Five Ministries One Industry

by InvisibleWriter001

How many ministry one has to go to in order to get things done? These things can be as simple as setting up a nuclear reactor or as difficult as getting a permit to import piranhas.
It is about red tape or whatever color you might want to call it. And mind you this red tape scenario not only exists in Malaysia but everywhere else, but for this discussion let’s confines ourselves to Malaysia.

I bet everyone have experienced this. It’s frustrating when we were given the run around. This usually happens whenever we tried to get things done at the government agencies.
We understand the predicaments, sometimes it’s not the fault of government servants but policy makers and those who came up with the procedures.

We’re dumbfounded with some procedures. We can’t grasp the rationale behind some irrational regulations. It’ll be good if the relevant government agencies could at least brief their staffs the motives behind any procedures, rules or regulations. At least it’ll save their staff from cliché ignorant answers such as “Saya tak tahu lah Encik” or “Maaf Encik, saya tak boleh buat apa sebab prosedur dah macam tu.”

Sometimes we need to know the reason in order for us to understand the situation better and not to repeat the same mistake.

Another ancient problem that has not been resolved till today is overlapping of jurisdiction between several ministries. Any misinterpretation of rules, regulations or procedures will cause confusion. Let’s take media as an example. This lively industry falls under the jurisdiction of a few ministries. The publishing media has to report to Ministry of Home Affairs, FINAS is under Ministry of Arts Culture and Heritage etc. All in all we have 5 ministries monitoring the media industry.

I agree with Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim’s suggestion to group everything under media and broadcasting under one single ministry. It’ll cause less headache and better efficiency.

And this suggestion might soon pave the way for the establishment of a new ministry.

Numerous difficulties encountered whenever one has to produce a tv commercial. The producer has to get approval from 3 different ministries before a finished product goes on air and add in 2 more ministries if you need to utilize foreign talents or manpower. Now you’ll understand the hassle a producer has to go through.

Media industry is growing very fast. Technology in this industry grows at a rate that will cause breathing difficulty if we try to catch up. But unfortunately our red tape is slowing down our progress. We have local talents that can cater the worldwide market. We have up to date technology. But why aren’t foreign media practitioners coming here? Why are they going to Singapore and Thailand? One of the main reasons is what I’ve written here today. There are too many overlapping jurisdiction between different ministries. These have caused red tape that made us drooling over lost of potential investment.

The government has to act now before more potential investment and income opportunity by pass us or red tapes ‘induced’ some individuals to undergo heart bypass. These are unnecessary time consuming, energy sapping, patient killing and money wasting procedures.

Overlapping equals inefficiency and it reflects badly on us.