– extracted and adapted from RAKAN Sarawak April – June 2022 –
Both the Post-COVID-19 Development Strategy 2030 (PCDS 2030) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require an effective and efficient civil service for effective execution. I am confident that our Sarawak Civil Service (SCS) can meet the challenges in the implementation of both the PCDS 2030 and the SDGs.
The SCS of today has made a lot of progress and operates at a high level of efficiency in its service delivery. Over the past few decades, the SCS has explored and adapted various new methods to improve the efficiency of our service delivery. For example, the SCS was in fact one of the institutions in Malaysia which was an early adopter of technology. The Sarawak civil service in the 90s had taken proactive steps to develop our information, communication technology infrastructure (Sarawak Net) which is now the backbone of our other online service applications. We also took steps to train our civil servants in the requisite skills and capacities in using technological tools and systems in our work processes. This has helped us adapt faster when the Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (Dr) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg declared that Sarawak must transform to digital economy. We were able to set up and adopt digital technology systems and tools that are now enabling us to do our work efficiently in the digital age. We have seen how our SCS were very much able to perform its essential tasks of serving the people during the height of the covid 19 pandemic with the use of these technologies and tools.
Nevertheless, we should not be complacent and feel comfortable with this situation and achievements but instead tirelessly re-examine our service paradigm and work on ways to continue to grow to meet the changing needs of society. In adapting innovation in our services, it is certainly the use of technology as the main choice in our operation. However, while technology needs to be prioritised, the soft element should not be ignored.
The explanation and presentation of information on the services we offer and on the government development policies and plans should, from time to time, be combined with ‘old-fashioned’ methods of interpersonal interaction with the general public, such as community dialogues, Customer Day or Agency Open Day. This is important to enable us to obtain and collect feedback in the form of information, suggestions and views from the community directly. Such a feedback mechanism is still relevant, especially in areas far from the administrative centre.
Adopting the new and combining it with the old is helpful in order to achieve balance and sustainable development. Balanced and sustainable development requires strong commitment and high integrity among the people, government leaders and in the government machinery. Sustained commitment is required from all parties to effectively carry out our development action plans as detailed in our PCDS 2030. Sustaining everybody’s commitment to fulfil their roles in achieving the plans will require constant dialogues and interactions between the government, the civil service and the various stakeholders. In fact, it is through these interactions that we will be able to come up with innovative ideas and methods.
When we constantly listen and take into account the feedback we get from our stakeholders in our decision making, the inputs from our stakeholders and customers, such as their feedback, suggestions and even criticisms, can help trigger some pragmatic ideas and methods that we can apply to improve our processes that will best meet their needs and concerns. And that is the crux of why we need to be more innovative, individually and collectively.
Always, at the heart of what we do, is service. And by making our stakeholders our active partners in all that we do by listening to them and taking their needs and concerns, then we can truly serve them meaningfully and effectively.
