BINTULU: Civil servants must fully understand government policies to be able to explain them to the public and perform their duties well.
Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said this at the opening the High Performance Team (HPT) seminar 2013 at ParkCity Everly Hotel here yesterday
Over 150 heads of departments from the state civil service, statutory bodies and government-linked companies as well as representatives from Federal departments are taking part in the three-day seminar which ends today.
Taib noted that getting the people understand government policies could be very complicated especially to the young generation on environmental issues.
He assured that the state government had always tried to strike a balance between conserving the environment and its development policies.
“Civil servants must understand all the policies thoroughly, so that you can defend the government policies with clear conscience and not just because you earn wages from us.”
Taib said the effect of propaganda by certain groups against government policies and projects through the internet during the last general elections on urban youths was alarming.
He added as internet access penetrated the rural area, there would be a danger that the situation could spread to the rural population.
“We have to take measures and plan how to win the battle against false propaganda from putting pressure on the government.
Taib stressed that free flow of information was vital in development and as Malaysians become more literate it was inevitable that they would have more access to the internet.
However, he said the right information must be disseminated to the youth and apart from putting up better websites the government should engage them in discussions on policies especially at grassroots level.
He pointed out going to the ground to get feedback from the people would increase participation from more stakeholders.
The chief minister also made it clear that state government policies were not formulated just to satisfy its critics but were carefully thought out plans that would benefit the people and preserve the environment for the future.
“We preserve all these things for our younger generations because we will pass some of the debts of development today to the younger generations.
“We are quite conscious of all these things, and that’s why our policies are quite balanced,” said Taib.