Therefore, they may get information based on gossips, half truth and outright falsehood. Fortunately, social media is yet to be taken seriously by larger section of the society. For example, most studies being carried out by professional bodies, institutions of higher learning indicate that an overwhelming majority of the people still get their information from mainstream media. Only between 5 to 7 % get theirs from the social media.
But the percentage can go up quite drastically if the people are left on their own. There is every likelihood they will get influenced more and more by the by social media, which is exploited fully by the opposition elements in fighting for their agenda. Hence, there is a growing realization among leaders in the government of the need to reach out and interact more intelligently with the people at the grass root level in order to know what they really want.
In the old days, a District Officer could get his inputs on conditions in villages or longhouses by listening to gossips while having a cup of coffee in a coffee shop. But nowadays people are busy with activities to earn more money for themselves and their families. Therefore, they have less time to gossip in coffee shops any more. As a consequence, sources of information even for the District officer are slowly drying up.
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| Chief Minister Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud hitting a gong to mark the opening of th Local Authorities' Councillors Seminar held at Pullman Hotel, Kuching on March 21, 2011 |
Obviously, other sources of Information have got to be explored. A District Officer, who is also the Chairman of a local council, should be able to know a lot of things if efforts can be made to activate the council to have greater contacts with the people in the implementation of government policies.
The local council, being the nearest government machinery to the people, can be used to interact more intelligently with the people. A District officer, as the Chairman of the council can get in touch with the people more and more. This can be made easier as more and more people with good education and having interests to interact with the Rakyat are being appointed as councilors.
Understandably, as local authorities are close to the people, the State government has decided to entrust them to implement social policies. Obviously, component parties of Barisan Nasional must reduce politicking among them at the level of the local government to successfully implement such policies. For example, they must avoid arguing about politics at the level of local councils in order to get things done for the people.
Therefore, councilors should not be appointed purely on political ground. Instead, they should be appointed based on their interests to work for the people in order to reduce fights and arguments among them. Later when they decide to become full time politicians they will have good credentials with people on the ground having trust in them. After all, there are already enough elements of politics to be argued at the level of the elected representatives namely Members of Parliament and State Legislative Assembly. They can argue and tackle issues at appropriate avenues.
Understandably, the Ministry of Social Development has to be revamped in order to create a channel through which it can work closely with local authorities in implementing its social policies. Actually, the Ministry has laid out a number of social policies but yet to be implemented as it does not have sufficient officers in every district for the purpose.
Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, in announcing his Cabinet reshuffle last week, says the social policies that have been laid out by the Ministry of Social Development, after thorough studies, will be implemented through the local government.
However, its immediate task is to carry out studies on what needs to be done to get the government machinery closer and be more interactive with the people in a healthy social way. Undoubtedly, the neighborhood way, as a process of socialization, can help to enhance bonding of the society as the State and country move to become a developed nation towards 2020 and beyond.
It can be anticipated, as development comes up, a lot of people will move away from kampong or longhouses to housing estates. Suddenly, they live among strangers. Hence, there is a need for them to be brought together through the process of bonding like involving themselves in neighborhood program.
In this connection, the Ministry of Social Development can also help to implement appropriate training program to train officers to promote sports and culture among the grass root people, among youth in particular. Besides, councilors, who are close to the people, can also be trained to organize events like seminars or courses for the grass root people.
Pehin Sri Abdul Taib believes, the structure of the government, once the restructure of the three fundamental departments are being carried out, will enable the Government to do things in new ways, for example, in tacking problems relating to development. The reorganization will not be complete until the next five years from now; Agriculture will be longer.
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| Chief Minister Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud and other state dignitaries watching a video presentation in conjunction with the Local Authorities' Councillors Seminar held at Pullman Hotel, Kuching |
He says his cabinet reshuffle is to prepare for the transfer of power from his generation to the new generation. The people, who were elected in the last elections, will become leaders in future. They will be able to discharge their duties with greater efficiency as they will have machinery through which they can engage with the people in a more equipped manner.
Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the immediate task of the new Ministry of Welfare, Women and Pre-school affairs is to take a re-look at the welfare list, which has been found to include people who do not need social help at all. Worse, it excludes a lot of people, who really need help. Unfortunately, poor people not only have no money but do not know their way about in the society; they are ignorant.
Hence, the task of the new Ministry is to come up with a welfare list that reflects people who really need help. The revised list must be up to date to serve as the basis to provide welfare to those who really need them. The Ministry will also come up with the roles of women in economic productivity and better bringing up of children, who will be involved in the transformation of education from pre-school education.
He says the children must be brought up to become self-propelled learners, who believe in life-long learning in the transformation of education as the State can never cope with the process of industrialization unless the people are propelled by self-learning.
Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the Cabinet reshuffle heralds a new form of government that emphasizes on the participation of the people in a more productive way at the level of grass-root in the process of development. It is anticipated that the people will become more demanding and eager to participate in a more productive way in the process of development. They want to be more interactive and be fully engaged with the machinery of the government.
Basically, the change in the machinery of the government is to keep up with the change in the political mood and aspiration of the people. It must be able to cope with new ways of implementing development for the people. In the old days, the government provided grants for minor rural projects. But even a MRP project may cost hundreds of thousands of ringgit now. For example, a Member of Parliament or a State Assemblyman has to ask for bigger projects because all minor ones have been done on the ground.
In the old days, the State could only open up 30,000 to 50,000 hectares of land during a development plan of five years. Hence, there were problems of unemployment among the people. Now, the State has been successful in opening up nearly 1 million hectares of land for estates or plantations. The phase is coming up to necessitate the State government to spend more time with the development of lands including NCR land for commercial purposes.
benuasains
*Photos Source:
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