Structures of New Public Management in Malaysia and Singapore: Alternative Views

During the recent two decades, there has emerged a considerable volume of literature articulating, examining, evaluating, and critiquing the so-called New Public Management (NPM), which originated in advanced capitalist nations and expanded globally as a new model of governance. Founded largely upon the assumptions, principles, structures, and strategies of business management, this new model of public management, to various degrees, has been embraced by many developing countries among which Malaysia and Singapore are quite well-known cases. This article focuses mainly on the structural dimensions of NPM-including its functional, organizational, and managerial systems and its relations with the political, social, and market domains—with special reference to these two cases. The article also critically evaluates the implications of these newly emerging structures for the capacity, neutrality, integrity, and accountability of public management. It concludes by drawing attention to the need for a serious rethinking of this NPM model.