Bukit

Got this from my Alumni. Very good (in my opinion).

People might say only a few kuihs per meeting, what is the deal? I would
say, why don't they go and buy food like the other people? Yea, we are
grateful they they worked in the government and supposedly oiled the
engines for our living....but come on la. I was there, per meeting they
spend hundreds RM to feed not only the 10 people in the meeting, but the
whole department. Also, siap tapau lagik.

And some departments, even have the selective caterer/restaurants...which
of course charged insanely high.

Every little bit, counts. Like the Malay proverb, "Sedikit, sedikit...lama-
lama jadi bukit".

You walk the talk first
Musings
By MARINA MAHATHIR

The Government wants us to change our lifestyles to cope with inflation. It
is easier said than done since most people were having it difficult even
before the hikes. The Government must first set an example by doing things
it should have done long ago.

WITH the recent hike in fuel prices and the Government's exhortations for
us to change our lifestyles in order to cope, may I provide here some
suggestions for the Government and those who work for it to "share our
burden".

1. Stop having meetings, especially out at resorts, far enough away to be
able to claim transport allowances . Have online meetings instead or
teleconferences. Use Skype or chat.

2. No need to order special pens, bags, T-shirts, notepads and other
goodies for those same meetings.

3. No need to order kuih for mid-morning or teatime meetings in government
offices, or nasi briyani lunches for those meetings that happen to end just
at lunchtime.

4. Cancel all trips for government servants to conferences overseas unless
they return with full reports of what they did there , who they met and
what they learnt and how they mean to apply what they learnt at home. Ask
them to do presentations to colleagues who did not get to go, on the most
interesting and important papers that they read.

5. Scrutinise invoices for contracts to make sure they are truly reflective
of what those projects or supplies cost .

6. Stop elaborate launches for government programmes. In particular, stop
the buying of souvenirs, special batik shirts, corsages, bouquets and caps.

7. Make all civil servants and politicians travel economy class. That means
really travelling at the back of the plane and not buying full fare economy
class tickets that allow them to be upgraded to Business Class.

8. Stop having the full complement of police escorts to cut down on petrol
costs. If they need to be somewhere by a certain time, start earlier like
the rest of us. Wouldn't be a bad thing for them to also experience a
traffic jam.

9. Once a week (or more), have ministers use public transport so they know
what everyone else has to suffer . This might provide them with the
incentive to improve them.

10. Once a week, let ministers go to a market to buy food for their
families with instructions to not spend more than RM100.

11. Get ministers to carpool . They might get more work done just by being
able to talk to each other to see what can be coordinated between their
ministries. For instance, the Ministers of Health and Women could discuss
what to do about women's health issues in the car on the way to work. Maybe
have a secretary to travel in the front seat to take down notes on what was
discussed. By the time they get to their offices, things can get
implemented.

12. Once a month, get civil servants to work with one disadvantaged group
in order to be better able to appreciate their problems . It could be blind
people one month, hearing disabled people the next, orang asli the
following month and people living with HIV/AIDS after that.
We could start buddy systems which pair one civil servant with one
disadvantaged person and at the end of it, ask each pair to make
recommendations on how to make life better for each other. This might get
rid of the problem of desk jockeys, people who never stray very far from
their desks yet make policies for people they know nothing about.

13. Have PA systems that shout out the name of the officers who have to
serve people at government offices so that people get the services they
came for and don't have to keep coming back just because the officer was
out having coffee.
No counter should be left unmanned for more than five minutes before the
officer is paged to go back to their stations. This should cut down waiting
time for the public and save them transport costs in having to keep
returning just to get one thing done.

14. Government officers who lose people's files should be fined and have
their names publicised for being careless and causing inconvenience to the
public. Instead of making the public travel to their offices several times
to deal with their problems, they should travel to go see their client and
deal with it right there and then.
And every officer who goes out of the office should be given a reasonable
time to get his work done after which he is expected back in office so he
doesn't waste time doing something else.

15. And newspapers should save paper by reporting real news rather than
non-news that they carry, particularly nonsensical utterances by
politicians.

As they say, we need to do this all together in order to make a difference.

 
¶ 7:44 AM
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