Educator with a flair for Public Administration
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Datu Dr. Haji Yusoff bin Haji Hanifah began his career in the civil service as an educator teaching in a well known public school in his hometown, Miri. Several high ranking government officials including Datu Dr.Hatta Solhee were among his students. Although he had never regarded his teaching vocation as a civil service position, he was very much conscious of his responsibility to society and his employer.
His perspective of what makes a civil servant changed when he assumed the role of a school supervisor.
His new role required him to interact a great deal more than previously. He spent a lot of time going out to meet the public to explain matters on education policy. "The public of the post colonial era was more critical of government policies especially if it involves the improvement of their children's education." he said.
Datu Dr. Haji Yusoff felt that he had played a positive role in the development of education in the state. Part of his contributions toward this included organising numerous dialogues and meet- the- parents sessions in the villages - activities he considered as very important aspects of administrative work.
Being a leader is never easy. Datu Dr. Haji Yusoff took it upon himself to make things happen as he saw it to be within the purview of his administrative and professional work to do this. " I quickly realised that my office is less important to me than the civic centres, school halls or community centres where I hold meetings with the people in the kampungs", he explained.
For him, these were the places where he learnt a great deal about people, their issues and their values - important knowledge to help a civil servant be a good leader.
Memorable Moments
In his illustrious decade old career with the State Civil Service ( he was appointed as Senior Assistant Director of Education in 1982), Datu Dr Haji Yusoff explained that the various positions he held since then had compelled him to assume leadership role to cover the relevant aspects of his administrative duties.
He was conscious of the need to be responsive to the needs of the public and the government. In the course of executing his work, he admitted that he had made mistakes. "Where I had made mistakes, I was prepared to admit it and acknowledge it", he added.
Taking care of the image of his department was a crucial part of his duty. He never took lightly the public relations aspect of his administrative work. He came across difficult customers with their unreasonable demands especially from those "close" to the politicians. "But I was determined to be firm in my decision. If the answer had to be "No", then that was what I would tell them", he affirmed.
Of course there were complaints from customers but these, he viewed were good indications of a healthy state of affairs in his department or ministry. Complaints from customers meant an opportunity to redress any shortcomings and promote improvement.
Two way communication
For a department to be effective and efficient, a healthy flow of communication must be encouraged among department staff and between the department and the public. He realised that there was a need to address the communication deficiency in his department. In fact, his determination not to be evasive and defensive in his dealings but instead to handle them positively especially the queries and feedback as well as his quick response to public frustrations may well be his greatest achievement in his career with the Service. He was very serious in his effort to maintain the good image of his department and took speedy remedial actions to counter negative public perceptions. " The image of my department is very important to me", he explained. One of his early strategies towards this end was to organise public relations workshops and seminars - something almost unheard of in those days. He wanted to promote better interaction and enhance the communication skills to improve work performance among his staff. He realised that it was not easy. After years of doing things in certain ways, effecting an improvement in the work culture needed a massive attitudinal change. "I persisted until I achieved a satisfactory result" he added with pride. His department began to make an earnest commitment to make the Civil Service what it should be. A Civil Service that was committed to the slogan " Berusaha, Berkhidmat, Berbakti" or loosely translated to mean : To Endeavor, To Serve , To Contribute.
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From this exercise his department began to visualise mission atement and corporate charter. Today , almost every departments, ministries, agencies has a mission statement and a corporate charter to work towards.
"I was conscious that I needed to be responsive to the needs of the public and the needs of the Government," explains Datu Dr. Haji Yusoff (2nd from left) |
Post Colonial Civil Service
Datu Dr Haji Yusoff labelled himself as a product of the post colonial civil service. In his opinion, it is still very much administrative and regulative in nature. But the era of the Chief Minister's "Politics of Development" has brought on many changes in the state civil service and it continued to change. Compared to the present day government, the pre-colonial administrators were authoritative and the public was expected to comply obediently.
For him, the State Civil Service after independence has many challenges to face. It was open to many queries and criticism from all sectors - the public, media, politicians, business community, the voters etc. All questions must be answered and all shortcomings be addressed. To survive, he said, a civil servant who assumed a leadership role must be well versed with what he termed as the "secrets of politics". One must understand the politics of the day, the mentality of politicians and the system in the complex organisation that he served, he added.
An ideal civil servant What makes an ideal civil servant? He must be honourable, incorruptible, innovative with the guts to take calculated risks.
In the old days, the civil servants were respected, revered and treated almost like kings. In fact, the resident of a district was seen as the king of his little kingdom.
Although the civil servants are still very much respected, the public perception of the civil servants has changed much over the last 30 years in
Another trait that he deemed as desirable in a member of the state civil service is the ability and willingness to give credit where and when it is due. For example, he said, many good ideas and suggestions to improve the quality of public service came from members of the public. A good civil servant should recognise these individuals and not assume these ideas as their own for their own personal fame and glory.
As Mayor, he introduced the use of credit card at the payment counters in DBKU ...(also in photo is Tuan Haji Morshidi) |
An ideal civil servant must be able to work towards facilitating the private sector development, not just to regulate it, a move some may see as stifling the growth of industries towards economic development.
He commended the role played by government agencies such as the Land & Survey Department in speeding up the process of development for industrial areas in places like Demak Jaya.
Be it social, political or administrative, a civil servant must excel and to do this, he/she must be efficient in all aspects of public responsibilities. He must be efficient in managing tax payers funds, innovative in his approach towards his work and decisive in experimenting with new ways of doing things. The million ringgit question that all civil servants should ask was " Are we doing anything to improve our performance?".
Datu Dr Haji Yusof looked up with admiration and respect for the leadership skills shown by the present State Secretary, YB Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Aziz Husain. " Datuk Aziz has many new ideas he is experimenting with - all in the hope of giving an impetus and a boost to the performance of the civil service. The introduction of IT in the civil service was done towards achieving a paperless civil service, the use of the internet to search for knowledge was to enhance the performance of every member of the civil service and many other positive and innovative approaches for the promotion of an efficient and knowledge driven civil service, he explained.
Taking calculated risks
Being a good leader means having the courage to take calculated risks in making decision affecting their work and their departments. An ideal civil servant must be confident that nothing will go wrong with his decision. He must learn to anticipate, welcome and execute changes if they are necessary. Efficiency is a by-product of innovation and responsiveness. Ministries and departments must be encouraged to begin their own innovative agendas by implementing measures that would encourage efficiency. An ideal civil servant is expected to be innovative, responsive, consultative and be able to respond to the demands of the government and the public. Executing his role as a public servant for almost two decades has seen him taking many calculated risks in making decisions. His appointment as the first mayor of Kuching City North (DBKU) on August 1, 1988 brought his decision making skills to the fore. To his pride and joy, many of his innovative and calculated risks had paid off nicely, leaving a great legacy for his successors to inherit.
Profile
- Senior Assistant Director of Education 1982 - 1983
- Resident of Sri Aman 1983 - 1984
- Permanent Secretary of 1984 - 1988
- Ministry of Resource Planning
- Mayor of
Datu Dr Haji Yusoff bin Haji Hanifah has a PhD in Sociology/Education. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of several local/national corporations.
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