Letter to editor
IT IS bad for good governance when many public officers, including some Penang Island City Council (MBPP) councillors and personal assistants of MPs/state assemblymen choose not to answer phone calls or to return calls from the very people who put them in office.
This includes text messages that indicates they were read by the receiver but strangely not replied even after a few days.
Calls to elected representatives are strategic when an urgent issue faced by an individual or a community needs to be raised quickly.
Pragmatically, a phone call from the public can hold more weight in getting immediate answers as compared to an e-mail, a Facebook post or a tweet.
Many B40 families, NGOs and non-profit organisations are concerned over this practice, especially when they have urgent issues to raise but are unable to reach out to the people in office.
The callers are usually parked, so to speak, with wait music and pre-recorded messages played till the line is cut off.
This scenario is slowly becoming an idiosyncratic feature in the offices of elected representatives and City Councils.
Unanswered calls
Notwithstanding the excellent service displayed by a larger number of the state government officers who manage to build a good rapport with the public, this damaging mannerism is only seen in a few officers.
Nonetheless, it reflects on the overall organisation that they represent. Ironically, the publicity posters and the name cards of the City Councillors and the YBs have boldly printed phone numbers to call when help is needed.
However, the calls or messages when handled by these negligent officers, usually never get through or remain unanswered.
The issue of not answering phone calls may sound trivial but Penang Hindu Association (PHA) believes that reducing this unethical practice will be an added element to sustain good governance and to boost the efficiency of public offices in providing better services to the community.
In line with this, PHA hopes that our honourable Chief Minister and Mayor will look into this matter seriously by taking proactive actions to come up with a feasible telephone etiquette SOP (standard operating procedure) in public offices.
A constant monitoring of this SOP will help maintain service consistency in communicating with the general public.
Additionally, PHA also hopes that a hotline could be set up to report on errant/ineffective public officers who flout the norms by not responding or listening to the grievances raised by the public by giving excuses of being busy or being constantly in meetings or attending programmes.
PHA hopes for immediate action as this involves the reputation of the state government and to help foster trust between the public and the public office. – Nov 19, 2024
Datuk P. Murugiah
President
Penang Hindu Association
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
