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ACTionetwork Building
bridges of UNDERSTANDING
On July 21, 1998, a group of enthusiastic
civil servants and some from the private sector and NGOs made pledge to join
and participate actively in Actionetwork. Now, what is Actionetwork? What do
we conjure from the word? It is another one of those groups full of rhetoric
but lacking in deed?
Since time immemorial, the Civil
Service organisation in most countries have been depicted negatively. It has
been accused on many occasions by the general public of being slow, inefficient
and sluggish. The general perception of the Civil Service can be summed up in
a typical Malay conversation which goes like this: "Hei kawan! apa itu Civil
Servis. Sewelkah? Masuk Opis, Keluar Opis. Hujung bulan, terima gaji. Mana ada
sistem. Kalau ada bonus, mahu bonus. Kalau suruh kerja, sakit sana, sakit sini",
(Hey friend! What is the Civil Service? Sign in and sign out. End of the month,
receive the pay. Where got system. If there is bonus, everyone wants it. If
given work to do, always complaining.)
Vowing to correct these negative
perceptions of the Civil Service, these group of civil servants have joined
hands to form the "agents of change network, hence the term "ACTionetwork".
Subscribing to the idea that "when
a tree falls in a forest, and nobody reports it, the ACTionetwork members aim
to build bridges of understanding among their peers and colleagues in the Civil
Service as well as with the general public.
"As communicators, we cannot plant
trees like the foresters, neither can we build bridges over rivers like the
engineers BUT we can plant ideas in people's minds so that they can understand
the world more and we can build bridges of understanding across people and culture".
In their own words, here are what
members think of their involvement with ACTionetwork:
JOHN LAM, Majlis Bandaraya
Kuching Selatan (MBKS):
"Just like the process of nuclear
fission where the fully charged positive ions trigger off series of reactions,
we hope to build a critical mass of voluntary involvement among the civil servants.
Our primary objective is to build
and sustain a cohesive team of change advocates and to provide an avenue to
upgrade the members' professionalism in communication-related tasks in order
to effect the metamorphosis of ideas into action within the context of the new
civil service'. In our specific objectives relevant to the civil service' transformation
programme, ACTionetwork will provide personal resource development and self-improvement
training programme with a view to inculcating positive values and quality
behaviour among its members.
We seek to complement and or supplement
the existing government information processing and dissemination channels. We
will also help in gathering feedback from the target groups of government programmes.
ACTionetwork can also provide a platform
for social interaction to foster and strengthen existing goodwill, harmony and
co-operation among its members leading to improved organizational networking
and breaking the communication barrier which may exist among us.
RUTH SIBAT, Sarawak Timber
Industry Development Corporation(STIDC);
"It is a PRIVILEGE to be a member
of the ACTionetwork - A group of "Change Communicator"in the State Civil Service,
which is anchored on the spirit of volunteerism.
Our State Secretary, YB Tan Sri Datuk
Amar Haji Hamid Bugo, has often times stressed the "spirit of volunteerism"
as an integral part of our mindset and our behaviour, especially among us, Civil
Servants.
As the Ancient Chinese Proverbs
goes: "Tell me and I forget. Show me and I Remember, Involve Me and I UNDERSTAND".
ZABARIAH MATALI, Sarawak Development
Institute (SDI). SDI provides an additional channel of information and opinions
for policy makers and the public. We have a wealth of information here and we
deal a lot with officials from the government and the private sector. However,
we are not privy to the government's innermost thoughts. We are there, but always
on the periphery.
By being a member of this ACTionetwork,
we could indeed form an intimate relationship with the government, a symbiotic
relationship where each is interdependent upon the other, where each need the
other. We volunteer to be involved, we volunteer to contribute, we volunteer
to be part of this dynamic New Civil Service. That's what being part of ACTionetwork
means to us who are not in the government.
CHIEF INSPECTOR CHAN SHUN SING,
Polis DiRaja Malaysia:
"As a civil servant under Federal
Department, I am happy to be able to interact and share learning experience
with my colleagues from the other State level agencies and departments. I view
my involvement with the ACTionetwork as a means to update my knowledge on activities
and programmes being undertaken by the respective agencies, where the members
are attached. What I've come toappreciate most is the sense of camaraderie that
I now share with my civil service colleagues within the ACTionetwork. Although
we are doing different tasks and have seemingly unrelated responsibilities,
we now fully realize and understand that we are all interdependent in much the
same way as an ecosystem. We are all working for the common objective of serving
the people, projecting a more dynamic, proactive and knowledgeable civil service.
And, because we work together in a spirit of fun, friendship and warm camaraderie,
it makes our tasks of serving the people a lot more pleasant and enjoyable.
ROSALIND YANG, AZAM:
ACTionetwork...
- means continuous learning and
sharing of knowledge.
- means dynamism instead of lethargy.
- means being pro-active instead
of being reactive.
- means empathy and concern instead
of apathy and indifference.
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