Public
Sector of the Future: CM
"Transforming
the Public Service to lead into the future." That was the central theme of a
Public Service Conference held in Kuching on 21 & 22 September 1999. The
Chief Minister, YAK Datum Passing (Dr.) Hag Abdul Tab Mohammed in his keynote
address to the audience reminded the public servants of the need to see transformation
as a process of learning to serve the public better.
The process of transformation is an uprooting experience to most people
but change will have to come in order to manage the challenges of the New Millennium.
Below is an except of the Chief Minister's message at the conference.
The Public
Service need to adjust to the new mode of public sector management, new management
techniques but with the heart of an experienced administrator challenged by
the process of change.
A transformation process
is taking place in our Public Service whereby members of the Service are engaged
in forming a Public Service which can fully serve the public and the nation.
This does not
imply that the present Public Service is lacking in its dedication to serve
the people.
But from the
point of view of its effectiveness and the coming change, we need to pool our
resources together so that we can bring along the people in our country to experience
the transformation together.
The Public
Service has the responsibility not only to realize the policies of the government
of the day but also to upgrade the people's participation in the country's development
process.
This is a unique
phenomenon for a developing nation like ours. Unlike developed nations, where
their citizens have accepted change as part of their lives, we need to know
how best to interpret government policies and forward our own ideas and criticisms
on how the country can be governed.
Unfortunately
for us, we have two different types of population; on the one hand, there are
those who have already experienced change of a higher degree such as those who
now resides in the urban areas with a high standard of living. On the other,
there are still those who are in an environment of "static economy." Without
the assistance and guidance of the government, these people will still be relegated
in remote areas and their way of thinking will still be backward and even act
as though this world has not changed since the Stone Age. These are the people
whom we should bring along together in our transformation process.
I would like
to add a third category of the population; these are the people who have already
accept transformation and sometimes being carried away in the process but are
not able to offer any positive response.
These people
are the ones I would call riders on the bandwagon of urbanization. In short,
when we want to uplift the quality of our Public Service, we would like to see
that what is happening is being driven by our desire to discharge our duties
to the people.
In the corporate
world, a transformation is also happening. Corporations are practicing good
corporate governance in order to impact full benefits to stockholders including
shareholders, the government, businesses and ultimately the nation.
Similarly,
in the public sector, we have to undergo our own transformation in order to
render services which can uplift the people's living standard.
Hopefully,
through their participation, we can improve their understanding of the workings
of government so as to enable them to work together with us to discharge our
duties better. In short, both the public and private sectors management are
undergoing change.
What our country
can afford is not uniform throughout. What we can afford today is different
from yesterday and tomorrow and even today, what we can afford to give will
not probably be to our liking.
For example,
I would very much like to see the highlands of Sarawak to get as much treatment
as Kuching, but unfortunately, the size of the community in the highlands is
so small - short of pouring money out of proportion to the normal per capita
expenditure of the estimate for the Public Service. We cannot transform that
very easily. That lack of uniformity is not intentional.
Because of
this kind of non uniformity and the position of our people, we have to design
a Public Service that takes into account the existing disparity in our society
- not arising out of discrimination but because it is inherent to the situation
inherited from the past as well as the geographical peculiarities and mental
attitudes.
Our reform
in the public sector therefore ought to take into account all the socio-economic
factors and perhaps much more than what the private sector management would
do.
There is a
tendency in our society that is emerging into democracy that the interests of
the most vocal and the most active tends to dominate those of the silent majority.
I am not saying
that we should ignore the few that shouts most but we must know very well what
administrative grounds we are covering so that we do give justice to people
who do not speak as well as people who do.
What is our
future direction? It can be best summarised thus. Lets try to put our best in
achieving the Vision 2020.
We have one
generation to achieve the transformation or to complete the achievements that
is envisaged under Wawasan 2020.
The transformation
in the Public Service has got to put greater emphasis on the content of quality
changes, attitudes of civil servants, greater and deeper understanding of social
milieu in which we are operating and in terms of administrative and management
tools we are employing to achieve Wawasan 2020.
By and large,
I would say that we have to get almost as many of the civil servants to be able
to serve the public with greater knowledge and understanding of the public and
to be able to interpret policies within the context of the right situation and
not just a standard administrative approach.
If you see
any problems and say 'well, I've got this instruction, I'll just bulldozed it
if it doesn't fit into it.', then you are not exercising your discretion in
implementing policies that is aimed at the public good.
To do so, we
have to arm the Public Service with a much greater understanding of policies
which is to be developed through the political network by understanding the
politicians who are close to the people.
Civil servants
must also have the knowledge of the people who tend to vary from one place to
another.
For example,
if I were to be transferred from Kuching on the 1st of January next year, say
to Limbering Division, I would be learning about Limbang in my spare time as
much as possible.
The geography
and the economic background as well as the various ethnic composition of the
people there, their beliefs, expectations and aspirations.
That is not
easy. It requires sympathy, patience and above all, the real desire to serve.
Equipping civil
servants with knowledge cannot be done by the mere accumulation of data and
facts now stored in the files or computers of our administrative system. The
public servants who can serve the people well are those who take these raw data
as the elements they have to deal with in a judicious manner in order to serve
the people.
Members of
the Public Service have to understand Vision 2020 in its totality. That would
mean keeping abreast with what the Prime Minister is saying from time to time
as well as what other Ministers are also saying. They tell you about the nuances
of the policies to implement Vision 2020.
The good civil
servants therefore, whilst abstaining from politics, should really understand
the politics of his country, not because he or she is interested in politics
to become a politician but the process of political thinking must be understood
although one must stay away from being involved or be associated with all the
intrigues and partisan manoeuvrings that is going on in politics.
But you have
to understand the process of political thinking that is developed out of the
ups and downs, tensions and pressures experienced by our political leaders.
By doing so, you can figure out the principles and ideas which led to the implementation
of policies by the government of the day.
Unfortunately,
a fast developing country like ours is always getting into areas with elements
of controversy because we are implementing new ideas all the time.
Transforming
farmers from planting one season padi to two season padi sometimes take a lot
of persuasion and even intruding into some of the perceived religious tradition
or custom of the people.
Let me illustrate.
In 1969, when I was working in the Kedah Muda Project to introduce the agriculture
bank loan scheme to the farmers, some of the farmers who are sceptical and religious
said that planting two season padi would be going against nature. It cannot
be done.
Of course changes
bring about ideas that has never been done before and anything that is not done
before tend to invade people's security and familiarity.
It brings about
an element of anxiety. New things will always whisper some doubts as regards
its practicability and propriety.
When we transform
Malaysia, we have to introduce a lot of new ideas and the people tend to be
less receptive to these new ideas, at least initially.
Of course the
resistance to new ideas would eventually change and change fast as efforts to
explain ideas become more pervasive.
As basic concepts
of new ideas are grasped, we have all the aids of new communication tools, particularly
TVs in all its sophistication and now we have the multimedia.
All these can
help the people to grasp in a shorter time basic concept of what is needed to
change and what new things that change will introduce to them in order to improve
their lives.
I am not surprised
if some members of the Public Service are part of the people who feels new ideas
are quite disturbing because it is inherent in the process of introducing new
ideas that we get all the elements of hesitation, doubts and resistance.
Wawasan 2020
is full of new ideas for change. From the introduction of new technology to
new discipline for new forms of life, more dense structure of habitation will
make possible harmonious interaction. Take for example the traffic lights that
we have on our roads.
Some people
were annoyed when they were first introduced. They cannot get used to the idea
of waiting at the junction until the light says go.
Some would
display their ignorance by being fast on the gearshift and some even jumped
the lights. This is just a simple example.
But it goes
to show that the increase in volume of traffic can be regulated by means of
traffic lights.
There are many
traffic lights that we have to observe in our lives. We have new housing development,
new townships, organisations and public companies and commercial undertakings.
Failure to
observe this lights will send us spiralling into collision. That is part of
the process of transformation towards the full realisation of Wawasan 2020.
The Public
Service should be the first to realise where the traffic lights are. If not,
don't expect the people to recognise it.
How are we
going to expect those whom I categorised as the third category and those who
resides in the rural areas to be transformed?
These are the
challenges that we are now faced with. All these therefore calls for one thing
- the gradual adoption of greater response as a means of enabling and empowering
the Civil Service to be more effective.
That is only
with regards to administration. But where do we put our hearts and minds and
the vigour which we put in the Public Service which determines the direction
in which we move?
To maintain
our sensitivity to the people's problem is not an easy thing to do. It requires
patience and a real desire to serve.
Cultivate an
intellectual love to serve the people; have a sensitivity to people's problems
that does not impinge on personal feelings.
The people
have learnt to trust the Civil Service just as they have learnt to trust politicians,
which, I must say, is rare in today's world. The trust that we have earned must
be preserved as much as possible.
Once you have
earned the trust of the people, you have won half of your battle. If will enable
you to go to the core of the problems and ask the people to view your perspectives
so as to enable them to give the same diagnosis of the problems.
Trust can only
be earned from integrity. Niceness is good Public Relations but niceness to
everybody without upholding your principles will expose you to ridicule and
your integrity to serve will eventually be compromised.
The Public
Service must therefore have a lot of courage and must not yield to pressures
and reveal less than the truth. They have to be fair at all times.
The transformation
towards an economic thinking is just beginning to take shape in the Public Service.
Now it has to think in a social dimension. This is going to be another challenge.
Cultivating the social dimension of administration requires more and more social
policies.
We, in Sarawak,
have started a fair bit of this but unfortunately we are not able to understand
these problems as fast as we want to because a lot of these problems need fresh
studies due to the emergence of change.
A lot of these
social policies are sometimes regarded by administrators as well as politicians
as irrelevant until it is too late. Therefore, we have to start thinking and
planning the areas where we can develop our social policies.
The Prime Minister
said, "let's have a caring society." These two words "caring society" have sent
us to conduct thousands of case studies and researches to ensure that our society
remains a caring society.
We ought to
have the correct attitude in the Public Service and that requires a high degree
of patriotism, sensitivity to the public we serve and a total commitment in
achieving change with harmony.
Let this seminar
jolt you to the need for change, now, and in the future and remind you of the
success achieved so far. The Public Service need to adjust to the new mode of
public sector management and new management techniques but with the heart of
an experienced administrator challenged by the process of change.
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