Sarawakians can use UKAS to comment on state programmes, policies

KUCHING: The people of Sarawak can use the Sarawak Public Communications Unit (UKAS) to provide feedback on any government policy and programme.

Deputy Minister in the Sarawak Premier’s Department (Corporate Affairs, Communications and UKAS), Datuk Abdullah Saidol said that UKAS’ role is not only to convey the government’s intentions but also to gather feedback from the people.

“The dissemination of accurate and swift information needs to be effectively implemented by UKAS to reduce the gap in understanding between the Sarawak government and its people,” he said while speaking at the closing ceremony of a programme on current issues and explanations here today.

According to him, the Sarawak government always wants the community to provide constructive feedback regarding programmes or policies to be implemented.

“Perhaps at the Cabinet, minister and deputy minister levels they (the programmes or policies) look good but we do not know the community’s views on these (programmes or policies),” he said.

Abdullah said the people can also express their views regarding the performance of their area people’s representatives to help the state leadership assess the effectiveness of these representatives in fulfilling their responsibilities.

He also said this was in line with the Sarawak government’s initiative to create a performance report card for each representative to ensure their services meet the needs of the people.

According to him, each person does not need to worry about the level of confidentiality of the information they provide because every UKAS officer is entrusted to carry out their duties with full integrity, regardless of political beliefs.

“What is import is the community knows what is being done by the government and let them assess for themselves the sincerity and dedication of the government administering Sarawak,“ he added.