No more mission impossible
By IZATUN SHARI and HARIATI AZIZAN
sunday@thestar.com.my
Idris: ‘What we promised, we have more than delivered’
HE may be a Minister without Portfolio in the Prime Minister’s Department, but Senator Datuk Seri Idris Jala’s workload is no lighter than his other colleagues’.
And the past year has been quite a marathon for Idris, who is also the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) CEO. As Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s designated “chief reformist” in his Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), Idris has had to move and shake, depending on where you stand, the widely torpid social and economic institutions of the country.
This he had to do amid reverberating criticism from the naysayers both online and offline, who felt that he was too inexperienced and politically naive to turn things around.
Yet the pressure was hardly visible on the face of the affable and energetic 52-year-old, non-political Cabinet member who was at Menara Star in Petaling Jaya recently to give The Star editors a briefing on the GTP and ETP.
It was a few days before the Christmas and New Year holidays but the man from Bario, Sarawak, was focused on his task as he rapidly spewed out facts and figures to sell the government’s grand plans of change.
When asked for his thoughts on how efforts to realise the six National Key Result Areas (NKRA) under the GTP – crime; corruption; education; low-income households; public transport and rural basic infrastructure – are progressing so far, he was upbeat.
“I’m very happy. What we promised, we have more than delivered,” he unhesitatingly declared.
The NKRAs have not only met the targets set for the first year of the three-year national makeover plan, but also surpassed them, added Idris.
Top of the “success list” is crime-reduction NKRA.
The initiatives in the last 11 months – the mobilisation of 14,222 police officers to 50 hotspots, installation of 496 CCTVs in those hotspots, and ranking of 753 police stations for their achievements - have begun to bear fruit and crime incidents in those areas have fallen.
“The progress on crime is fantastic because this is the first time in three years we’ve been able to bring down crime rates. It has never overall gone down before,” Idris pointed out.
Police figures show that the overall crime index fell by 16% while street crime dropped to 38% between January and November this year as compared to the corresponding period last year.
Another achievement that he was pleased about was the improving education NKRA. Idris said that to date, it has exceeded its target for preschool enrolment with 55,056 children going to pre-schools compared to between January and November.
“I’m very excited about education. I’m very pleased with the work that we’ve done ranking 9,814 primary and secondary schools and 20 high performing schools and their principals, teachers and non-academic staff receiving incentives. We’ve also seen improvement in the results of the students at the bottom end of the schools.”
He said he was even heartened when he saw the modest achievement in what he considered the most “complex” NKRA – combating corruption.
As revealed in a survey conducted by Transparency International (TI) Global Corruption Barometer 2010, there was a slight improvement in the public’s perception on government’s efforts in fighting graft.
“I was impressed by the results in TI’s survey, which showed that 48% of Malaysians think that government efforts on corruption are effective (up from 28% in 2009).
“For an independent survey to show such positive response, it gives me hope that the people in this country can look at what is good and criticise what is not good. Only then can the Government respond adequately,” he said.
He is also optimistic that the newly-passed Whistleblower Protection Act will be a big deterrent to graft while promoting more transparency in the process of awarding government contracts and tenders.
What Malaysians need to do now is to recognise the good performances, he said.
“The civil servants need to be applauded because it is their work. I always tell people when the civil servants do a good job, we should recognise that they have done a good job.”
Idris nevertheless conceded that the greatest challenge in implementing the initiatives under the GTP was to get the rakyat to be aligned along the same thinking and convincing them that the new methodologies introduced would deliver results.
He hoped the Netizens, in particular, would also begin to recognise some of the positive performances. They have been particularly hard on him in the last 12 months but Idris has taken it all in his stride.
He said he does not disregard the negative views, however, and has taken time to reply to the comments and queries on the blogs with the necessary facts and details.
“I believe the rakyat only believe in results. It is the results that count. When people see reduction in crime, improvement in urban transport, children attending pre-school classes, eventually people will believe.”
Idris believe that this is largely due to Pemandu’s bottom-up strategy in implementing programmes – where public concerns are sought and heeded.
As seen in Pemandu’s subsidy rationalisation programme, which has received some flak after it led to a reactionary increase in prices of essential goods, he said Pemandu’s original recommendation for the fuel price increase was 15sen but after listening to the people it only went up 5sen per litre.
The public had indicated that it (fuel subsidy) could be reduced but done gradually and in small doses, Idris pointed out, and he is confident that it will not affect public support for the GTP.
“Gauging from the public opinion, they can accept it (the increase in fuel price). It was not sudden. People can adjust to it. At the same time, it allows us to improve urban transport so that people can have alternatives.”
Asked about Pemandu’s hope for the GTP initiatives for next year, he quipped: “Three key words describe the transformation we are pursuing: big results fast!”
We will keep working, he pledged.
“The GTP is a three-year programme. We’ve finished one year. We have two more years to go. After that I believe we should go back to the public and ask them for areas of focus. If they say there should be additional areas of focus such as health, we will do it.”
Idris believes that the key for further achievement is for the Government to look at areas of improvement and always return to what the public want.
Dispelling the fast-growing notion that the GTP initiatives are merely aimed at propelling Barisan Nasional’s popularity among voters, specifically in view of the looming general election, he insisted, “We are not into politics. We are just doing our job.”
And when pressed if he planned to offer himself as a candidate in the coming Sarawak elections, he adamantly stated, “I will not get involved in politics. That is something I will never do.”
