Opening Remarks at the 15th Civil Service Conference 2010

OPENING REMARKS BY YBHG TAN SRI MOHD SIDEK HASSAN
CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF MALAYSIA

AT THE FIFTEENTH CIVIL SERVICE CONFERENCE 2010

“EMBRACING THE NEW ECONOMIC MODEL: PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND PEOPLE SYNERGY”

Bismillahir rahmannir rahim

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh, Salam Sejahtera dan Salam 1Malaysia

Y.A.B. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Haji Mohd. Yassin
Timbalan Perdana Menteri Malaysia

Y. Bhg. Dato’ Sri Abu Bakar Haji Abdullah
Ketua Pengarah Perkhidmatan Awam Malaysia

Y. Bhg. Dato’ Seri Dr. Haji Mohd. Nasir Mohd. Ashraf
Presiden Persatuan Perkhidmatan Tadbir dan Diplomatik Malaysia

Ketua Setiausaha-Ketua Setiausaha Kementerian,

Setiausaha-Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri

Ketua-Ketua Jabatan

Dif-dif kehormat

Y. Bhg. Tan Sri-Tan Sri, Dato’ Sri-Dato’ Sri, Dato’-Dato’, Datin-Datin, tuan-tuan dan puan-puan yang dihormati sekalian.

Terlebih dahulu marilah kita bersama-sama memanjatkan kesyukuran ke hadrat Allah SWT kerana dengan izin dan limpah kurnia Nya kita dapat bersama-sama menghadiri majlis pada pagi ini. Bagi pihak perkhidmatan awam dan INTAN, saya ingin merakamkan setinggi-tinggi penghargaan dan ucapan terima kasih kepada Y.A.B. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Haji Mohd. Yassin, Timbalan Perdana Menteri kerana sudi hadir bagi menyempurnakan majlis perasmian Persidangan Perkhidmatan Awam Ke-15, walaupun kita sedia maklum bahawa Y.A.B. Timbalan Perdana Menteri mempunyai jadual yang amat padat.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

2. At the outset I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all of you, who have made time to be here to share your thoughts and ideas with us at this conference. We are especially pleased that our Honourable Deputy Prime Minister has taken time off his busy schedule to be here to share with us his insights into the role of the public and private sectors and our citizenry in the New Economic Model.

3. I believe the theme chosen for this year’s Civil Service Conference is indeed apt. As leaders and members of the Malaysian public sector we have a key role in ensuring the successful implementation of the New Economic Model. Let me share with you my thoughts on where this Conference should be taking us.

4. First: “Where’s the Beef?” This is what we have to have at the back of our mind as we go through the sessions in this Conference. This is the 15th Civil Service Conference. The question is: what has come out of the past 14 Conferences? Yes, Conferences of this sort allow us the opportunity to engage in discourse on subjects of consequence to the effectiveness of the public sector. But are conferences like this just about exchanging ideas and discourse? Do we organise them just because they are on our annual calendar of things we do? What have we done with all the ideas that the past conferences generated? Yes, we have documented the proceedings of the past Conferences. What then has the outcome been?

5. What will we do with the ideas that will be generated from this year’s conference? Remember that we are operating in an environment of intense global competition. We do not have the luxury of engaging in academic discourse for the sake of discourse. Our discussions must be focused on how we value-add to the policies and plans that the Government has outlined. We must focus on outcomes and how we will IMPLEMENT those outcomes.

6. This then brings me to my second point: “The NEM is OURS!” There is no question about it. As leaders and members of the Malaysian civil service we must own the NEM! So this Conference should be less about explaining the New Economic Model and more about how the leaders and members of the civil service will, ONE, work to ‘evangelise’ the benefits of the NEM; TWO, demonstrate that NEM is about inclusiveness in the process of wealth creation; and THREE, how we will use this inclusive engagement to ensure we deliver the goals set out in the NEM.

7. In the same vein, the members of the private sector too must own the NEM. They too must appreciate the clarion call for all of us to change, enhance productivity and face the challenges that this globalised world presents to us. The Economic Transformation Plan cannot take off without ownership by all.

8. My third point: “Radical Change and Engagement, Engagement, Engagement!” Our colleague, the former Director General of Public Service, Tan Sri Ismail Adam, made “Business is not as usual” his mantra when he was appointed as KPPA. And indeed he was and is right. We are all well aware of what we are up against in this highly globalised world where our competitors are not only in the developed world but right next door. The emerging economies within ASEAN are now posing clear and present competition to us in all fields. We cannot continue to do things as we did in the past and hope to see different results. We have to change the way we do our work. We must constantly ask ourselves whether the processes and procedures that we have in place now are aligned with the objectives of the NEM. If not, change them, remove them, use the guillotine. Creative destruction, that’s the way to go. In PEMUDAH, we termed this “The PEMUDAH Challenge”.

9. The success of the NEM requires that we create a pro-growth environment through faster implementation of initiatives, processes that are facilitative and make it easier and cheaper to do business in this country.

10. Let us look at the way we engage the different constituents in the economy. The quality of the synergies we generate will depend on the level and extent to which we in the public sector are willing to engage with the private sector and our people.

11. To our credit we have done well in engaging the private sector. However, we have some way to go in our engagement of citizens’ groups and Non-Governmental Organisations, and even the media. Inclusiveness in the NEM means that the voices of these groups too must be heard. For sure, these folks can be our allies in the implementation on our objectives.

12. And the fourth and final point: “Implementation, Implementation, Implementation!”

13. We are never short on ideas and plans, policies. BUT the beef is in bringing those ideas, plans and policies to fruition through effective implementation. We have now 10 years to achieve Vision 2020. We must operate with a sense of urgency. We must be a country in a hurry. Herein is the role of the civil service. To engage the private sector and citizens to ensure the successful implementation of the NEM. We have the civil service to do this. We must deliver. We must deliver with integrity. If not, somebody else will deliver it. Either from within or from without.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

14. I would like to again thank YAB Tan Sri Muhyiddin bin Haji Mohd. Yassin, the Deputy Prime Minister for being here with us. Let me also express my thanks to all the panellists for joining us at this 3-day conference. We appreciate your taking time off in order to share your views with us.

Para hadirin yang saya hormati sekalian,

15. Akhir kata, saya mengambil kesempatan ini untuk merakamkan ucapan terima kasih kepada Persatuan Perkhidmatan Tadbir dan Diplomatik (PPTD), INTAN dan semua pihak yang terlibat dalam menjayakan persidangan ini. Kepada semua peserta, saya berharap agar persidangan ini akan dapat menjadi satu forum yang bermakna untuk perkongsian pengetahuan dan pengalaman.

Sekian,
Wabillahittaufik walhidayah
Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakaatuh.