"Warkah Untuk PM" Website Receives Overwhelming Response

PUTRAJAYA, March 4 (Bernama) -- The special website -- www.warkahuntukpm.com.my -- for the prime minister to personally access public opinion has received overwhelming response, with 2,229 messages received within three days of its launch.

Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan said that since it was launched by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak last Saturday, the responses were indicative of a vibrant and enthusiastic public who were equally engrossed in improving the management of the public delivery system, if not the public service itself.

"Some of these messages no doubt, are reminiscent of past complaints lodged by the public, which in essence seek redress and our attention to help initiate improvement and more improvements.

"However there are others that take the form of insightful ideas and suggestions, which we welcome as they are workable and are worthy of implementation," he told a news conference on measures taken by public service here today.

He said 76.93 per cent of the messages received were deemed positive, 12.43 per cent negative and 227 neutral and the senders of the messages ranged from students to senior citizens, government servants, Malaysians living abroad and companies.

He said education issues topped the list with 242 messages and issues related to crime, rising prices, immigration and education would be dealt with urgently.

"Follow-up and implementation is very important, it is the intention of the government to make sure that messages we receive are followed up. It (the SMS)will go to the PM, at least the summary part, and he will decide which ones he will take personally, which are the big issues that are policy issues," he said.

He said the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), the Secretary-General of the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, Director-General of immigration and secretaries-general of the Education and Higher Education ministries had been tasked to act immediately.

Mohd Sidek said the senders of the messages would be notified of the progress made and the outcome of action while progress on the website would be made via frequent media announcements, at least once a month.

"The important thing is the website is as much the peoples website as it is the governments, as it is aimed to perform as a two-way channel for the government and the people to get connected, bound by a mission to continually improve the delivery of public services and the quality of life for all Malaysians," he said.

He said the nature of feedback that the website had received to date could be broken down into several groups -- improved service delivery at local councils, improving frontline agencies, customer-focused public officials, accountability in public service, rethinking e-processes to make them more user friendly and rethinking some processes that might not work with the times to improve the business environment.

"The Prime Minister has taken cognisance of these valuable suggestions, put them through the analysis cycle and given them due deliberation as promised. Responses have been drafted and they are to go out to the senders as soon as this conference is over. The listening and delivering cycle then becomes complete," he said.

The website has four languages -- Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin and Tamil -- and was developed by seven non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which will be responsible for providing the responses to the queries and suggestions concerning their respective fields.

The seven NGOs are Foundation of Malay Studies and Strategy (YKSM), National Council of Women's Organisations (NCWO), Malaysian Malay Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (Fomca), Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Service (Cuepacs), Tabung Amanah Muhibah (Tamu) and Malaysian Workers Association.

-- BERNAMA