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Extract of Speech by YB
Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Aziz Bin Haji Husain, State Secretary of Sarawak in
conjunction with the Residents, Deputy Residents and District Officers Conference
2003 at Holiday inn Resort, Damai Lagoon, 13th May 2003
I believe this Conference, which is carried out biennially,
has paved the way for greater interaction, intellectual discourse and understanding
among participants on development administration and planning at the Divisional
and District levels. It is also heartening to note that the programme held for
the past two days has provided a venue for dissemination and exchange of useful
information, knowledge and experience among participants encompassing various
topics related to planning, implementation, monitoring and development administration.
The Residents, Deputy Residents and District Officers must remain relevant and
effective in their roles as administrators, development planners, strategists,
project managers and leaders. To be specific, I would like to quote and reiterate
the points on the roles of Residents, Deputy Residents and District Officers made
by YAB Chief Minister in his keynote address yesterday. The YAB Chief Minister
stressed that Residents with the leadership and ability to marshal the divisional
machinery to achieve development goals and objectives, are to play the role as
the “big coordinator”, Deputy Residents to focus on project implementation
monitoring that is to ensure things are happening and to concentrate on project
planning and the District Officers as project implementors. In order to achieve
these objectives, they must be aggressive, proactive and be able to adopt and
adapt to changes and challenges related to their roles and functions. Besides
they should possess and continuously acquire and expand their knowledge, skills
and competencies to perform their roles. They should also now focus in assisting
the State Government to prepare the community to become a K – Society in
order to achieve the K – Economy. In the very words of YAB Chief Minister,
we should be able to humanise the development process to ensure active people
involvement and participation in development from inception to the delivery of
the final outcome. Humanise here means that Residents, Deputy Residents and District
Officers must get themselves closer to the people, understand their needs and
be able to explain to the people the reasons / underlying principles behind every
development efforts. All these objectives are in consonance with the political
philosophy of our Government and are also within the ambit of the State and National
Development Agenda.
Prudent knowledge acquisition and management is now an important factor that could
further improve quality and strengthen the capability of our State Civil Service
and subsequently enhance the competitive advantage of the State’s economy.
In this respect, participants should know their Division well and using such information
to plan the development of the Divisions is indeed already a form of Knowledge.
Therefore, the knowledge acquired by the Residents, Deputy Residents and District
Officers in this Conference must be shared and cascaded to all officers especially
the Sarawak Administrative Officers in their respective Divisions and Districts.
Of most importance, they should also take the lead roles to assimilate and apply
the said knowledge in executing their roles and functions. I wish to reiterate
here that through this approach in knowledge sharing and with the publication
of “Buku Panduan Perkhidmatan - Perkhidmatan Yang Disediakan Oleh Pejabat
Residen dan Daerah” we should be able to provide services to our customers’
satisfaction and delight.
The papers presented in this Conference cover both perspectives at the macro and
strategic level especially on development budgeting, strategic planning and ICT
as an enabler in development management. In addition, the dinner talk had enlightened
us on the challenges of leadership. Therefore I sincerely hope that with this
knowledge and the publication of Profil Bahagian Negeri Sarawak 2002, the Divisions
are having sufficient information and data to prepare their Strategic Divisional
Development Plan in the near future. I would also like to mention again what YAB
Chief Minister has said in his keynote address yesterday that the inaugural Divisional
Profile, which is the basic building block for planning should be continuously
updated to enable us to also monitor our performance. In other words, the Divisional
Profile will provide us the baseline data on the development and progress made
in the Division and over the years such profile will enable us to monitor the
progress that have been made.
R&DO will continue to play a pivotal role in the socio – economic development
of the State. This is more so in developing the community socially to facilitate
the process of social transformation in the State. The ultimate objective is to
inculcate and enable change amongst the people to create a society, which is resilient,
dynamic, progressive, possess good moral values and above all become good citizen
of the country. Social issues should therefore be taken into consideration in
our development planning.
I would like to mention that the Conference has been a great success and we look
forward for the next Conference to be held in 2005. However we should be mindful
of the fact that the Conference would have not been made possible without the
total support of all the participants and commitment of the organizers. In this
regard, I would like to express once again my gratitude and thanks to the Organizing
Committee, AZAM being the Event Manager and members of the Secretariat for their
hard work and concerted effort that has ensured the success of this Conference.
My special thanks are also extended to all of you, the participants and observers
for your cooperation and indulgence.
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