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.
Domino effect: The latest fuel price hike will set off a chain reaction, making almost everything more expensive.
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. So if the Government and politicians make these lifestyle changes, I will do my part and change mine.
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Dear Marina Mahathir...
Saya respect dengan keberanian kamu menyuarakan pendapat...walaupun kamu itu sebenarnya anak Mantan PM tapi nampak sekali..agak berbeza haluannya...
No. 1 - Saya jenis yang tidak boleh lama2 stay di office...saya suka sekali sekala dapat keluar ofis...ambil angin segar...so kalau sekali sekala ada acara atau meeting di Luar OFFICE...itu bagi sy reward kepada CIVIL SERVANTS...dan biasanya kalau ada pengangkutan disediakan...memang TIDAK BOLEH claim mileage pun...mau pakai teleconference..idea yang bagus..tapi sejauh mana keberkesanan ka kaedah itu? have u tried meeting thru skype? OFFICIAL MEETING?
No. 2 - AGREED
No. 3 - AGREED. Sebenarnya sudah ada dasar penjimatan pun...tapi x tau macam mana, ada meeting yg masih sangat mewah..tapi kan..
No. 4 - Tidak sampai tahap CANCEL ALL kali kan...tapi saya setuju..perlu pergi dengan balik 'berisi'...ini kadang2 yang pegi tu bukan buat report pun..paling worst...org yg betul2 kena pergi x dpt pergi bagi sama orang lain...alih2 orang yang x pergi kena buat report..yang ini memang SYA pun setuju dengan MM.
No, 5 - Saya rasa suda dilaksanakan pun sekarang
No. 6 - ehmmm...biasalah acara governments...siapa lagi kalo bukan gov yang promote...
No.7 - Sekarang ikut gred..kalau gred bos memang layak lah naik first class...tapi x apalah...itu kan keistimewaan...ingat murah ka business class...semua orang teringin mau sekali merasa business class...
No,8 - hahaha...I dont thing Politician will agree on this....but actually it sound interesting to make them experience traffic jam...ehm ada kos tambahan ka kena escort?
No.9 - Agreed, Even PM has done that. Gov should increase/upgrading the public transportations/facilities
No,10 - AGreed. Now adays memang barang MAHAL!
No,11 - wah? boleh ka menjadi ni MM? carpool?
No,12 - IDea ni bagus.
No,13 - Alahai...takkanlah orang pg toilet sekejap pun kena PA juga....lainlah kalau terlampau lama kan...
No,14 - mesti MM ada pengalaman ni hilang dokumen then kena minta balik...tapi jangan hukum sampai tahap macam tu lah bah...
No,15 - agreed!
Saya bagi pandangan sebagai CIVIL SERVANTS...so ada yang sy setuju ada yg mungkin boleh diimprove kan ada yang rasanya tidak boleh pakai...so what say u about this?
