LONDON -- In a modern democracy where governments change after elections, it is essential for the sake of efficiency and transparency that the civil service be apolitical, independent and closed to corruption. Only an independent civil service appointed on the basis of merit can guarantee good government. Unfortunately, both in Britain and Japan, efforts have been made to politicize the civil service.
In Britain recently, a number of cases have highlighted this problem. The most serious one is that involving Stephen Byers, the minister of transport; Richard Mottram, the ministry's permanent secretary; Martin Sixsmith, a civil servant who was the ministry's director of communications; and Joe Moore, Byers' spin-doctor.
The story is complicated. It began on Sept. 11 when Moore proposed that the tragedy in New York was a good time to release, and thus bury, bad news about transport. When this suggestion was leaked to the press, there was a justifiable furor. It should have led to Moore's immediate dismissal, but her boss, Byers, backed her. After an apology of sorts, she was kept on. Rumor has it that she was let off because the idea in fact had stemmed from Byers himself.