Bureaucrat watching bureaucrats on screens

Some are funny, most are dark — where to find them and what I learn from them

Bureaucrat is probably a general expression of those who work in the government and associated with enforcing the red tapes in public affairs. Well, at least that is the prevailing sentiment.

To be honest, this profession isn’t really a subject of popular culture (South Korean’s pop culture is truly the exception in which the reason I will elaborate later). Since I becoming a bureaucrat myself (a twist of event that I didn’t expect to happen) I have become particularly invested in pop culture installation of this profession. So I will list some of TV series and movies that I find interesting. Most if them was introduced to me years before I became a bureaucrat, but revisiting them has definitely add some values.

1. Parks and Recreation

I discovered this comedy series during Summer 2014 while I was still a student. Starred by Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope (whom I knew from Saturday Night Live), a workaholic, ready-to-serve, overzealous civil servant in Parks Department of a fictional city, Pawnee, Indiana, this show is utterly optimistic and a feel good series.

What I learn: Revisiting these brilliant series reminded me of how bureaucrats are ultimately serving the people although many are easily trapped in complacency. Its bittersweet episodes are really thrilling and when I am feeling bogged down by the routine of my job, I escape via this sitcom to remind myself and have a chuckle or two. Six seasons and I bet’cha this sitcom achieved what many had failed: a good series finale.

My all-time favorite!

In Malaysia, you can watch this on Amazon Prime Videos

2. Veep

Well, this another comedic gold probably has won too many awards one can count and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who had her breakthrough in another popular sitcom, Seinfeld) has proven herself as one of the most brilliant comedic actor in this age. What I like about this series is the realness of the writing, the unique profanity employed throughout the series and the comedy from the incompetency of many of the staff.

Funnily, throughout its seven seasons, the main character was never identified belong to any party, thank to its brilliance in writing. Julia Louis Dreyfus even has come out saying that both factions think the series depict the flaw of the opposite side. That is how brilliant the writing is.

What I learn: This show is a political satire more than about a bureaucrat but the message stands. Sometimes life does imitate the art, when similar ridiculosity in the series, happened to me on the job. One particular message that get through to me is you might mess up and be the brunt of the anger down the line (especially when you’re an entry level bureaucrat), but remember your boss isn’t perfect either and probably had it worse than you.

Being a bureaucrat, in many parts, is similar to hold a public office where you main job is not just delivering the job but also managing your stakeholders. Good thing is, most people are as clueless as you are so there is a process and a learning curve for everyone.

I had to say that the show is brilliantly created by Armando Ianucci, who happened to direct my next recommendation.

In Malaysia, you can watch this on HBO. Probably HBO Go is Astro linked has all the seasons.

3. In the Loop

I suppose Veep carries the energy this British movie. It might look like a satire, a laughing machine intended to hearten and enlighten the issues that affect many like war declaration and a country invasion by the world power, but it brings us to a sense of dark realization — most people don’t know what they are doing and the people “up there” is no exception. The Guardian describes it as to “might persuade future historians to see suppressed macho rage and shame as a key part of both ends of the New Labour story, from the Kinnock disaster in 1992 to the Iraqi debacle just over 10 years later — and perhaps even the McBride fiasco.”

What I learn: This political satire entails this culture of “being in the loop” and “culture of panic” that flavors public office and civil service globally, not to say people’s personal agenda and career survival. I revisit this movie when I was deployed in a high office and chuckle at the flagrant similarity of how public offices work (and sometimes, stumble?).

4. Vagabond

This is probably the first K-Drama I watch in its entirety. Available on Netflix, this series started with an airplane accident before it evolves into some level of high conspiracy and corporate espionage. The remarkability of the series wasn’t really on its plot but how it serves a window to me that South Korea makes a lot (like, really a lot) of series and movies, around bureaucrats. They even do a dramatization of government meeting!

What I learn: As I said, it serves as a window. So I stumbled upon threads of tweets by Ayman Rashdan Wong. Apparently, South Korean political and public office scene is as dramatic as what her TV shows entail.

Interestingly, the political play and its interconnection with South Korean chaebol (conglomerates like Samsung, etc) is well recorded and etched in South Korean history. It is no wonder that there is a recurring theme in South Korean movies and dramas about how there is hidden hand coming from political and public offices as high as its president office and even to local authorities. In Vagabond, there is a conflict between political offices and those at the intelligence department and we can see the power distance and ethical dilemma dynamism throughout the series.

Thank God it’s on Netflix Malaysia

What I really learn

Fiction aside, I learn one thing valuable from my observation during the transition period that Malaysia witnessed on 9 May 2018 (albeit, short lived?). The civil service must be professional and independent. While we are working towards the aspiration the political masters from Government-of-the-Day, the real test is delivery the benefits to rakyat and nation as a whole.

Bureaucrats in Malaysia especially when the civil service institution is robust and to same extent, rigid (well we can debate later whether this is for the good or the bad) serves as a constant in political and environmental changes. It is easy to be complacent and blinded from the routine of our works. Hence, these fictions serve as stark mirror and to some extent a sign post of how we should operate and how we are perceived.

Coming 21st century, the world is in a new set of challenges. The general peace time that we gratefully enjoy is superficial when there are crises looming from the ground-up and outside-in. Climate change, inequality, racism and technological divide as well as the recently economic-halting pandemic like Covid-19 are thrusting Government and civil service that make a bulk of it to be agile, adaptive and prepared. But, are we?

Probably an anwer we coulnd’t find on silver and small screens.

25 May 2020