MIRI: Local governments need to enhance their roles and increase their engagements with the communities with regard to the new norm, says state Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
“Let us capitalise on improving the compliance and enforcement practices that are already in place,” he said on Monday (Nov 29) during the local government and housing excellence awards here.
He added that the systems and standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) addressed every new circumstance during the recovery phase.
“Some of the SOPs by the health authorities and local councils may become a permanent feature in our day to day lives.
“This includes regularly conducting self tests to enable us to protect one another.
“Also the effective disseminating of information to the communities, encouraging them to comply, and enforcement during the endemic phase needs to be more efficient.
“There may be a need to come up with new regulations to enforce and secure a change of behaviour in the public realm.”
He further disclosed that in order to achieve this, “there is a need to capitalise on the various learning resources made available due to the pandemic.”
“Let us learn from each other in adapting to good practices drawn from across all sectors,” Dr Sim added.
“The multi-level agency cooperation will enable us to develop a more effective operating framework that can help the councils be more prepared in future.”
Dr Sim stressed that the sharing of resources, procedures and information was essential.
He called for more continuous improvements and cooperation from now on “to ensure our machinery is well oiled to assist those who need help urgently, anytime and anywhere.”
Also present were Miri mayor Adam Yii, his deputy Cr Julaihi Mohamad and city council secretary Morshidi Fredrick.
Some 159 individuals received their APC for the year 2020 at the event.
