Rakyat are govt’s ‘customers’, says CM
KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal has asserted that the rakyat are the government’s “customers”.
“We must understand and be aware of the fact that our (the government) customers are the rakyat (people). We serve the rakyat to ensure that their needs can be fulfilled, as best we can so that their welfare can be preserved,” Shafie said.
The Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) president was met by reporters after chairing a meeting with State Secretary Tan Sri Sukarti Wakiman and the various departments’ heads of the state at his new office at the Sabah State Administrative Centre (PPNS) on Tuesday. “(During the meeting), I spoke about the direction of the new administration, in line in what we (the newly-formed government) have said during GE14,” he said, adding that the cooperation between the public and private sectors as well as policy makers will be vital.
Shafie is confident that if the level of cooperation can be improved and if the state’s policies can be understood better, the performance of the state administration can also be enhanced.
Among the key points that were discussed in the meeting were the addition of the three new ministries, namely, the Health and People’s Welfare Ministry which is headed by DAP Sabah chairman Stephen Wong Tien Fatt; Education and Innovation Ministry under Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob and the Law and Native Affairs Ministry under Datuk Hj Aidi Moktar.
In this regard, the newly formed government would need to conduct some structural changes to accommodate these new ministries, Shafie added.
“I am also looking at some of the promises that we have done. Within a short period of 100 days, some of them (the promises) will be announced along the way,” he said.