The 4th Floor Boys and The Ivory Tower Syndrome

The Perdana Putra building can be claimed as one of the famous and beautiful building in Malaysia. The building itself portrays grandeur and carries a self of pride for Malaysian Government as the Prime Minister’s office and DPM’s office is located there. It is somewhat similar to a White House in the USA. But, I do not want to elaborate on the building but more on the working environment there. Having worked there myself for three years, I have to say there is a certain eliteness of having an office there and having to come to work in that building. Minus all the VVIPS, you can actually see the pride of every personnel working there from tea lady, security guard and up to the higher ranking officers. There is this ‘feel good’ feeling that you are on top of everybody else in the government because you are there in the Perdana Putra Building. Nevertheless, due to the high security there, the building has limited access to the public and therefore it has created a very contained working environment. Just imagine it, many important policy decisions sometimes take place in that building but the working environment there is very contained and the eliteness of the building akin to a palace is making it worse in terms of policy decision.

In my personal opinion, the Perdana Putra building working environment has created what I call an “Ivory Tower Syndrome”. The Ivory Tower Syndrome is the implication of a person who are so deeply drawn in their place or area that they often can’t find or associate with laymen outside their ivory towers. The so called ‘4th Floor boys’ that worked there are not policy makers and not that influence able outside, but inside the building, they are closed to the two most important person in Malaysia that makes decision for the country. Therefore, no wonder that Pak Lah sometimes makes decision that seems really out of touch with the current reality of what the Malaysians are facing. Pak Lah and Najib have surrounded themselves with a group of people who feels they are an elite group and deserve to be in an ivory tower and people outside the ivory are a mere peasants. Is this a feudalistic thinking in a modern day government of Malaysia?