Archive for category Public policy
Isn’t a one-race civil service a form of apartheid?
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Good Governance, Public policy, public service on Saturday, 18 June 2011
By Dr Boo Cheng Hau
June 18, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
JUNE 18 — I remember once, as a young medical officer, I was boycotted by operating theatre staff when I wanted stern action taken against a staff nurse who went for a kenduri when she was supposed to scrub for a surgery.
An assistant nurse had to cover up for her delinquent senior. Both the nurses — the one who had absented herself and the one suddenly forced to relieve her duty — were Malay. The young patient lying on my operating table waiting to deliver her baby was Malay too. And also Malay, the anaesthetist and other operating theatre staff who gave me the cold shoulder after I remonstrated with the matron. Read the rest of this entry »
The human face of enterprise
Posted by Kit in Articles, Public policy on Wednesday, 15 June 2011
By KJ John
Jun 14, 11 | The Malaysian Insider
I disagree with Pas president Abdul Hadi Awang about his welfare state idea or ideal. Socialism had the same ideal and idea; but, it is now almost dead. Cuba is its last frontier and is closing down soon. Some others have called the same type of ideal, ‘capitalism with a human face’.
That is much better but not good enough. Capitalism presumes that ‘money is the root of all motivation and life’. But the scriptures say that the love of money is the root of all such evil. I prefer to call such an idea or ideal ‘the human face of enterprise.’
Why cannot man apply enterprise or initiative towards creating good values for all of life? Such enterprise must first subscribe to good universal values, and then create a process which offers a value offering which will transform the quality of human life. When such a creative process is productised into a full value innovation, people are willing to pay money, or even barter for it, and to exchange their personal offering for the new value proposition. Read the rest of this entry »
Transparency of IPP contracts ‘long overdue’
Posted by Kit in Energy, Good Governance, Public policy on Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Kuek Ser Kuang Keng | May 24, 11
Malaysiakini
Calls to reveal ‘secret contracts’ with independent power producers (IPPs) have regained momentum with the announcement by Idris Jala that the government is reviewing gas subsidies provided to this sector.
Idris, a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, told Malaysiakini last week that some of the contracts are expiring and that the subsidies offered will come up for review.
“It’s being renegotiated. The negotiations are going on and we’ve concluded some of them. In due course, we’ll be making an announcement,” Idris had said.
However, one reason for lopsided contracts signed in the early 1990s with first-generation IPPs was the lack of transparency and scrutiny.
It now appears that the mistake may be repeated, as information has not been disclosed on the review of existing contracts or the negotiation of new contracts.
“All contracts relating to subsidies and the public interest, especially in the areas of public utilities, must be made public,” said Klang MP Charles Santiago of the DAP.
He suggested that Parliament should be given a say in the negotiation process with IPPs. Read the rest of this entry »
Instant rejection of proposal for Parliamentary Select Committee on 1Malaysia GTP – cannot withstand public and parliamentary scrutiny?
Posted by Kit in Good Governance, nation building, Public policy on Saturday, 30 January 2010
I am very disappointed that my proposal yesterday for the establishment of an opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme was given the immediate short shrift by the second KPI Minister, Datuk Idris Jala who rejected the proposal out of hand.(Sin Chew)
I find this very revealing but ominous as the instant rejection of the proposal for a Parliamentary Select Committee on 1Malaysia GTP shows that the two KPI Ministers Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon and Idris have no confidence that the GTP Roadmap can go very far out of the laboratory stage to withstand public and parliamentary scrutiny.
They are probably right and it will be most tragic if all the interests of GTP is focused at the laboratory stage more as “academic exercises” than in translating them into actual policies and programmes subject to public and parliamentary scrutiny.
The virtually total absence of public interest in the 1Malaysia GTP Roadmap Launch exhibition at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre yesterday, to the extent that I felt very embarrassed both for myself and for the KPI Ministers when I paid it a visit with DAP MPs Fong Kui Lun (Bukit Bintang) and Tony Pua (PJ Utara), is proof that despite 10 months and tens of millions of ringgit of publicity about the “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” concept, Najib’s Government Transformation Programme has failed to catch fire and is in danger of failing like a damp squib. Read the rest of this entry »
Moratorium on Syabas water disconnections which violate the fundamental human right of the poor to clean water
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Public policy on Monday, 26 November 2007
The Ministry of Water, Energy and Communications should issue an directive to Syabas to impose an immediate moratorium on water disconnections in the concession area of Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya which affect the poor.
Last month, the Coalition Against Water Privatisation (CAWP) and MTUC had spoken up because they were appalled at the high levels of water supply disconnection in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya since water privatization in the last two years.
They had consistently argued that organising water for profits would lead to high levels of disconnections, a notion that violates peoples’ rights and access to clean water. Poor and vulnerable communities might be at risk.
CAWP and MTUC have been proven right and the Ministry should instruct Syabas to develop a humane way of collecting water bills, one where peoples’ right to clean water is not violated. Read the rest of this entry »
Aligning Private Aspirations with Public Good
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, Public policy on Saturday, 24 November 2007
by M. Bakri Musa
Bravo to Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar Mohamad Hasan! In awarding RM25,000 to each first-class honors graduate of local public universities, he clearly demonstrated where the priorities should be. He went further and forgave the students’ loans if they were given by his state agency.
To put that cost in perspective, at a total of about RM300,000 it is less than the inflated cost of one corrupt school laboratory construction project. Yet the benefit far exceeds that of any school computer lab, even if it were well built. As a bonus, unlike a poorly built building, this award program poses no danger to anyone.
Malay leaders, especially those in UMNO, continually lament on the generally backward status of our people despite decades of ever increasingly generous preferential treatment. Unfortunately that is all they are capable of doing — lamenting. Occasionally a bright leader might emerge who in a show of bravado would chastise and upbraid us by degrading our cultural heritage and questioning our biological endowment.
Only very rarely would a leader like Mohamad Hasan do something right, like having an appropriate mechanism in place and aligning the incentive system that would encourage the development of those qualities that we desire in our people. My complimenting Hasan would I hope encourage other leaders to follow his fine example. Read the rest of this entry »
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