Critique of Public Policy Implementation: National Integrity Plan in Malaysia

Public Policy

Policy is a relatively stable, purposive course of action or inaction followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or matter of concern (Anderson). Based on the definition given public policy basically means the government plans or strategies that are created to solve the public problems in the nation. Numerous issues that could affect the stability of nation are being addressed by the government through the public policy such as crime, education, corruption, social welfare, economy and many more.

National Integrity Plan (NIP)

On 23rd April 2004 the former Malaysia’s Prime Minister which is Y.A.B Dato’ Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi has launched the National Integrity Plan (NIP) with the aims in creating and developing an ethical Malaysian society. “The National Integrity Plan (NIP) is an integrity plan that will be a catalyst for the attainment of the objective of enhancing integrity whereby it is the plan that reflects the hopes and aspirations of both the leadership and the people”. This plan is in line with the fourth challenge of Vision 2020 which is “to establish a fully moral and ethical society whose citizens are strong in religious and spiritual values and imbued with the highest ethical standard. The main focus of this NIP is to cultivate and foster a culture of ethics and integrity among all levels of society that includes family institutions, community, civil society, socio-cultural institutions, religious institutions, economic institutions, political institutions, administrative institutions (Office of the Prime Minister of Malaysia). So, generally the ultimate aims of this policy are to combat the corruption and uphold the value of integrity to be practice among the civillians. The government has implemented the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 1 of 1998 which its objectives are to enhance the integrity of the management in government administration. However, this mechanism does not involve the other groups such as political parties, private sector, media, non-government organizations and so on to also practicing the integrity. So, the NIP has been formulated as a policy that are comprehensive and get to guide all the other sectors in the state to also intensify the practicing of integrity. The importance of the introduction of the NIP by the Malaysia government has been classified into three group first are the individual whereby NIP encourage the individual to be true with what they say by proving it through their actions and ensure that all actions that been done are following the rules and laws and consistent in practicing it. The second group are the society whereby NIP providing the direction and guidance to the various stakeholders in order to work together to foster a united, harmonious, integrity, moral and ethical society. Other than that, NIP also promote a sense of responsibility among members of society and encourage the development of civil society that upholds the principle of integrity and actively promotes integrity. The third groups are the public services whereby the NIP promote the public servants to exercise the authority that are given to them to serve the public interest and not to fulfill their own personal interest so, it could avoid the abuse or misuse of power in any organizations.

Objectives of National Integrity Plan (NIP)

The overall objective of the NIP is to realise the aspirations of Vision 2020 that is, to become a fully developed country and “to establish a fully moral and ethical society whose citizens are strong in religious and spiritual values and imbued with the highest ethical standards”. To develop the nation, it is important to eradicate any negative values, practices or influences so that, the nation get to produce a high quality and integrity society. So, the NIP is being introduced by focusing on the fourth challenge of Vision 2020. Other than that, in the first five years, The National Integrity Plan (NIP) has set out to achieve five targets known as Target 2008. The Target 2008 include to effectively reduce corruption, malpractices and abuse of power; to increase the efficiency in the public delivery system and overcome the bureaucratic red tape; to enhance corporate governance and business ethics; to strengthen family institutions; and to improve the quality of life and societal well-being.

Critic & Recommendation for MICG

MICG has been known to conduct various programs to enhance the corporate governance in Malaysia. But, why the corporate governance issues in Malaysia still seem to be not achieving the expected standards. So, the critique on the MICG programs is they only focusing on helping these companies to improve their corporate governance by only conducting the programs such as seminars and talk but little involvement in the implementation of the solutions. So, the problem is there may be the companies that not thoroughly following the instructions given when they attending such programs conducted by the MICG. So, the recommendations for the MICG is they also need to involved in the implementation process in that way they can provide clear instructions and give the guidance for the companies so, what has been discussed in the seminars will be applied by the companies to improve the corporate governance in Malaysia. This is because the real application during implementation process may be different with what the companies has learned and practices during the program due to several realms.