonial bit of politesse,"Your obedient servant".

Maybe our government has the intention for the "Saya yang menurut perintah" to mean "I who obey orders" of which different from the English version,is meant to convey that they are servants of the people.

Precisely our version is whose orders are you to obey?These should be orders by the government of the day and by extension,the people who voted them in.

It is high time our civil servants should go back to the basis of the meaning of servant in the civil service.