KUCHING: Every effort is being taken to come up with the most apt standard operating procedures to meet the challenge of holding the 12th state election under the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic scenario.
As such the process is going to take a little time as we have never held an election under similar circumstances, said State Secretary Datuk Amar Jaul Samion.
“We have to take all factors into account in formulating these new SOPs.
“We’ve never done this before so we need to do it very carefully — it’s really going to take some time.
“We will take into account what happened in the Melaka state election and also elections in the past — and the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) is actively doing that now,” he told reporters after officiating at the Raikan Semarak Inovasi programme in the Waterfront Hotel here.
Elaborating, he said although the SDMC had discussed the matter with the Ministry of Health, it needs to be refined before it is finalised and announced.
“Therefore, please wait for a few days before we announce the new SOPs,” he said.
Nominations for the election has been set for Dec 6 with polling to be held on Dec 18, thus providing for a 12-day campaign period.
Meanwhile, on the event, Jaul said the State Secretary’s Office strongly encouraged the civil service to foster more effective collaboration such as the one between Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and the state Land and Survey Department.
“We have a very good collaboration with UTM — they have the expertise which we would like to take advantage of as most of the courses offered by them are very relevant to the function and role of our Land and Survey Department.
“This collaboration is very important because we want to increase our efficiency and expertise in land management in the state apart from other related matters.
“For that reason, we strongly encourage effective collaboration between government agencies and academia, and we want to encourage this among our civil service so that we can increase our manpower capacity for now and the future,” he said.
At the event, Jaul presented trophies to the winners of the Sarawak Civil Service Innovation Convention Award (SCSICA) 2021 namely the winner of the Sarawak Chief Minister’s Innovation Award 2021, Sassoku Tech from the Land and Survey Department (Kuching Division) as well as Lands Tahai Q hybrid Ta’rom from Land and Survey Department (Limbang Division) and Public Works Department (Limbang Division), which won the SCSICA 2021 Hybrid Innovation Award.
