You walk the talk first

By MARINA MAHATHIR

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.

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.

Thank You.

Marina Mahathir

p/s: aku xtau la betol ke x Marina yg bg statement ni. tapi really good want! pemimpin mesti sama2 rasa apa yg rakyat rasa, right???? pemimpin spttnya, sediakan keselesaan utk rakyat, sedia berkorban utk rakyat. sbb, menjadi pemimpin, bermaksud menyediakan diri utk dihisab oleh Allah dgn lebih lanjut dari yg dipimpin. sbbnya, mendapat amanah utk memimpin org lain. amanah adalah seberat2 beban utk dipikul..x mampu memikul amanah, lu pikirla sendiri..