AT YOUR SERVICE
By DATUK NICHOLAS S. ZEFFERYS
After three years, Pemudah, initially set up to make public delivery service more effective and efficient, now faces the same question it put to others. Has it been effective in effecting mindset change?
PEMUDAH (Government’s Special Task Force to Facilitate Business) has been in existence for over three years now. It is perhaps appropriate to review how and why it came about.
In his book, Business at the Speed of Thought, billionaire Bill Gates wrote that business would change more in the next decade than it had in the past 50 – and it has indeed. The speed of change requires all organisations to conduct an honest stocktaking, asking “How are we doing?” and then doing something about the gaps.
In the private sector, this usually comes in the form of continuous feedback from customers and investors. Failure to listen to feedback in the private sector leads to complacency and, ultimately, insolvency and bankruptcy.
In the public sector, feedback comes in the form of complaints from stakeholders and also the global ranking of countries. Failure to heed either leads to complacency and a slow, gradual decline in service delivery.
Once, when somebody asked him how he had gone bankrupt, a businessman replied. “Gradually, then suddenly.” It is in the nature of people and organisations to gradually fall into a pattern of complacency, particularly when things seem to be going well. Then, suddenly and inexplicably, they are shocked to find themselves hopelessly adrift.
Investment in Malaysia – both foreign and domestic – has been on a declining trend for over a decade. A reality check came from a World Bank report comparing countries on several measures. It showed that it was just too difficult to do business in Malaysia, which was ranked very poorly on nearly all components of the business life cycle processes.
Pemudah was formed on Feb 7, 2007, during Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s leadership. He wanted a customer-centric government that was world class in the delivery of government services. He had in his mind a new vehicle – drawing on the private sector to provide another lens through which to evaluate and transform government processes and procedures.
The Chief Secretary to the Government was appointed the Chair to the Taskforce. Abdullah conceived Pemudah as a public-private partnership (PPP) that went well beyond being a dialogue between the two. This was demonstrated by sharing its chairmanship with private sector leader Tan Sri Yong Poh Kon.
Pemudah’s goal was to vault Malaysia to the Top 10 in global competitiveness. The first official meeting was on Feb 23, 2007. The principle shared goal by all members in the public and private sectors was to “McDonaldise” government delivery. It was, among others, to ensure accountability, deadlines on action items, and question the need for burdensome rules designed to catch less than 1% of the abusers.
The Chief Secretary expressed the need for mindset changes and encouraged ministries and agencies to take proactive initiatives, even beyond what Pemudah may recommend or emphasise.
The private sector representatives expressed concern about flip-flops on decisions and the need to shake the bushes with stakeholders before the implementation of policy changes or new policies. Among others, they placed importance on Malaysian Investment Development Authority’s empowerment as a one-stop shop, enhancing the “rule of law” and a review of unnecessary procedures in order to speed up delivery. The mindset change was to transform processes to achieve transaction completions in days, rather than months.
Government and private sector processes came under the lens of both effectiveness and efficiency – “doing the right things right”. Nothing was sacred – neither entire organisations nor processes within or across ministries and sectors. The focus was not only on improving what was in place, but also defining new measures, processes, or Acts.
Indeed, when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak met with Pemudah, he expanded its role to cover not only business but other outcomes which affected the rakyat.
Ultimately, sustainability of the transformation process requires a mindset change. The Pemudah model takes the public-private relationship beyond dialogues that are simply an often inconsequential airing of issues and gripes. It moves it to a higher plateau of shared responsibility for effecting change in the status quo. The private sector is invited to sit equally at the same table with government officials and the collective “team” is charged with the responsibility to improve Malaysia’s positioning.
PPP collaboration has yielded not only measurable outcomes but it has perhaps, more importantly, yielded a change of mindsets. The public sector has moved from victims and functionals to energised and empowered leadership under the guidance of Pemudah co-chairs Tan Sri Sidek Hassan and Yong.
Of great pride to all Pemudah members is the recently conferred award to Tan Sri Hasmah Abdullah for her efforts in modernising and creating a customer-centric Inland Revenue Board, the modernisation of the judicial system and the creation of Commercial Courts, new guidelines on registering property and many others that Pemudah either directly or indirectly effected.
Pemudah is a work in progress and this PPP remains committed to continue to improve the government delivery system to serve the rakyat and all stakeholders in Malaysia.
After three years, Pemudah, initially set up to make public delivery service more effective and efficient, now faces the same question it put to others. Has it been effective in effecting mindset change?
PEMUDAH (Government’s Special Task Force to Facilitate Business) has been in existence for over three years now. It is perhaps appropriate to review how and why it came about.
In his book, Business at the Speed of Thought, billionaire Bill Gates wrote that business would change more in the next decade than it had in the past 50 – and it has indeed. The speed of change requires all organisations to conduct an honest stocktaking, asking “How are we doing?” and then doing something about the gaps.
In the private sector, this usually comes in the form of continuous feedback from customers and investors. Failure to listen to feedback in the private sector leads to complacency and, ultimately, insolvency and bankruptcy.
In the public sector, feedback comes in the form of complaints from stakeholders and also the global ranking of countries. Failure to heed either leads to complacency and a slow, gradual decline in service delivery.
Once, when somebody asked him how he had gone bankrupt, a businessman replied. “Gradually, then suddenly.” It is in the nature of people and organisations to gradually fall into a pattern of complacency, particularly when things seem to be going well. Then, suddenly and inexplicably, they are shocked to find themselves hopelessly adrift.
Investment in Malaysia – both foreign and domestic – has been on a declining trend for over a decade. A reality check came from a World Bank report comparing countries on several measures. It showed that it was just too difficult to do business in Malaysia, which was ranked very poorly on nearly all components of the business life cycle processes.
Pemudah was formed on Feb 7, 2007, during Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s leadership. He wanted a customer-centric government that was world class in the delivery of government services. He had in his mind a new vehicle – drawing on the private sector to provide another lens through which to evaluate and transform government processes and procedures.
The Chief Secretary to the Government was appointed the Chair to the Taskforce. Abdullah conceived Pemudah as a public-private partnership (PPP) that went well beyond being a dialogue between the two. This was demonstrated by sharing its chairmanship with private sector leader Tan Sri Yong Poh Kon.
Pemudah’s goal was to vault Malaysia to the Top 10 in global competitiveness. The first official meeting was on Feb 23, 2007. The principle shared goal by all members in the public and private sectors was to “McDonaldise” government delivery. It was, among others, to ensure accountability, deadlines on action items, and question the need for burdensome rules designed to catch less than 1% of the abusers.
The Chief Secretary expressed the need for mindset changes and encouraged ministries and agencies to take proactive initiatives, even beyond what Pemudah may recommend or emphasise.
The private sector representatives expressed concern about flip-flops on decisions and the need to shake the bushes with stakeholders before the implementation of policy changes or new policies. Among others, they placed importance on Malaysian Investment Development Authority’s empowerment as a one-stop shop, enhancing the “rule of law” and a review of unnecessary procedures in order to speed up delivery. The mindset change was to transform processes to achieve transaction completions in days, rather than months.
Government and private sector processes came under the lens of both effectiveness and efficiency – “doing the right things right”. Nothing was sacred – neither entire organisations nor processes within or across ministries and sectors. The focus was not only on improving what was in place, but also defining new measures, processes, or Acts.
Indeed, when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak met with Pemudah, he expanded its role to cover not only business but other outcomes which affected the rakyat.
Ultimately, sustainability of the transformation process requires a mindset change. The Pemudah model takes the public-private relationship beyond dialogues that are simply an often inconsequential airing of issues and gripes. It moves it to a higher plateau of shared responsibility for effecting change in the status quo. The private sector is invited to sit equally at the same table with government officials and the collective “team” is charged with the responsibility to improve Malaysia’s positioning.
PPP collaboration has yielded not only measurable outcomes but it has perhaps, more importantly, yielded a change of mindsets. The public sector has moved from victims and functionals to energised and empowered leadership under the guidance of Pemudah co-chairs Tan Sri Sidek Hassan and Yong.
Of great pride to all Pemudah members is the recently conferred award to Tan Sri Hasmah Abdullah for her efforts in modernising and creating a customer-centric Inland Revenue Board, the modernisation of the judicial system and the creation of Commercial Courts, new guidelines on registering property and many others that Pemudah either directly or indirectly effected.
Pemudah is a work in progress and this PPP remains committed to continue to improve the government delivery system to serve the rakyat and all stakeholders in Malaysia.
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