Anwar directed the minister, senior government officials to monitor the village situation

KUANTAN: The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ordered the Cabinet of Ministers and the Chief Secretary of State (KSN) to take seriously their responsibility to monitor the situation in villages throughout the country in order to further improve the well-being of the residents.

Bernama reported that Anwar also ordered the ministry’s chief secretary and senior government officials to do so.

He said, the directive does not mean that the concerned parties need to monitor every day, but once a month or two months is sufficient to ensure that village development is not marginalized because development cannot be concentrated in urban areas only.

“(We) have government machinery, that’s right, but sometimes we don’t get the information. Our instructions, in Kampung Angkat Madano including the PM (prime minister), minister, KSN, KSU (chief secretary) of the ministry and all senior officials must choose the original village or any other village to be adopted.

“Why? Everyone has their own theory, talk about economic, social, health problems, education, how to measure success or not? We measure from the bottom level. Meaning, if you want to know whether (each theory) is successful or not, go down to the village, look at health problems, education, dropout issues, mental illness.”

Anwar said this while speaking at the 2024 National Level Civil Lift Village Launch Ceremony at Kampung Chengal Lempong, Balok, here.

Present with KSN, Zuki Ali and Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living, Fuziah Salleh.

Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said that he has been going to the village for the past few months and a meeting was held to find out about the problems in his village in Cherok Tok Kun, Penang.

“I was born in Sungai Bakap, but at the age of five I moved to Bukit Mertajam and Cherok Tok Kun, I grew up in Cherok Tok Kun, so I chose Cherok Tok Kun. I called the imam, the headmaster, the teachers to see the dropout problem…why did this child stop.”

Touching on the launch of Kampung Chengal Lempong as a national-level Civil Lift Village as well as several villages that were previously selected as Civil Lift Villages, he said it was one of the ways to assess the effectiveness of policies announced by the government.

He said, there are times when great policies announced by the government cannot be fully understood by the people, but such problems can be overcome if leaders and senior government officials go down to the grassroots level to explain.

In the same event, he presented a donation in the form of a grant of RM100,000 to the Village Development and Security Committee (JPKK) and the Chengal Lempong Village Residents Association.

Anwar also presented donations to 1,000 workers in the Indera Mahkota Parliament and 401 fishermen here.