It's all about caring for people (Part 8)

WE PRAY this time on-wards the Prime Minister's Office's strong and effective leadership will be much more than "an army of sheep led by a lion", but "an army of lion-hearted-pro-business bureaucrats led by resilient, savant, competent, business savvy, agile enabler bureaucrats.

Those not only with what is between their ears and in front of their eyes, but those, with guts and determination, ever willing to dirty his hands, and endure unpopularity to clean up the mess, to throw away their own "bureaucratic skeletons", (but not into the Brunei River!, The Brunei Times, September 27, 2007, "Municipal Staff caught dumping into river."), to convert those Little Napoleons into trusted competent SME's companions; ever willing to listen, understand, appreciate the real problems of the citizens, to be genuinely empathetic of their problems, and in particular be supportive of the SMEs to develop and sustain our economic development, as advised by those Hadiths and the titahs. Walk the talk. Not talk and talk. Ditangga melepaskan batok.

This new intent for positive transformation is similar to the assertion made by Carolyn McCall: "I don't want everyone to come to head office, I don't like the whole concept of head office. Going out to talk to everyone, not just directors, in their place of work is the only way to truly understand what to both support and challenge the business." — Carolyn McCall, Guardian Media Group (From the book, "On Leadership" by Allan Leighton).

Again please also digest the book "Dynamic Governance: Embedding Culture Capabilities and Change in Singapore" by Professors Neo Boon Siong and Geraldine Chen. Professor Neo and Chen, among others, emphatically stress the vital importance of being able to "think ahead", "think again" and "think across".

Think ahead to perceive (to anticipate) changes in the environment and put in place policies to help the people to cope with potential threats and to take advantage of new opportunities.

Think again to reflect on what we are currently doing, to assess whether laws and policies are still relevant to the national agenda and effective to meet the long-term needs of the people.

Think across to learn from others, and continually incorporate the new perceptions, reflections and knowledge into the beliefs, rules, laws, policies, and structures to enable the government and the people to adapt to environmental change.

Note the main thrust of the three attributes or objectives:

to help people;

to meet the needs of the people, and

the symbiotic relationship of the government with the people.

All about people, concerning people, dealing with people, caring for people. The final goal is for the benefit, success and happiness of the people, the Nation. Never ever to score off the people, to burden the people. This mixture of mental prowess, agility, trust, empathy and determination is in fact the essence of those titahs.

All intended to help the people to progress and to succeed which translate into national socio-economic progress, national survival; never ever intended to erect barriers, to entrap and prosecute and criminalise people because this would be nationally suicidal.

To make people and country successful and economically progressive is so complex and takes ages. It requires intelligence, expertise, diligence, trust, sacrifices and empathy of all parties. To make people fail is so fast and so simple; all we need is insensitivity and antipathy, a dash of stupidity and arrogance.

We earnestly pray that the quick positive outcome of this strong and effective leadership of the Prime Minister's Office's world-public undertaking, would meet the necessary prerequisites for our steady , unhindered, socio-economic progress as a given truism.

We earnestly pray the psyche of our entire civil service will be quickly transformed into more transparent, dynamic, responsive, competent, accountable, effective, efficient, empathetic, guiding, leading, having coordinating, linkage mechanism and common principles exercising essential due diligence of intradepartmental-checking-and-cross checkings to prevent victimisation, to promote SMEs propagation.

We interpret the adjectives "dynamic" and "responsive" as being business minded, pro-supportive of businesses/SMEs, knowledgeable, speedily responding to the needs of the citizens/entrepreneurs, solving their problems, rather than causing them mental and financial harm; giving them correct, helpful guidance, rather than causing them in constant alarmed; in harmonious symbiotic, economically productive relationship with the citizens/ the entrepreneurs and their SMEs, rather than treat them as the enemy.

The bureaucrats must learn how to love the entrepreneurs, not to loath them. Take care of the goose which lays the golden eggs, we will InshaAllah have a long lasting golden age.

The secret of achieving a golden age is by heeding those Hadiths, and the essence of those titahs, which coincidentally are reflected in the words of Professors Neo and Chen that a civil service must grow and evolve in tandem with the demands and expectations of the society which it serves through "... constantly learning, continually changing, quietly improving and innovating.openness to abandon past practices and experiment with new ideas ... with multiple interactions and interdependencies, with effective and rapid implementation ... based on "think(ing) ahead, think(ing) again and think(ing) across".

This process of "multiple interactions and interdependencies" is similar to the vital need to quickly install and execute an efficient practice of the essential due diligence — intradepartmental-cross-counter-checking to prevent rash, unilateral arbitrary exclusivist interpretations of laws, and to prevent damaging cross-purposes. And the paradox of "approving authority" and "controlling authority" must be converted, into "efficiency of permitting", "The efficiency of permitting", is an expression used by Harvard Professor Michael Porter. And in the words of Raymond Lim (Singapore Minister of State), on promoting entrepreneurship in Singapore, "In its dealings with business, the government should set the default key to "yes" rather than "No".

"Yes" is national survival; "No" national suicide.

"It is never enough to have had good intentions, or to have followed moral rules, if the consequence is that the community is unprotected and its welfare suffers" ("Good and Bad Power" by Geoff Mulgam).

This condition is similar to what is Divinely Advised in the Holy Quran Surah Al Baquarah, 2: Verse 173, that "forbidden (haram) food can be temporarily consumed if starvation threatens. If starvation threatens life, turn to "Yes" key during the threat. National survival implies the constant struggles to progress economically, to stay above the turbulent waters.

Once we have firmly and widely established the desired efficient, effective, trustworthy, empathetic, pro-supportive of businesses civil service machinery and process, properly "approving" rather than arbitrarily "controlling" and criminalising entrepreneurs, it would then be a truism then that "Education must meet market demand" (The Brunei Times August 28, 2007).

In simple business-economic logic, one cannot just create supply ("education") without first having created DEMAND for the SUPPLY. The demand side is created through "efficiency of permitting", efficient, effective, dynamic, responsive, empathetic approvals and implementations of business ideas which first needs (creates demand for) workers (educated, skilled, semi-skilled) to start the business, to make purchases, to build factories, etc, to install various types of assets for production/provision of services, to produce/to provide products/services, to market them, and to manage the entire business.

In other words, a civil service which is inefficient in permitting, which is anti-business would effectively suffocate MARKET DEMAND for the right, appropriate education and skills. "Many new Malay graduates flock to the government sector because ... they find harder than others to find jobs in the private sector ... And the situation becoming more acute because fewer jobs are being created." (Datuk Dr Zainal Aznam Yusof, economist, The Strait Times September 24, 2007), (emphasis added.)

A growing, flourishing economy will always create MARKET DEMAND for both educated, skilled workers and unskilled workers.So, the correct proposition should be: Facilitate the creation of market demand for appropriate education.

Demand creates supply. Flourishing, constant demand comes from successful creation of and flourishing SMEs. This in a nutshell is Singapore's story of its economic growth dynamic. But in Brunei Darussalam a worrying triple whammy phenomenon exists: It depends if the suitably qualified, skilled "horses" are willing, are having a desire to go to the river to drink, and if they do, not get drowned!; the anti-business mentality, attitude of those Little Napoleons suffocate growth of SMEs; and the purchasing power leakages and lack of market economies of scale debilitates domestic demand pull.

The Prime Minister's Office world-public avowed determination to force a dramatic paradigm shift on the Civil Service quality to be one of the best must not overlook the essence of The Brunei Times (October 18, 2006) editorial's independent advice that: "As a nation's gold mine, youth need guidance and improvement", that "Rather than arrest more, perhaps we should engage them so that we many derive the best from them and also empower this energetic section of our society for the sake of Brunei future".

As is counselled by your editorial, we strongly feel that arresting more youth is akin to just dumping rubbish into a dust bin (not into the Brunei River, The Brunei Times, September 27, 2007 which will forment and breed all sorts of bacterias and germs, and emit nauseating smell affecting, sickening us all, that is, we just cannot discard human beings, our "arrested youth" into the ocean! (or into the Brunei River). We have to look after them. We have to rehabilitate them. This is our human asset liability. But it is our collective responsibility. Under the muddy waters there could be diamond and gold that glitter.

Conversely, treading along the similar vein of your advice, those young entrepreneurs who are determined to be self-reliant, to take business/financial risks must not be harassed and criminalised, because they themselves are victims of bureaucratic delays, inefficiencies and lack of empathy. Instead they should be encouraged, welcomed, be guided, supported to realise their dreams to support themselves through businesses; some of them may succeed and flourish into creators of national employment and generators of income. Nurture the acorns to grow healthier into giant oak trees.

But very sadly and a great loss to the country, this concern of yours is equally applicable to the situation where entrepreneurs are being harassed, criminalised thereby consequently, seriously imparing, damaging our national productive capacity and capabilities, hence eventually our national economic progress will flounder. One holding, delaying; another hitting, prosecuting, leaving the hapless entrepreneurs emotionally and financially bleeding.

In actual fact, the end product is the entrepreneurial spirit, dreams, productive capacities of the nation which are wilting. So the bureaucrats must urgently resolve their own bureaucratic unjust barriers, hurdles, that kill business initiative, dreams, that regress development and multiply sufferings.

Yang Dimuliakan Pehin Orang Kaya Lela Raja Dato Seri Laila Jasa Haji Awang Abdul Rahman bin Haji Awang Karim, DSLJ, PJK was formerly Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defence



Part 9 continues tomorrow