Written by drrafick

What a solid day of news past 72 hours. Suspense, drama and excitement were all present. A few days earlier, I received and SMS advising me to stop buying papers and not to listen to Government TV’s. I tried my level best not to buy any newspaper and I must say I have managed to overcome my addiction towards reading The Star in the morning. I don’t event take the free Sun Newspaper now days since it was taken over by Vincent Tan which I feel is now a crap. My daily saving on newspaper is now RM1.20 + maybe another 80 sen the fuel expenses to drive to the shop. I felt great. However, I cant break my addiction on watching TV at 800pm. Sorry guys I need to hear what the other are saying too and balance it with what MT, Malaysiakini and many other bloggers are saying. I find difficult to find bloggers who write balance news about the government.

One of the biggest challenge of new Alternative state government is to get things going in their respective state and second is to sustain their popularity amidst a pro BN government machinery . We have some leaders and their people who behave like children when they started tearing up government papers, taking home government files that belongs to the state and I guess it must be tough running a state especially when they never had done it before. While in the state of Penang, Koh Tsu Koon has shown an exemplary attitude towards handing over of the government, the same cannot be said about the rest. In the case of Selangor, Penang and Perak, it far more difficult because the separation of the state administration and UMNO is very fine. Over the last 50 years, the state administration has been “UMNOnised” .

I was very happy with the latest development in Perak where the state government was finally formed and it was discovered that the ability of the MB to be multilingual. YB, I salute you. You are on the right track. I feel sorry with Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim (TSKI) as he is facing an extremely uphill task. He has yet to form his own cabinet. He face the problem of appointing people because of interference from pro UMNO people around the Sultan who has been ditching out their own “fatwas” on the appointment of the deputy and exco. The law is very clear. The role of the Sultan is well defined in the state laws. The people in this country are educated, so those merry man around the Sultan, please stop giving the wrong advice.

The top state government servant in the state are mostly stalwart UMNO supporters and because of this no matter how good the intention maybe, this people will take measures to slow down the new administration. They will delay his instruction, loose files, sabotage projects and make life very difficult for him. It is not so much about TSKI but they just do not want PKR culture to be accepted in Selangor. There is a very strong worry if PKR are able to run the government efficiently then there are risk of the people in the other state wanting a similar change as well. Tan Sri, you are in one of the toughest state. I hope you will persevere under all this pressure.

Having been in the similar predicament with the MB before albeit at a smaller scale I felt it is my duty to call upon the MB and CM and share my experience with them. Since they are very busy and I understand it perfectly, I have decided to publish this letter in my blog with the hope that he or his advisers will read them. I know it is not so much that they needs it but I feel compelled to remind them as I and many others like me that put him there to run the state.

These strategies in my opinion are not much different new company business strategies.

The focus should be on people and not on development

One of the biggest brag of the BN government is the development that they have brought into the country a lot of FDI, development, tall buildings, longest bridge etc. Without doubt some of this development is relevant and some is not. If one is to analyze the many projects that was done, the real underlying need to do certain development ; it is not so much for the people but for monetary benefits to some people. Very little emphasis was given on the real benefit to the people. Please allow me to illustrate:

a. The privatisation deal of water – Selangor is a rich state with many resources. The government intentionally made JBA Selangor a weak and inefficient organization by reducing their operating budget and made the organization more beurocratic. In the end they use this excuse towards privatizing the water corporation. It is not that the corporation do not have the resources to raise money to buy pipes, to implement a call centre, to hire the right brains to run the organization. It was done with the intention to create an excuse for the water company to be privatize. Who benefits. Few people makes tonnes of money while the majority suffers from paying double of water. This is a country where rain is abundant, rivers run continuously and we even have water underground. Even the underground water now this few people wants to tap and make the users pay. We can the cost of treating water cheap if we keep our rivers clean.

This and many others projects was not done in focus of the people. Remember how the state government justified the “raped” of Bukit Cherakah forest reserves. I remember Khir Toyo said that he has the responsibility to create enough housing for the people. Issue is how many house does one family needs. In the interest of money and profit, the people were neglected. The environment where the people lives was neglected. I know for a matter of fact that Minister of KL also owns low cost shops in Ulu Kelang. I almost bought it from him. God knows how many more properties that he has. The system is not perfect and the system is now being manage to make it perfect. People need houses but houses should not be made as an investment tool. Some people owns 10-20 houses and then they rent it out. What the government is doing is actually creating the artificial demand where it exceed supplies and this contributes to higher cost of property. We can control the environment by creating a better environment for people if we implement one house one family policy. House is a basic need. It should not be made into an investment and bargaining chip. We can look at redevelopment of areas that is more than 50-75 years housing estate without opening up new land. This will create enough houses for everyone. I urge the new government to refocus and look at the people as their primary focus and not money as the focus.

Public Relations

Many successful corporations in the world stays successful because of public relations. Contrary to many people believes, PR is not about telling good stories for people to hear. It is a process where information is gathered from the people, it is analyzed and be turn into policies and actions. For the new government to succeed, this is their biggest challenge. They cannot depend on RTM or TV3 or any of the local papers. This media will certainly and has proven to be use as a tool to make damaging remarks about the Alternative government and their actions. This will make the new government less popular even though its intention is good. It is time that the new government find ways and means to reach every segment of the people to ensure that correct information is gathered and accurate information is disseminated.

Make the state government machinery a professional organization

There are many good and hardworking state civil servant. There are many employees that is impartial and are not goons of the previous government. It is the responsibility of the new government to convert the present government into a proper and professional government agencies. The state can start by working towards making a role model government. It must offer competitive salary structure and performance based rewards independent of the federal government. It must moved towards keeping good quality employees and removed the failed ones. Don’t use the broom, please! Do it professionally. Under perform employees must be removed and not transferred to another place. Pay them off and get rid of them. Keep and reward the good ones properly. Get rid those people who are the “bodek” type.

Under the previous government, many of the powers of the state executives has been taken over by the politicians. They transfer the powers by amending the laws so much so that the department like DOE, Forestry and many others has gone down to the level of advisory. Their powers need to be restored to ensure a need for check and balance. The new government must do this properly to ensure that they become the role model. Tell the public about all this and the public can judge my themselves.

Get the best return on the asset of the State.

On many occasion, the 2nd biggest value of the state asset i.e. the state land (people is the most valuable asset) is given out to certain people at dirt cheap price. If there are companies who wants to develop the state land, then the said piece of land must be place on open bidding. While the state can do the planning and zoning, the actual implementation is done by private sector on competitive bidding. This will ensure that the state income will be generated an this income will be used for the people.

Formation of Good Governance Commission

In Selangor, it is imperative to form a Good Governance Commission to ensure that that people can lodge official complains to an independent body that will act without fear and favour. In the past there are many people in powers that has stolen from the state and this people must be investigate by the commission and to be prosecuted to the full extend of the law. Corruption must be eradicated completely. Procedures must be tighten to ensure the possibility of corruption is zerorised.