AUGUST 24 — I was particularly impressed with the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) “report card” on the 1Serve initiatives for the Public Service. There was clarity in mission and objectives.
A dedicated team of taskmasters — NBOS Unit under the JPA (Public Service Department) working with key partners, Mampu (Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit), Intan (National Institute of Public Administration), Ministry of Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government and the State Civil Service Secretariat — to deliver the “one counter multiple transactions” service.
They started right — by placing full emphasis on understanding their customer expectations and feeling their experience. In Design Thinking (DT) parlance, it’s empathy. In marketing tenet, it is about selling stuff customers need and not something we can produce.
Our NBOS initiatives cover six select sectors, i.e. public service, community transformation, women, youth and family, safety and security, entrepreneurship and education. These are critical services that we need to get by with, literally on a daily basis.
The better the delivery, the lower our blood pressure reading! It is as much a component of good governance as an independent judiciary and good policing are.
I shall be especially anxious to see 1Serve fully implemented, as intended.
It was downright shameful.
Sports unite — that is a fact. That is as long as politics, especially those of the race and religion sort don’t infiltrate. So far, I don’t think sports policies have been contaminated but weak management in some sports bodies does need serious attention.
Last week two BM national newspapers carried these screaming headlines,
“Peng Soon–Liu Ying disappoint millions of Malaysians” and “Mixed doubles pair manage merely a silver.” Their online versions changed the copy a few hours later after massive onslaught in the social media.
Any casual follower will know the mixed-doubles pair were rank outsiders, meaning if they had survived to the quarterfinals, it would have been an achievement! It is impossible the two dailies had no idea.
What can be such an overriding motivation that can cause the editors to make those shameful decisions? The “disappoint millions” is akin to a blatant lie, while the “merely a silver” appears like the editors succumbed to pressure. To me there was no question of journalistic integrity because it was pure rubbish.
As the situation was, the editors did a grave injustice to the whole nation. The mixed-doubles pair through their grit and determination bound us all in rallying for the glory of Malaysia, and some nincompoops decided they’ve got to split this bond. They were a disgrace!
The owners of these two papers mustn’t let this incident slide. This issue cannot be treated as “an isolated incident” because it was point blank deliberate. It must never happen again!
All of us saw, heard or read of the spontaneity of the rousing support for our three sets of finalists. In those fleeting Olympian moments we were one-Malaysia. Has anyone ever witnessed a prouder and more majestic Jalur Gemilang?
Let’s give the contingent a rip roaring welcome home this afternoon!
Goodness gracious!
I asked what attracted a commuter to use the ride-sharing service (Uber and GrabCar) and I was inundated with — they are clean, on time, safe, polite, fair charges and… It sounded like; on the other hand we get the opposite from the taxi service.
SPAD obviously heard of the good service that is being provided by the ride-sharing service and proposed that we legalise their existence, notwithstanding the loudest hue and cry from the taxi community. That’s a good start, and then SPAD proceeded to appease taxi owners/operators by working on a range of compliances the ride-sharing service must adhere to.
Now it sounded like, bring the Uber and GrabCar service “down” a few notches to the taxi level to create a level playing field. Goodness gracious!
SPAD should seize this opportunity to start work on de-regulation for taxi operations. The raison d’etre and terms of reference for the regulations were drafted in a completely different era.
The authority’s stress should only be on passenger safety. They know why the ride-sharing service is preferred. Just adapt, maybe with minor tweaking. It’s a tested concept and is operating smoothly all over the world.
Perhaps we should also review fleet ownership criteria and promote real enterprise?
Perchance we eliminate all kinds of taxi permits from the political “cookie jar”? Maybe driver-owner should be encouraged? Chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar can choose to regard this new phenomenon, the ride-sharing service, as a wake-up call, and lead the change!
Very recently I used the ride-sharing service from KLIA, as recommended. The driver was polite and helpful with the luggage. He used Waze and arrived at my doorstep with ease. Then he provided a neat receipt detailing fare and toll charges. Oh yes, the car was clean and smelt good.
SPAD should promote free enterprise — help the taxi community by freeing them from being over-regulated. Just allow market forces to dictate. SPAD can do more by doing less.
Postscript
The Finas decision to create the best movie in the National Language category (stand alone) for the 28th Malaysian Film Festival while cancelling the earlier segregated three non-National Language categories is reasonable. They can want to emphasise the usage of BM as long as creativity and realism in moviemaking are not constrained. Common sense prevailed.
Is there a more classic case of “putting one’s foot in one’s mouth” than what that chap from Langkawi did? Made a horrendous boo-boo and continued with a mega horrendous boo-boo in trying to wriggle out of the indefensible. Unbelievable but true!
Thankfully he decided an apology was in order.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
