KUCHING: Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi (Dr) Abang Johari Tun Openg stressed that leaders must be daring to take risks.
He added that a leader must be able to manage changes and must know the progress in order to find solutions.
“This is what leadership is all about. But you must do your homework,” said the Chief Minister during Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service’s Appreciation Night at Grand Magherita Hotel here on Monday night.
Abang Johari revealed that it was not easy for him to announce the establishment of Petros with legal implications, the status of Petros and laws that were involved in the petroleum industry, but he took the risk to announce it.
“I take the risk because I believe that we have a legal argument in our favour. I think we are in the right track because we feel that our legal position is very clear in the constitution and our constitution is the supreme law of the federation. If there is anything that is not consistent with our constitution, I think that is void. But for me, I take the risk in announcing our own Petroleum and it has caused a stir in the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, he added that the civil service need to be prepared for the digital economy initiatives which would be implemented within 10 to 20 years.
“It is good to know that the Institute is taking steps to develop our expertise to implement the various initiatives. I am glad to hear that the transformation programme of the civil service under SCS 10-20 Action Plans and Initiatives has included ICT as an important component.
“With digitalisation, Sarawak is bypassing Industrial Revolution 3.0 to leapfrog to Industrial Revolution 4.0. Therefore, our learning curve is much shorter because we have taken the models, experience and expertise of other digitally developed countries and adopt them into our situation,” he said.
He hoped that the Institute would embrace the new tools of management, artificial intelligence (AI), sensors, robotics as well as autonomous.
“That is the in-thing for the future. Today we have Grab and Uber, and tomorrow we will be having public transports without driver,” said the Chief Minister.
He added that the State had to choose between an 80-km/h train and 300-km/h train which resulted in opting for the bullet train.
“This is what I want to do to leapfrog our economy by using bullet train. You must have good train and passengers. With these, I hope the Institute will prepare in order to have bullet train in Sarawak,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Deputy State Secretary (Performance and Service Delivery Transformation) and Executive Director of the Institute, Datu Dr Sabariah Putit said that the training carried out by the institute was planned and implemented in tandem with the aspiration of the Sarawak Civil Service to be a world-class public sector organisation, a vision enshrined in SCS 10-20 Action Plans and Initiatives.
“This strategic plan strongly believes in the role of internet and communication technology (ICT) in speeding the pace of digital economy transformation in Sarawak at present.
“The Civil Service, as the backbone of government body, has been earmarked on a rigorous search for talent and high performance leadership in its Talent Management and Human Resource Initiative and since 2011, had benchmarked and worked with reputable and renowned institutions in Singapore, United Kingdom, and Australia, to name a few,” added Sabariah.
The institute has also developed strategic partnerships with local and international institutions such as UNIMAS, UiTM, Curtin Sarawak, Swinburne Sarawak, UM, RSOG, PGI, Shell, JICA and PULAPOL. It has also formed strategic new partners with Leaderonomics and British Council.
The Executive Director revealed that in 2017, the institute had conducted a total of 577 training programmes which involved 17,797 civil servants with an average score of 86 per cent participant satisfaction across all of its training programmes.
During the Appreciation Night, the Institute also exchanged two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Leaderonomics and British Council to pave for collaboration with renowned institutions in delivering more relevant and effective training programmes.
In addition to the MoUs, the Chief Minister also launched the Leader’s Digest – a fortnightly in-house publication which features a collection of articles on leadership and professional development. Write-ups would be produced internally and also through contributions from the Institute’s strategic partners.
At the dinner, 26 staff of the Institute were presented with Long Service Award.
Also present at the dinner were the Chief Minister’s wife, Datin Patinggi Dato Juma’ani Tun Tuanku Bujang, State Secretary, Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani and Institute’s Chief Operating Officer, Segaren Arumugam.
