Although it has been less than a month since their official appointments as ministers and deputy ministers of their various ministries, it appears that our representatives are already hard at work to come up with solutions to long-standing problems.
However, sometimes, it appears that they are getting far too involved and are even having to fix things that perhaps shouldn’t concern them as much.
Recently, news that the National Science Centre had a couple of leaks in its roof leading to water dripping everywhere went viral.
In a couple of pictures shared by netizens, the management of centre were condemned for merely using buckets to collect the leaked water. Many called for proper action to be taken instead of an inefficient short term solution.
Following the ruckus it caused, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Chang Lih Kang shared that he had received complaints regarding the roof leakage.
In a Facebook post on Monday (December 12) he wrote, “After getting feedback from Ministry officials, I was informed that a series of discussions had been held between MOSTI and the Public Works Department (JKR) to make modifications to the roof structure. Action will be taken soon. Thank you for the feedback provided.”
Just yesterday (December 15), he shared that he has visit the National Science Centre to examine the problem.
He also stated that a briefing session involving the Public Works Department (JKR) was also held to examine propose repair actions to overcome the leakage problem and that a decision will be made soon.
“I also appreciate the partnership given by the National Science Center in relation to planning to jointly succeed in the mission of Cultivating Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in Malaysia, in line with the National STI Policy.”
He concluded by apologising for all the difficulties faced by visitors of the National Science Center.
Should it even be your job?
Although most netizens appeared to praise the minister for taking immediate action, a number questioned why he was the one taking action when it should’ve been the management of the centre itself.
A couple of them even accused the management for merely taking action after the minister had gotten involved himself.
“This is saddening. Do facilities under GLCs and the government in Malaysia really need the minister to visit before actually doing their jobs?”
Another user called for the heads of the upper management and said that this is not a good use of a minister’s time.
“You should be setting up long-term policies for the country, not checking up on broken facilities,” they added.
One user said, “Can’t have deputy/ministers doing agency’s management job scope.”
What do you think? Should Ministers get involved in issues like these?
