Prepare to be rated: PM to Cabinet

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak chaired his first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday with a reminder to ministers to “give their best” and that it is important for them to have “job satisfaction” with their portfolios.
He said he also told the ministers not to work with only their communities in mind, but to give their assistance to every ethnic group and to break away from such mentality.
Najib said he also told the ministers to expect their first evaluation under the key performance indicators (KPIs) in November, adding that the line-up was a “people’s Cabinet” which must be capable of fulfilling the people’s high expectations and hopes.
He said he also stressed to them the importance of not being seen to be making decisions that sided with “special interest groups” or corporate bodies.
“The bottomline is that any decision should be made with the interests of the rakyat (people) in mind although it is important for the Government to continue with private sector friendly policies.
“I have told Cabinet members that with the current political situation, the people have become more critical and they should not assume that it’s still business as usual. So, there must be change and renewal.
“I emphasised the need for them to open their doors and hold discourses and dialogues with various groups so that any decision really has the interests of the people at heart,” he told reporters at his house here Wednesday.
Najib convened his first Cabinet meeting in Putrajaya earlier after having been sworn in as Prime Minister on April 3. He announced his Cabinet line-up on April 9.
He said he also told Cabinet members to keep qualities of integrity, willingnesss, preparedness and ability in mind when doing their job. “They must build a good esprit de corps (solidarity) among themselves and be a close-knit family on whom they can depend for support,” he said, describing the meeting as “good and lively.”
Najib said it had also been agreed that Khazanah Nasional would help with drawing up the KPIs and that he had met with the government-linked corporation’s Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar for it to set aside the human resources necessary to do so.
The Premier said ministers could also take the opportunity of the evaluation in November to review their performance and resolve any issues that might stand in the way of their projects.
Asked if ministers would be dropped if they failed to achieve their KPI, Najib said Cabinet ministers were fully aware that the future of the Government depended on them and on them performing their duties.
“I’m sure they will carry out their responsibility,” he said.

tunku : as a leader no matter federal,state,division or branch level, we must always help everyone and not only based on ethnic group. for example an umno division leader must help every community in his/her division.so does all the rest. this is what the actual meaning of 1Malaysia. as for our cabinet members, i hope najib will really evaluate them every 6 months.those not performing should quit or those who get 'low marks' should quit.we don't want this kpi thing to be just sizzling in the beginning but at the end of the day its cool off just like what pak lah's administration did with his cabinet's report cards.till he resigned, we don't know what happened to those report cards.come november, najib should make it public the kpi for his ministers .