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2.0 HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION The period from 1957 through 1980 in the development of Malaysia is characterizes by institution building, proliferation of public enterprises and dominant role of government agencies. Policies related to programs for better accessibility to education, better social welfare benefits, equitable distribution of economic cake and social services, improved contribution of agricultural sector to the economy and planned diversification of the nation's industrial base remained important features of the government's longterm plan. Development in 1950s, the government focused was on agriculture. Agriculture was one of the important economic sources for the country then. Most of the Malays in 1950 lived in rural areas and their income depended on agriculture. During this period, the agricultural policy designed to serve primarily the needs of British colonial rule with a purposive neglect of the rural sector. While the British companies projected into plantation agriculture, largely rubber and other commercial produce agriculture, the local person, which is Malays, remained largely in subsistence and smallholder agriculture (http://econ.upm.edu.my). The neglected rural economy in general became involutes: incomes were very low because output and prices were low; output was low because of poor traditional production techniques; and low income led to a lower standard of welfare.
This
scenario, considered as the legacy of the British colonial agricultural policy, became the basis that shaped Malaysia rural development policy after independence. In addition, development of agriculture also later helps the government to improve and implement the objectives and goals of the government. In Malaysia, rigorous reform made in 1967 the first time under the efforts of the late Tun Abdul Razak. The reform made with a purpose to solve numerous problems within the nation’s public administration especially to expedite the implementation of development programs. In the 1970s, Malaysia began to imitate the four Asian Tiger economies (Republic of Korea (South Korea), Republic of China (Taiwan), then British Crown Colony of Hong Kong and the Republic of Singapore) and committed itself to a transition from being reliant on mining and agriculture to an economy that depends more on manufacturing. With Japanese investment, heavy industries flourished and in a matter of years, Malaysian exports became the country's primary growth engine. | 23
Development administration effort in 1980’s is the most important and crucial effort made by the government because it is the beginning to develop a modern country. During this era there are many changes made by the government to develop this country effectively. Efforts in 1980’s also considered as the most important step in the development of the country as in these years we see that the private sector is being encouraged by the government to be involve in the development administration through privatization and corporation policy. Besides that, the government also try to improve the public sector although it did not been clearly seen in these years. There are several efforts made by the government to improve development administration in the country. Among the efforts are improving the capacity of public and private institutions, privatization policy, distribution policies, the values of responsiveness and accountability and decentralization of developments projects (Rozalli Hashim, 2005).
2.1 PHASE I – Instillation
Of
Western
Administrative
And
Management
Techniques Into Developing Countries Development
Administration
proponents
focused
on
importing
western
public
management techniques into the developing nations. Most scholars reviewed back the indoctrination of public administration following the Weberian tradition.
The goal of this instillation was to establish a bureaucracy that is rational, free from political interference, efficient and following the ideal-type Weberian tradition (Rondinelli, 1983).
Based on Weberian Tradition. P r i n c i p l e s i n t r o d u c e d b y a f a m o u s G e r m a n s o c i o l o g i s t , M a x W eb e r ( 18 6 4
– 1920)
24 |
(a)
Positions determined by hierarchy.
(b)
Positions filled in based on merit, candidates appointed.
(c)
Staff paid with substantial wages and with provision of pension.
(d)
Staff subjected to control and set up systematic discipline.
T h es e a r e s o m e p r o b l e m s o f i n c o m p a t ib i l i ty . Th i s p r o b l e m o c c u r r e d d u e to differences in culture, values, financial strength that hinder the s u c c e s s f u l i n s t i l l at i o n o f w e s t e r n m a n a g e m e n t t e c h n i q u e s .
What goes well in the western do not necessarily goes well in the east. Upon realizing the incompatibility problems, development administration scholars responsively modified their agenda. Strong pressure exerted upon the civil service to increase its performance and play a developmental role.
The successful general election of 1964, the Alliance Government sought to fulfil its promises of increasing the welfare of the citizens and raising the standard of living of the masses. It showed, however, that the burdens the first time in the bureaucracy asked to shoulder since history of the Independence had increased more rapidly than public service their capabilities.
Government of that a deliberate Malaysia obtained the services of a team of consultants to undertake a review of the public made to study administration (Abdullah Sanusi Ahmad, 1994). This was the first time in the administrative history of the public service that a deliberate system of the attempt made to study the administrative country with systems of the country with a view to suggesting a view to reforms and innovations.
The main objective of suggesting the study was to achieve efficiency and administrative reforms and leadership in the public service to meet the needs of innovations. The Report recommended improving administrative systems by speeding government action, reducing costs, and improving the quality of service (Abdullah Sanusi Ahmad, 1994).
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2.2 PHASE II – Political modernization, institution building and administrative reform (including reorganization, reinventing the government, and debureaucracy) 2.2.1 Political modernization The ability of a political system to produce new behaviours and organizations that changes in demands over time. Political stability was a pre-requisite for the successful implementation of development programs. Efforts to establish political
culture
emphasized on people’s participation.
Also to a
government’s efforts to carry out programs designed to reshape its physical, human, and cultural environment and to also enlarge government’s capacity to engage in such programs. In virtually all governments, the action arm, the main instrument for program implementation, is the public bureaucracy. Not only that bureaucrats do exercise political functions, but that they, and that a significant degree of bureaucratic power is functionally requisite for the organization of a developed system of government.
However, in Malaysia at that time in the 1960s, countries vastly ruled and administered by political elite. Polarization of society based on status and race was apparent (elite v. the mass). Political democracy is available but controlled by the ruling elite this is due t o lack of education and opportunity for political participation / involvement of the public.
There was no distinction
between policy formulation and implementation, which is against the dichotomy of policy and administration. Even though democratic political culture had flourished, political participation controlled and in some places suppressed by the government.
The civil service was entrusted with the mammoth task of implementing the five-year economic plans. The government effort contributed to the remarkable performance of the economy. However the inequitable distribution of the wealth among the major ethnic groups resulted in a racial turmoil in 1969 that almost became catastrophic. Consequently the New Economic Policy (NEP) was formulated and implemented in 1970, which necessitated an even bigger role for the government in terms of its size, involvement and 26 |
expenditure. This was done to ensure the successful implementation of programs for poverty eradication and restructuring of society; the two primary objectives of the policy. Measures were taken to upgrade the planning and implementation capabilities of the government so that the plans would be executed without any serious shortfall.
Administrative reform was on the
agenda of among leaders in the developing nations for at least four decades since 1960s.
2.2.2 Institution Building Institution Building & Project Planning were picked as strategies to further guide the government of developing countries during the first part of the 70s (Rondinelli, 1985).
Institution defined as procedures, morale, norms and
values that are
supposed to control one’s behavior ( Van Arkardie, 1990 ).
In the context of development administration, institution defined as organizations such as government agencies, public enterprises, banks, the arm forces and hospitals (Van Arkardie, 1990; Van Rennin and Waisfisz, 1988).
Milton Esman (1972) defines institution building as the process of planning, structuring, and guiding, new and restructured organizations. As a result, three initiatives introduced that is closure of unnecessary organizations, creation of new organizations, restructured existing organizations with new goals and objectives.
Government organizations underwent strenuous re-definition exercises.
According to economists (especially development economists), institution can be defined as procedures, morale, norms and values that are supposed to control one’s behaviour (Van Akadie, 1990 : Feeny, 1988 : North, 1981). Ruttan and Hayami (1984) define institution from this perspective as procedures that are applicable to a given society or to a group of people that is constituted into perception, which is shared among members of that particular group or society (Van Arkdie, 1990). | 27
In other words, institution refers to “instruments” that are available within society or a nation that actually control the behaviour of the people in terms of norms and values. Society in this context does not only refer to individuals in their groups, but it also comprises of other economic elements such as the government, private sector, consumer and all the transactions carried out between them (Rozalli Hashim, 2005).
In this context of development administration, institution can be defined as organization such as government agencies, public enterprises, banks, the arm forces, and hospitals (Van Arkdie, 1990 : Van Rennin and Waisfisz, 1988).
Thus, in terms of institution building, institution seeing from a micro and macro perspectives. Government institutions referred as the macro level because it includes the whole government machinery especially those that are f unctional in formulating policies.
At the micro level, institutions referred to as
departments, agencies and other governmental bodies that are involved in the implementation policies (Rozalli Hashim, 2005).
Second Malaysia Plan incorporated a National Rural Development Plan aimed at reorganizing and mobilizing institutions and efforts toward modernizing and developing the rural sector. At the district or local level, the District Rural Development Committee implemented, monitored and reviewed as the rural development projects in what known as the Rural Economic Development (RED Book) Plan (Fatimah Mohd. Arshad, 1997). The projects focused on building basic infrastructures and institutions such as RISDA, MARA, Koperasi, Bank Pertanian, Bank Pembangunan and so on. The infrastructural approach intended to provide linkages to the rural economy provide rural employment and raise productivity and incomes of rural peasant. The social and economic infrastructures provided were rural roads, drainage and irrigation facilities, basic amenities like rural electricity, water, school, health, community and religious centres and others. The rural institution such as MARDI established to facilitate production and marketing functions; and Koperasi Desa also to provide the credit need of the rural peasants. These infrastructures and institutions expected to generate rural employment besides raising productivity, incomes socio-economic status of the rural population (Fatimah Mohd. Arshad, 1997).
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2.2.3 Administrative Reform Administrative
reform
simply
means
a
transformation
of
a d m i n i s t r a t i v e m a c h i n e r y , t a k i n g u p a n e w f o r m , n e w g o a l s an d ob jectives (Rond inelli, 1985).
The term administrative reform has acquired multiple views but no doubt, there is consensus that the outcome of administrative reforms should result in efficient and effective public sector service structures, improvement of public sector operational performance and economic development (Caiden, 1991).
Difficulty in administering reform is that policies that threatened the livelihood of political actors, including bureaucrats with stakes, avoided. Evidence of t his can be seen in the policies of deregulation, financial reform, and privatization due to the political and economic clout. In other words, successful implementation required the cooperation of the very political actors who were the targets of reform. In developing countries, the distinction between politicians and bureaucrats tends to be blurred and an alliance between the ruling elite and high-ranking officials has often led to an oligarchy of power and privilege (Seidman and Seidman, 1994).
In the case of Malaysia, the post-independence period involved the extensive expansion of state functions. For instance, economic management programs and projects launched, and new public organizations were created. Mobilization programs were also established and variously labelled nationbuilding programs. The main goal, of course is to involve the citizens into the mainstream of economic and social development. Public institutions and bureaucracy were the centre-piece of these new endeavours. Doctrines of guardianship via political parties and the executive dominated the management of public affairs largely to the exclusion of public participation.
First step taken by Tun Abdul Razak was to transform completely the colonialbased bureaucracy that filled with weaknesses such as corruption and red tapes. Moreover, the problems of the attitudes of the public servants at that time which he quoted as the “Seven Deadly Sins” .
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The 1967 reformation adopted institution-building approach to elevate bureaucratic effectiveness (Esman, 1972). The role of public service and administration has significantly changed over the years, in line with the country's economic growth and development. Its mission, objectives and functions had undergone various degrees of reform, especially under the explicit and implicit influences of changes in public policies, development strategies and initiatives. These reforms took place in two distinctive phases, namely the period of rapid economic growth in 1960s and 1970s, which required development administration and institution building, and the period from 1980 to the present that necessitated the consolidation and qualitative upgrading of the government machinery. The success of Malaysia's development programs to a significant extent can be attributed as not only to the efficient and effective functioning of the economic system, but also to the stabilizing and integrative functioning of the country's public administration system. 30 |
The First Malaysia Plan thus, had to address the problem of unemployment, which reared its head for the first time in the 1960s; despite encouraging growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment rates had not grown at a commensurate pace. In addition, there was also the problem of ethnic specialization in certain professions, with the Chinese dominating the marketplace, the Malays dominating the civil service, and the Indians largely participating in specialist professions such as law. The income disparity between rural and urban areas that the Second Malayan Five Year Plan had sought to resolve not satisfactorily eliminated. Therefore, what the government does is to increase the level of employment and to give chances to the unemployed and make sure that the standard of living becomes well (http://www.state.gov).
2.2.3.1
Reorganization
The worldwide recession of 1980s and its consequent effects on domestic economy left the Malaysia government reduce the size of its public sector. Privatization and organizational reorganization were among the variety of measures initiated towards achieving this goal. The reorganization measures have contributed to reducing the size of public bureaucracy and the financial burden of the government through savings in huge operating costs and capital expenditure. The organizational reorganization initiated in 1989 aimed at ensuring that the size of the public service was consistent with its new roles and functions in the society. Between 1992 and 1997 a total of 570 agencies have been reviewed and reorganized with a considerable reduction in the number of posts (Ahmad Sarji, 1996).
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2.2.3.2
Reinventing
The advancements in the field of information technology (IT) has offered enormous prospect for transforming service provision and widened citizens' expectations for more efficient and responsive delivery of public services. This has also put pressures on the government to reinvent itself and produce innovations in the service delivery systems. The Malaysian government appears to be well ahead of many other developing countries in terms of emphasizing its significance and
undertaking
programs
for
IT
application
in
the
administration. In fact, a major feature of the current administrative reforms in Malaysia is the stress on IT. The Multimedia Super Corridor established in 1996 is seen as a milestone in the development of IT application in all areas including the government. Subsequently, the government initiated an E-Government scheme seeking to dramatically enhance the performance and quality of public services by harnessing IT and multi-media (GOM, 2000; Karim and Khalid, 2003).
2.2.3.3
Debureaucracy
Redesign of the governmental processes was essential in order to achieve dramatic improvements in service delivery. Two important studies initiated by the government in the early 1990s led to the introduction of major revision in procedural matters of the business of the government. Public agencies in general have been asked to review the existing ways of doing things in order to reduce red-tape and expedite the delivery of services and to take appropriate actions to ease regulations and procedures for the benefit of their clients (Sarji, 1996).
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2.3 PHASE III – Projects planning, privatization & public enterprise 2.3.1 Projects Planning: In 1970’s, developing nations were all over the world rushed to secure fore ign aides in every shape and figure. There were active roles by international financial institutions in providing funds for developing nations in project planning. This was due to the favourable economic achievements in the West and savings into financial institutions skyrocketed with unprecedented high since World War II. Financial experts in those countries had suggested that these institutions provide long terms and low interest rate loans to developing nations to help them with their development agenda.
One of the main
requirements for such loans was that recipient countries need to set up a comprehensive project planning and appraisal system (Rondinelli, 1985). The objective of project planning was that only feasible projects can determine the recipients ability to service their loans. By this time, recipient countries still lacked experience and expertise especially in high technological skills and know – how. Foreign experts were brought in and they paid from the loan.
Direct intervention from foreign organization and even their
governments were very difficult to curtail and in some instances, their involvement exceeded beyond the limits. Failure to pay back loans made few poor countries indebted to the rich countries, not only in t erms of money but in terms of political authority as well. Governments of developing nations much tensed with such development but they were tight up with procedures and requirements. Project appraisals also determined by fund providers. Although officials from the recipient countries were also involved, they did not have the knowledge to perform project assessment on their own. Management training became a very important avenue for the officials to upgrade their knowledge and to learn from the foreign experts (Rozalli Hashim, 2005). A good and effective project planning approaches however, had tremendous effect on economic growth due to superb infrastructure development especially in the urban area. Urbanization centred on the capital of states and earmarked areas for administration, culture and commerce. | 33
Urbanization is widely accepted as part of the development process. Arguably, however are the positive and negative consequences of that process where much literature has focused on the latter in many developing countries. Diffusion of urbanization in Malaysia has contributed to the general improvements of the living environment through the provision of infrastructure and services such as conventional housing, water and electricity supplies, sanitation, sewerage, transport and telecommunications and so forth.
2.3.2 Privatization The government has to provide all the infrastructure and accommodation for the country including road, electricity, water supply and building and industrial facilities. This is because the private sector in the country during that time did not have enough capital to finance the development projects. The private sectors need assistance from the government to implement huge projects.
However, the private sector slowly starting to take over the function of the government to develop the country by sharing the burden to finance the development project with the government due to the strong government policies protecting local business endeavour. The responsibility to develop the country slowly goes to the private sector and multinational corporate agency. These open the opportunity for the privatization and corporation between the public sector and private sector.
Thus, this would allow the government to reduce its stakes in some projects and releasing public funds for other purposes. The burden of developing certain projects gradually shifted to private companies.
This initiative had
widely opened the propensity to privatization and joint venture efforts between the government and the private sector.
This scenario is seeing in countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Brazil and Malaysia. The development that shared between the government and private sector would allow the government to reduce its stakes in those projects and cutting expenses.
34 |
The Privatization Policy was introduced on the march 1983 by Tun Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamed after the announcement of the Malaysia Incorporated Policy in 25th February 1983. Privatization policy simply means the transfer of property or responsibility from the public sector (government) to the private sector (business). Given the resource constraints, the government has decided that it will facilitate the private sector to play the aggressive role in the future economic development of the country. It is therefore apparent to the civil servants that to achieve this objective, a new management culture is needed. Quick reactions and decisions are imperative and in fact critical to enable the private enterprises to be competitive on a global scale.
Privatization was seen to be the means of stimulating and improving the overall efficiency of the economy. Privatization will not only relieve the government of the financial and administrative burden but also improve the efficiency and increase the productivity of the services. It will also stimulate private entrepreneurship and investment thus accelerating the rate of growth of the economy and able to reduce the size and presence of the public sector with the monopolistic tendencies in the economy, and help to meet the objectives of the National Development Policy.
The objectives are to reduce the government financial and administrative burden. The scope of government is wide. They cannot cover all the aspects in the Malaysia. So the main objective for the government is to reduce their burden in term of financial and administrative. Through this policy, the government transferred some of the property, responsibility and burden to the private sector. So, as a result the allocation of budget can be saved and use for other aspect. Second is to create more opportunity for the Bumiputras to established private corporations. By giving more chances to the private sector, the government will be able create the opportunity job for the people especially bumiputras to establish and join the private corporation. It also will encourage them to increase their economic level for more growth and can compete with other races. Other objective is to increase efficiency in dividing our natural resources. However, the private sector has more expertise compare to the public sector. They have many professional that expert in the particular fields. So, the implementing of privatization policy can manage the natural resources more efficient and systematic. Telekom Malaysia and Tenaga Nasional for instance. | 35
Government would select an appropriate agencies that deemed profitable and offers for complete privatization or simply engaging in joint-venture projects with private enterprises.
The result of privatization is the lowered cost in
government spending and open up opportunity to redistribute the saved resources to other sectors such as helping the poor community. Privatization involves the transfer of government equities to the private sector. The government selects suitable agencies that deemed profitable and offers for complete privatization or engaging in joint-venture projects with private enterprises. This program successfully implemented in developed countries. As a result, privatization reduces cost in government’s spending and expenditure. Besides that, it gives opportunity for the government to redistribute the saved resources to help the poor citizens to increase their standard of living (Mahathir Mohamad, 1984).
This policy can be considered as successful and later being example by other developing countries that amazed with the rapid development in Malaysia. Among the example of agencies or departments that had been successfully privatized were telecommunications department (now is known as TELEKOM MALAYSIA BERHAD), national electricity board (now is known as TENAGA NASIONAL BERHAD) and railway board (now is known as KTMB),(Rozalli Hashim, 2005).
Although these agencies fully privatized because of government’s interests in terms of government ownership and budget, we can see the successfulness of the implementation of this policy. These agencies transformed into GLC (Government Link Companies) that operate on their own, generate their own revenues and compete with multi-national company. Besides that, there are also GLC that buy shares from overseas company and own many subsidiaries in foreign countries and within Malaysia. For example, Telekom Malaysia (TM) has many subsidiaries in foreign companies such as Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and etcetera. This shows the successfulness of privatization of telecommunication industry in Malaysia.
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2.3.3 Public enterprise Development administration was involved largely with the public sector. However, efforts to develop nation involves a huge sum of money. In 1980s, development administration was involved largely with the public sector. Private sector rarely involved in any debates and discussion regarding development administration. One of the reasons was that private sector in that time is still struggling in terms of doing business relative to the abilities of their competitors especially foreign and multi-national companies (Donald J.Harris, 1999). The challenges that appear in that time was to find the ways on how to improve the capabilities of the public and private sector in planning, preparing for the changes in social and economic and to regulate the regulation on how to improve the efficiency of the administration to achieve fair economic development for all the citizen (Rozalli Hashim, 2005). Recognizing this need, the government continues to promote the spirit of Malaysia Incorporated, which introduced in 1983. This policy represents a new way of approaching the task of national development. The fundamental basis of this approach is that successful national development requires the public and private sectors to adhere to the perception of the nation as a corporate business entity, jointly owned by both sectors and working in tandem in pursuit of a common mission. As exemplified by the success of Japan and South Korea, there must be the unity of purpose of government and business. Business leaders, politicians and government officials ought to realize that their roles are not mutually exclusive. Unilateral action that affects the well-being of the other would only breed distrust and contempt. The resulting benefit of this cooperation is higher growth and expansion of the private sector leading to spin-offs in economic investment, expansion and growth, as well as the generation of employment opportunities. The increase in government revenues could then enable the government to finance not only socio-economic development but also the public administrative machinery. This policy presupposes a changing role for the public sector, from the traditional role of a regulator to the new role of a service agency, planner and facilitator (Rozalli Hashim, 2005). | 37
2.4 PHASE IV – Development Management – quality management, Civil Society (Responsible
individuals
and
NGOs),
deregulation,
administrative achievements in developing countries 2.4.1 Quality Management The quality movement became further intensified and strengthened when a comprehensive award system was introduced in an attempt to institutionalize the culture of excellence in the public service. This policy has become the driving force behind the systematic and continuous efforts by public agencies to upgrade in terms of quality and innovative ways and means to better serve their customers. While the implementation of such innovations has already marked the beginning of quality management in the public service, further inroads have been made with the adoption of internationally recognized ISO 9000 series in 1996 and the benchmarking programs in 1999. The government agencies are required to examine relevant best practices by a benchmarking partner and seek ways and means to adopt and improve upon their applications in their own organizations (Sarji, 1996).
2.4.2 Civil Society Civil society defined as the sphere of institutions, organisations and individuals located between the family, state and market, in which people associate voluntarily to advance common interests (Moten, 2008).
Larry Diamond, 1994, defines it as the: realm of organised social life that is voluntary, (largely) self generating, self supporting, and autonomous from the state, and bound by a legal order or set of shared rules”.
Civil society organisations in Malaysia have expanded considerably since independence and, particularly, since the 1980s. In 1957, after independence, there were 1,741 organisations registered with the Registrar of Societies. By 1996 this number had increased to 28, 219. As of December 31, 1998 there were 29, 574 registered societies in the country, with 56, 626 branches all over the country (New Sunday Times, February 21, 1999 : Moten, 2008). 38 |
This increase indicates changing attitudes in Malaysian society in responding to their socio-political needs and responsibilities by relying more and more on collective ideas and actions and not just expecting governmental leadership or familial support. In general, associations can be categorised as environmental groups, consumer groups, human rights groups, development groups and women’s group. Among the major actors are Aliran, Consumers’ Association of Pulau Pinang (CAP), Federation of Malaysian Consumers’ Association (FOMCA) and many more others. On issues like drug rehabilitation, juvenile delinquency, youth and child development or welfare policies, the government has
enthusiastically
co-operated
with
civil
associations
to
promote
development (Moten, 2008).
These cooperation is very important as the roles and responsibilities fulfil by these civil organisations to some extent had voluntarily helped to reduce social problems which at the same time reduces government burden to handle these problems. Thus, human capital and expenditure of the government can be channelled to other efforts of development. Pengasih is one of the examples of an outstanding civil organisation that is cooperating hand in hand to help the drug addicts to register voluntarily in this rehabilitation centre. So does Pernim that is helping HIV positive AIDS children.
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2.4.3 Deregulation Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces. Deregulation does not mean elimination of laws against fraud or property rights but eliminating or reducing government control of how business is done, thereby moving toward a more laissez-faire, free market.
It is different from liberalization , where more players enter in the market, but continues the regulation and guarantee of consumer rights and maximum and minimum prices (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation).
Deregulation is different from liberalization because a liberalized market, while often having fewer and simpler regulations, can also have regulations to increase efficiency and protect consumers' rights, one example being antimonopoly legislation. However, the terms are often used interchangeably within deregulated/liberalized industries.
A parallel development with deregulation has been organized, ongoing programs to review regulatory initiatives with a view to minimizing, simplifying, and making more cost effective regulations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation).
The 1998 Malaysian Budget was unveiled on 17 October 1997, a major focus was placed on reducing the current account deficit through, inter alias, a package of measures aimed at reducing imports and increasing exports of goods and services. At the same time, the Government re-emphasized its commitment to deregulation and liberalization, particularly in the financial sector: measures were introduced to extend foreign access to real estate purchases and develop the capital market, and Malaysia's commitment to the WTO financial services negotiations was reaffirmed, with particular reference to liberalization of the insurance and brokerage industries (http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tp67_e.htm).
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2.4.4 Administrative achievements in developing countries (Malaysia) Expansio n of org anizational capabilities: It shake the entire bureaucracy to be more effective and re- d i s t r i b u t e d e v el o p m e n t b e n e fi t s e q u i t a b ly a c r o s s t h e c o u n t r y .
Objectives of this effort:
T o f o c u s o n i m p l e m e n t a ti o n o f d e v e l o p m e n t p r o j e c t s a n d redistribution of development projects throughout nation boundaries.
In 1970’s, New Economic Plan implemented in Malaysia was the First Economic Plan.
It was the first economic plan for the whole of
Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak included — as opposed to just Malaya, which previous economic plans (such as the Second Malayan Five Year Plan) had confined them to.
This was because development in the
1960s and 1970s was mainly active in the west coast because of the commercial activities compared to the east coast and the states of Sabah and Sarawak.
To successfully achieved a more balanced development
throughout nation’s bound a r i e s d u e t o t h e r e d i s t r i b u t i o n . In other words, the economic plan with the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP), the government began to improve the distribution of development budget equitably across the nation’s boundary even to Sabah and Sarawak. This effort at the same time is to ensure that the poverty will reduced as to achieve zero poverty in Malaysia despite boundaries. The economic plan also stresses to maintain the welfare of the people in the country, which the government improve the standard of living among the people in the rural area or the people that considered poor nation wide.
To
fight
against
poverty
by
efficiently
implemented
developm ent projects that will benefit the people
42 |
To
provide
the
need
for
an
extensive
administrative
d e v e l o p m e n t s e r v i c e s to t h e p e o p l e
The Plan's objectives were to promote the welfare of all citizens, and improve the living conditions in rural areas, particularly among lowincome groups. The Plan attempted to increase access to medical facilities in rural areas through the formation of the Rural Health Service. District hospital facilities upgraded to handle referrals from the clinics the Service operated. Medical sub centres founded in urban areas, and by the end of the Plan, the gap between rural and urban areas in terms of
quality
of
healthcare
had
narrowed,
eliminated.
East
Malaysian (Sabah and Sarawak) medical facilities in particular were less well equipped and staffed than those in West Malaysia (formerly Malaya).
D i s t r ib u t i o n p o l i c i e s : D i s t r i b u t i o n o f w e a l t h m o r e eq u i t a b l y ac r o s s t h e n a t io n .
The main targets development administration in 1980s is to reduce the problem of poverty. Since the majority of the population at that time is under the poverty, the government needs to take some actions to reduce this problem. Actually, the planning to reduce the number of poverty is the main agenda since independence. Many strategies adopted to ensure the distribution of wealth more equitably across the nation. Some of the strategies employed were progressive taxation system, provision of subsidies, scholarships and affirmative actions (Rozalli Hashim, 2005).
Malaysia for example has taken various steps beginning with Malaysian Plan, the New Economic Policy and later the National Development Policy aimed at compressing the gap between the rich and the poor. Strategies such as Amanah Saham
Nasional and Amanah Saham Bumiputera clearly depict
government’s commitment to distribute economic benefits to the people irrespective of their economic abilities (Rozalli Hashim, 2005).
New Economic Policy implemented in 1970s. It is the twenty (20) years programme and it is including development administration in 1980s until 1990. | 43
The main purpose of this policy is to create the national unity, eradicating poverty irrespective of race, restructuring of society to correct the identification of race with economic function and many more.
The fourth Malaysian Plan (1981-1985) and the fifth Malaysian Plan (19861990) also are more concentrating to develop the national unity and to balance socio-economic among the nation. Other policy such as National Development Policy (NDP) was to achieve balanced development as a catalyst to establish unity and a just community.
One of the strategies towards economic development suggested by the World Bank was redistribution with growth. Some of the strategies suggested were progressive taxation system, provision of subsidies, scholarships and other affirmative actions. Malaysia for example has taken various steps beginning with the Malaysia Plan, the New Economic Policy and later the National Development Policy aimed at compressing the gap between the rich and the poor. Strategies such as the Amanah Saham Nasional and Amanah Saham Bumiputra, clearly depict government’s commitment to distribute economic benefits to the people irrespective of their economic abilities.
R es p o n s i v e n e s s an d A c c o u n t a b i l it y : “Responsiveness”;
administrative responsibility to react immediately upon
any demand in terms of public needs (Deindhart, 1984).
To respond
immediately to the requirements of basic needs especially among the rural poor.
“ Accountability”: intrinsic responsibility that was supposed to be
inherent in all government administrators
(Luke, 1989).
Public officials’
accountability referred as the feeling of being responsible in all actions taken by them in performing their duties.
Responsiveness refers to the quality of being responsive; reacting quickly; as a quality of people, it involves responding with emotion to people and events. Whereby, accountability refers to the responsibility to someone or for some activity (retrieved on 6th Feb 2007, www.wikipedia.org/responsiveness).
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Beside in paying attention on policy aspect and institution, development administration after 1980 also pay attention in developing the officer in bureaucracy. Issue on the value that the officer need to have was become obvious as the mind of people are become more matured because of the development in education. The public officials are more expose to the complaint and evaluation from the people. Thus it is important for them to change to gain the respect from the people. Therefore, the value of the public service need to be re-access to comply with the want and needs of the people that have become more complex. Instead of become efficient and effective, they need to become more responsive and more accountability. In
1980s,
responsiveness
simply
understood
as
the
administrative
responsibility to immediately reacted upon any demand in terms of public needs (Deinthard, 1984). Among developing nations, there were dire need to respond immediately to the requirements of basic needs especially among the rural poor. By establishing good system to react quickly to public grievances, the government could carry out its development program with minimum resistance. Accountability assumed an intrinsic responsibility that was supposed to be inherent in all government’s administration (Luke, 1989). Public officials’ accountability referred as the feelings of being responsible in all actions taken by them in performing their duties. Thus, each duty performed by the officers subjected to its outcome, whether it is good or otherwise. In the final analysis, officers would be very careful in carrying out their duties. The trend of development in this era required officers to well train in every aspects of their work. This was a very important fact because a successful administrative structure needed to ensure the distribution of development projects to the most remote areas that previously were underprivileged (Gillis et all, 1987).
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Projects implementation t hrou gh decent ralization: Cheema and Rondinelli (1983) had suggested that development projects implemented based on decentralization.
The local government system in
Malaysia
successful
was
decentralization.
perhaps
the
most
implementation
of
The rationale was local managers or officers understood
better the needs and requirements of their localities and resources optimally used.
Cheema and Randinelli has suggested that the implementation of the development project need to be decentralization as they feel that centralization of power can cause delay in project because of poor supervision as there is far from the management.
Decentralization refers to the policy of delegating decision-making authority throughout an organization, relatively away from a central authority. Some features of a decentralized organization are fewer tiers to the organizational structure, wider span of control, and a bottom-to-top flow of decision-effecting ideas.
The local authority is given more autonomy in doing their job. Two types of decentralization practice in Malaysia that is devolution and deconcentration. Deconcentration is a process of delegation of responsibility and authority by the central government to the local unit while devolution refers to the transferring of power to make decision to the local authority. Example of deconcentration is District Officer while devolution is Local Government Although Malaysia practices decentralization since independence, but there is still much power that are hold under the federal. Thus by transfer power to the local authority that are directly involve in the development, the project will become successful. The rational is local authority that implement the project are more knowledgeable on what the problem and the need of the local people.
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QUESTION 1 Explain the roles of political modernization in the effort of Development Administration. (25 marks)
QUESTION 2 Elaborate on the Administrative Reform strategies in Malaysia. (25 marks)
QUESTION 3 Differentiate between private enterprise and public enterprise. (25 marks)
QUESTION 4 Distinguish between Debureaucracy and Deregulation. (25 marks)
QUESTION 5 Discuss the achievements of Development Administration in Malaysia. (25 marks)
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