Are our nation's ministers so hardworking, detailed and micromanaging?
All cabinet minister appointed to their respective portfolios are very new to their ministries and areas. Of course they need to work hard to understand the situation and policies under their respective ministries. A number of changes has taken effect, many are still underway, some issues may be still sensitive to tackle while the others need to be examined in a large context or aspects they may possibly affect some other policies in place.
Therefore, there are may questions today on how these new ministers going down to the ground to tackle issues one by one, some to the extend of even petty matters and so-called "they should not even do it" issues. Some people do welcome their direct involvement in issues or matters concerned while others applaud such moves as a "grassroots kind" of leader.
Somehow, to many of us too, the actions of these new ministers seems to be overly involved in all issues. They seems to be micromanaging their respective ministries, departments, agencies like there are nobody else who could go down to do these job other then themselves. Are these ministers moving in a correct way? Some of these ministers are even making announcements on petty issues.
What about bigger issues, more important matters? What we mean is, these minister should be focusing on policy making instead of carrying out those "daily jobs" which could be delegated to their ministries' secretaries-general, directors-general, division directors, division secretaries, department heads and so on. If these ministers felt that some matters requires a ministerial level to attend to, then delegate them to your deputy ministers.
Ministers should be effective policymakers in the government, they primary responsibilities are to ensure these policies are effectively reviewed, implemented, checked and possible corrective actions to be taken should any hiccups were to arise.
Yes, ministers going to the ground by themselves to understand situations are good but if they are doing that everyday, every minute and on every issues, then do they have sufficient time to address policies and making them better?
We definitely want this new government to come up with better policies, erase the old and ineffective ones and make more changes, amendments and reforms so that the people could feel the ease over the poor implementations of the previous BN government.
That is why ministers' attendance in parliamentary sittings are crucial in order to see policies tabled, scrutinized, debated, amended, changed, passed and implemented. This is the way it should works. What is the use if there are no ministers present during parliamentary sittings. Questions will not be answered, ineffective responses on policies will reflect badly on the government of the day as a "directionless" administration because there are no answers to it, or probably there are no clear understanding on certain issues.
So, minister, you are all already nine months old in the government bench. Time to swift yourselves into the role of a policymaker rather than a micro manager. Yes, the previous BN government did produced a lots of bad apples within the civil service establishment. Set it straight to all these heads of divisions, departments and agencies, that heads should roll if there are sabotaging, ineffective, or working the way to prevent new policies from taking place.
Make the differences work, manage the policies, not micromanage issues!
