JOHOR BARU, Feb 20 — The Johor government’s success lacks publicity and is in need of integrated measures to convey the information to the public, said a senior state government executive committee member.
Johor Housing, Communications and Multimedia Committee chairman Dzulkefly Ahmad said this was based on a recent study conducted by independent researchers where a large percentage of respondents do not have information on policies, programmes and success stories about the state government.
He said the study, with a particular emphasis on Johor, was conducted via face-to-face interviews by the independent researchers, and not just through telephone interviews.
“It is said that about 80 per cent of the respondents do not have information on the Johor government’s initiatives,” said Dzulkefly.
Despite the large percentage, Dzulkefly said the state government will approach the matter positively.
“We will take it as a collective challenge as it is necessary for us to work as a team, so that every citizen of Johor receives information from the government as expected,” he said in an interview with Johor FM in conjunction with the radio station’s 55th anniversary at Johor Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) in Jalan Tasek Utara here today.
Present was Johor Broadcasting Department deputy director Shahri Saripan.
According to Dzulkefly, who is also the Kota Iskandar assemblyman, the Johor Broadcasting Department and Johor FM have played a positive role in communicating information to the people, but still needs the continuity to improve further.
“We do not stop there. The process of improvement must be done from time to time in order to provide the best quality of services,” he said.
On a related matter, Dzulkefly said a quick response mechanism for communicating information to the public is being drafted.
He said the matter was discussed at a meeting of state communication excos with Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo in Putrajaya recently.
“One of the things that was emphasised is that when it comes to an issue related to the state and federal governments, we will come up with an explanation as soon as possible,” said Dzulkefly.
He said the initiative will be one of the performance targets set by his office.
