IT HAS been almost 18 months since the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (Pemudah) was launched with a bang. Statistics and feedback on what it has achieved from both the business and community sectors show that Pemudah’s moves, policies and actions are seen to heavily favour the former, and quite rightly so.

It’s a chicken and egg situation and the best option persevered. Let’s get the business sector the ease and freedom to do business in the true sense of the word without bottlenecks or red tape, as the end beneficiary would be the people.

It proved partly right, at least. With manpower being freed by automation and computerisation, more time could be devoted to counter service and needs of individual citizens.

Because of the massive input of resources and improving the system, the people unwittingly also benefited from the business-centric approach.

This is best illustrated in the revamps at the Immigration Department. While trying to make it easier to process employment passes for expatriates and their wives, a simple question was asked: "Why can’t it be extended to Malaysians as well?" The answer was: "It can be done."

The immediate order from the Chief Secretary to the Government and the co-chairman of Pemudah, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, was: "Get it done!"

Today, passports can be renewed within an hour. A new passport is ready in three hours instead of days previously.

The scorecard on the 23-member high-powered committee shows improvement in several key service components since its launch on Feb 7 last year.

For one, there are fewer complaints against government departments and agencies, especially local authorities, land offices and enforcement agencies such as the police and Rela. But in all fairness, Pemudah is not a complaints-handling bureau. It was set up to implement better systems so that everyone benefits.

However to achieve such an objective, changing the people’s mindsets which have been entrenched for ages is a Herculean task. With the tag "pen-pushing civil servant", how does he or she suddenly embrace the touch-pad, the keyboard and a mouse?

But there was no lack of effort in bringing about change, says Director-General of Public Service Tan Sri Ismail Adam who has dealt with complaints ranging from unclear procedures, rude staff to abuse of power in the case of the police and Rela.

Mohd Sidek had pledged last year that he would be firm on errant civil servants, with action taken even on senior officials.

"This he has done. But Tan Sri Sidek is not the kind of person who would want to highlight these things and embarrass those concerned," said Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam, the Westports Sdn Bhd executive chairman who is one of the private sector representatives in Pemudah.

Gnanalingam revealed that there have been demotions and transfers as part of the rehabilitation process of the civil service.

But there are times transfers are not the best solution as in the case of a staff at the Subang Jaya Municipal Council who had been reprimanded for mistreating ratepayers.

"If I transfer him, I may be just transferring the problem. Why don’t I just keep him there and rehabilitate him?" Mohd Sidek had quipped.

Gnanalingam puts things into perspective: "We are moving. It has not been easy."

He said several initiatives taken earlier to make procedures more transparent and effective are bearing fruit.

"Corruption is the creation of time and discretion. You limit the time and take away the discretion, you eradicate corruption.

"By cutting down the levels of processes and procedures, when any hanky-panky arises, it will be easier to pinpoint the culprits," Gnanalingam said.

And this, Pemudah has achieved in part by introducing electronic payment and applications in all government agencies. Applications and payments involving the Road Transport Department (RTD), which has for long been perceived as among the most graft-prone agencies, for instance include credit card payments for road tax renewal, while debit card facilities will be in place by year-end.

Payment for e-services such as renewal of learner driver’s licences and summonses have been implemented.

With Pemudah being business-centric, Gnanalingam said its first order of the day was to ensure that investors and businessmen are not bogged down by delaying tactics from ambiguous procedures and discretionary powers, thus cutting down registration of businesses to a day when it used to take at least a week to do so.

Recently, Pemudah initiated pre-clearance of cargo based on Expected Time of Arrival (ETA), allowing deferred payments of duties.

Expatriates too have found that coming to Malaysia is easier as work permit renewals have been extended from two years to five, while the application process by the Expatriate Committee can be done within a week.

"As you can see, we are picking the low-lying fruits first. Now it is time to tackle the higher hanging fruits," said Gnanalingam.

And these efforts should be directed at, among others, local authorities which remain an obstacle to efforts to improve services since they continue to behave as a law unto themselves.

Mohd Sidek himself has decreed that the civil servant must stand up and tell the minister in no uncertain terms that it would be wrong and against public policy not to follow rules and regulations. But how many have complied?

Pemudah’s "adoption" of the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) to improve it in the words of Mohd Sidek "from a two over 10 to six or better" has made some inroads. They realise that the people are more aware of their rights and are more vocal and will take no nonsense.

"We at Pemudah respect the views of the public and will continue to do our best to address the issues and initiate changes," promised Gnanalingam.

To this effect, Mohd Sidek has requested that the media forward all complaints to Pemudah and himself for further action.

"We must know where the problems are. Newspapers have limited space so they won’t publish all complaints," he said.

But to Mohd Sidek and Pemudah’s credit, the Letters to the Editor section of all dailies have also included notes of praise and thanks to the task force and agencies such as the Internal Revenue Board, the National Registration Department (NRD) and several government hospitals for shorter queues, more counters, call-backs and courteous staff.

At the end of the day, Pemudah can say that it has come a distance although it still has a long way to go. Gnanalingam notes the credit for all improvements should go to the civil servants, especially Pemudah members under the leadership of the Chief Secretary to the Government.

As Mohd Sidek had said once: "There are many dedicated civil servants who are embarrassed by the 1% who give the service a bad name".

Echoing this is Pemudah’s co-chair, Tan Sri Yong Poh Kon who is equally pleased with the progress Pemudah has made and also the commitment of the Public Sector members under the leadership of Mohd Sidek.

The Sun, 17.07.2008
by Terence Fernandez