The 6 KRAs

Targets set for the six Key Result Areas

The Government’s promise of an improved delivery system takes flesh with the Prime Minister’s unveiling of the short-term targets for the six National Key Result Areas.

1. Reduction of crime rate

• Reduce street crime, including snatch thefts and unarmed robbery, by 20% by the end of 2010.
• Re-train Rela members to help improve public perception on safety.
• Upgrade equipment for enforcement agencies and increase the usage of CCTV.
• Set up special courts for street crime to speed up the legal process.

2. Combating corruption

• Updating relevant policies, procedures and enforcement to improve global perception.
• Use open or restricted tender process for all government projects with the exception of those sensitive in nature.

3. Widening access to affordable and quality education

• Make pre-school education part of the national education system.
• Ensure all normal pupils are able to read, write and count when they enter Year Four before 2012.
• Reward school principals and headmasters based on the achievements of each school.
• Turn 100 daily smart, cluster, trust and boarding schools into high performing learning centres by 2012.

4. Raising the living standard of the Poor

• Pay out all welfare cash aid on the first of each month from January.
• Create 4,000 women entrepreneurs under the Sahabat Amanah Ikhtiar programme by 2012.

5. Improving Infrastructure in rural areas

• Build 1,500km of roads in Sabah and Sarawak by 2012.
• Ensure that no one lives more than 5km from a tarred road in the peninsula by 2012.
• Increase electricity coverage in Sabah and Sarawak to 95% by end of 2012.
• Provide 24-hour electricity supply to 7,000 orang asli families in the peninsula by the end of 2012.

6. Improving public transport in the Medium term

• Increase the number of public transport users to 25% by end of 2012 from the present 16%.
• Add 35 sets of four-car-trains to operate on the Kelana Jaya LRT track by the end of 2012.

Source : The Star online.

Integriti dalam Mengurus Organisasi - Perspektif Islam

ISLAM menuntut umatnya berlaku adil dalam segala hal. Takrifan keadilan dalam Islam merangkumi keseimbangan, kesaksamaan dan pemberian hak kepada mereka yang berhak dan meletakkan sesuatu pada tempatnya yang betul.
Secara keseluruhan, keadilan bermakna tidak berlaku penindasan, tidak ada berkepentingan, tidak menzalimi dan tidak memilih kasih dalam memberi layanan dan hak kepada orang lain.
Justeru, tidak hairan jika Islam menekankan keadilan dalam segala urusannya, apatah lagi dengan melaksanakan keadilan mencegah penindasan, penyelewengan, penyalahgunaan kuasa dan perkara bertentangan nilai murni.
Hal berkaitan keadilan turut dituntut dalam pengurusan organisasi. Tuntutan ini memerlukan kepemimpinan yang bertanggungjawab serta mempunyai kekuatan moral serta kejujuran yang tinggi.
Keadilan dalam pengurusan organisasi bermula daripada proses pelantikan jawatan. Majikan perlu melantik calon berkelayakan dan berkebolehan.
Contohnya, sesi temuduga ialah alternatif yang diamalkan sehingga hari ini. Cara itu terbukti berkesan dan adil bagi mengelak salah pilih pekerja.
Sejarah tamadun Islam menunjukkan contoh keadilan dilakukan Rasulullah SAW antaranya ketika pelantikan Mu'adh Jabal sebagai Gabenor Syam. Baginda yang melakukan temuduga itu.
Baginda SAW mengemukakan soalan sejauh mana kelayakan Mu'adh untuk menjawat jawatan berkenaan dan sama ada beliau mampu menangani permasalahan yang mungkin timbul kelak.
Sementara Abu Zar pula meriwayatkan beliau semalaman memujuk Rasulullah SAW supaya melantiknya sebagai pemimpin. Beliau berkata: "Ya Rasulullah, lantiklah aku. Rasulullah SAW menjawab: Sesungguhnya ia amanah yang menjadi celaan dan penyesalan pada hari kiamat nanti."
Apa yang dapat kita perhatikan, pelantikan dan pemilihan pekerja secara adil bukan sekadar mengisi kekosongan sebaliknya, memilih orang yang layak memegang tugas diamanahkan.

Hal ini menggambarkan kepada kita, pelantikan dan pemilihan calon yang tepat menyebabkan organisasi berjalan lancar dan berkesan. Bayaran gaji dan imbuhan yang setimpal juga perlu dibuat secara adil dan setimpal dengan kelayakan, taraf hidup serta keadaan setempat.
Bagi mengelak penipuan dan diskriminasi dalam organisasi, Islam menghendaki diwujudkan kontrak yang adil antara pekerja dan majikan. Kontrak keadilan penting bagi mengelak sesuatu tidak diingini berlaku antara majikan dan pekerja.
Di samping itu, keadilan dalam kebajikan pekerja perlu diberikan perhatian sewajarnya. Sebagai majikan, mereka perlu adil dalam kebajikan terutama dari segi, kesihatan dan keselamatan. Pengabaian majikan terhadap kebajikan pekerja menyebabkan produktiviti pekerja menurun. Secara tidak langsung, menjejaskan matlamat organisasi.
Dari segi pengembangan kerjaya, majikan perlu bertindak adil dengan memberi ruang dan peluang kepada pekerja untuk kenaikan pangkat, latihan meningkatkan kemahiran dan insentif serta pengiktirafan kepada yang layak atau yang lama berkhidmat.
Begitu juga bebanan tugas dan tanggungjawab yang diberikan perlu adil serta saksama. Islam membenci penganiayaan dalam apa juga bentuk termasuk pembahagian tugas.
Contohnya, pembahagian beban tugas antara pegawai atasan dan bawahan perlu berpadanan dengan imbuhan diberikan.
Prinsip kesaksamaan dinyatakan dengan jelas dalam firman Allah bermaksud: "Allah tidak membebani seseorang melainkan sesuai dengan kesanggupannya. Baginya mendapat pahala (daripada kebajikan) yang diusahakannya dan ia mendapat seksa (daripada kejahatan) yang dikerjakannya." (Surah al-Baqarah, ayat 286)
Majikan perlu memastikan hanya pekerja yang benar-benar melakukan kesalahan dan jenayah diberhentikan atau dikenakan tindakan disiplin. Sebarang hukuman dikenakan tanpa bukti yang sahih menggambarkan ketidakadilan berlaku ke atas pekerja itu.
Sehingga kini, sejauh manakah keadilan dilaksanakan dalam organisasi anda?
Yang pasti, soal keadilan sangat diperlu dalam organisasi bukan saja demi kepentingan organisasi malah untuk kepentingan masyarakat dan negara. Tanpa keadilan wujud masalah seperti penindasan, penyelewengan dan penyalahgunaan kuasa dalam organisasi.

Penulis ialah pegawai penyelidik Pusat Ekonomi dan Kajian Sosial Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia
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@Petikan dari :Biro Laman Web
bp.Pengerusi PNI
JPS Malaysia

Mind Boggling KPI measurement !

On Integrity..what say DYMM Paduka Seri Sultan Azlan

July 21, 2009 15:46 PM

Courts Cannot Find Fault With Transparent, Open Govts, Says Perak Sultan

IPOH, July 21 (Bernama) -- So long as any government or authority administers in accordance with the law in a transparent and open manner, no court can find fault with that government or authority, the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah, said on Tuesday. However, he said, this would not be the case if there were judges who had no integrity or who chose to be political or sympathised with any group or political thought. The major and heaviest test for a judge was remaining impartial, especially in terms of emotion and inclination, he said when opening a special seminar on the federal constitution organised by the Perak State Secretariat, here. As such, he added, it was necessary to safeguard the role of the judiciary as a professional and independent body of integrity.

"Judges held great responsibility in upholding the rule of law and integrity of the courts and their failure to do so will result in an imbalance. The loyalty of judges is to justice in accordance with the law. In fulfilling this responsibility, judges are exposed to public evaluation because there is in place a higher mechanism in the courts, with a panel of more judges, to review judgements," he said.

"The perpetuation of the institution of monarchy was not only to the extent of fulfilling historical values and sentimental values of the people. The ruler had a role to ensure the effectiveness of the check-and-balance mechanism which could help strengthen the institution of democracy," he said.

"As the head of state, the ruler serves as the pillar of stability, source of justice, core of solidarity and umbrella of unity. Implicitly, the perpetuation of the institution of monarchy is the continued retention of the identity of a government buttressed by the Malays. The role, duties and responsibilities of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as well as those of the Malay Rulers are based on the concept of the constitutional monarchy," he said.

This meant that the rulers had sovereign power and responsibility in accordance with the law and that a ruler was a ruler, whether it was in absolute or constitutional terms, he said. Sultan Azlan Shah said the difference between them was that one had unlimited power while the other's power was in accordance with the constitution, but it was a mistake to assume that the power of a ruler was similar to that of a president who was bound by the constitution.

"The role of a ruler far exceeded that expressed in the constitution," he said.

The sultan said the implied spirit behind the formulation of the federal constitution was to develop a stable, peaceful, united and prosperous independent nation, which would be achieved through the solidarity and unity of a people of various religions, ethnic groups and cultures, and speaking different languages.

"The constitution has been so formulated so as to ensure that justice prevails and that it equally protects the strong and the weak, the majority and the minority, the administrators and the administered, the Rulers and the people," he said.
The sultan said there was consensus that every Malaysian citizen was guaranteed protection in a fair and just manner, while acknowledging the fact that the indigenous people lagged far behind in terms of socio-economic progress, wealth, ownership of property and skills. As such, the Malays and other bumiputeras were given an assurance through special allocations which gave them privileges, he said.
"At the same time, non-Malays who had immigrated to this country, considering it as their home and pledging their loyalty to the king and country, have been accepted as Malaysian citizens," he added.

Sultan Azlan Shah said the federal constitution was drawn up in the spirit of negotiation, understanding, the desire to unite the people, and the objective of shaping an independent and a sovereign nation-state. For the sake of peace and prosperity, a culture of living based on the spirit of the constitution should be inculcated in the people - a spirit which accorded respect to the law and respected law-enforcement institutions, he said.

"If this basic principle is not adhered to any longer and is to be set aside due to attempts to assimilate foreign cultural influences, it is feared that the country will degenerate into anarchy. In the end, the history of the nation, peace and prosperity will remain just that - history," he said.

-- BERNAMA

Integrity : What option for Malaysia? - Tunku Abdul Aziz

JULY 5 - The upsurge of interest in integrity and ethics is not without a good reason. People all over the world have realized that human progress is unlikely to be sustainable without all of us adopting and embracing universal human values — values that transcend cultural, religious and political barriers.

In Malaysia we have the best legal framework, rules, regulations and procedures, but corrupt practices continue unchecked because those entrusted to serve the community are themselves morally and ethically deficient and devoid of ethical values and high standards of personal and public behaviour.

If we lose our competitive position because we are corrupt and lack integrity, we are putting our future as a nation at risk. Corruption kills competition, breeds inefficiency, distorts our decision making processes and promotes social and political instability in the long run. I believe that in societies where integrity is firmly entrenched, corruption can be kept firmly under control. We have to refocus our vision and reshape our views and ideas on what can be done to fight unethical public behaviour, not only on our own turf, but equally important, on the international front because cross-border corruption represents a major source of social, economic and political instability and distortion, if not dealt with decisively.

In the globalised world in which we operate with its own set of demanding rules of engagement, with emphasis on transparency and accountability, we have to learn quickly to be adaptable or we will be marginalised. However described, corruption exacts a heavy toll on a nation's social, political, and economic development. Anyone trying to persuade you that corruption is a victimless crime is just being cynical. There are victims out there all right, if only we care to open our eyes.

As always, they represent the underclass, and are among the poorest, and the least informed and educated members of our society. They are men and women who because of their economic status do not even know their rights as citizens. The recent Malaysian Indian demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur could well have been a manifestation of a sense of being excluded from mainstream economic and social development. There are large numbers of people in Peninsular, Sarawak and Sabah who are in the same boat, and the government must ensure that its service delivery meets their expectations.

I very much hope that we are not fighting corruption for its own sake, or just to feel good for that would be tantamount to abandoning a large part of mankind to perpetual misery and degradation in the face of the relentless onslaught of human greed. We fight corruption not only to be globally competitive, but more to the point, to bring about social justice and to make a difference to the lives of the poor, the real victims of corruption.

The long term, sustainable prosperity of any country depends entirely on good governance, a comprehensive, overarching system for managing the often complex social, economic and political needs of a modern state, underpinned by strong ethical principles.

The current financial crisis has many lessons for us. One is that there is really no substitute for international standards of business conduct; standards that are firmly grounded in transparency, accountability and integrity. Bad governance, whether private sector or government, contributes directly to inefficiency and corruption. Every financial crisis that has hit our nation has had elements of inefficiency, greed and corruption in the final equation. An absence of integrity is not good for business, especially international business.

Corruption in Malaysia is alive and well as revealed in survey after survey. The latest to confirm this is a report released by the World Bank. The economic strength and prosperity of our nation must begin with confronting and resolving our internal structural weaknesses, of which corruption is a serious impediment to global competitiveness. We have to keep ourselves abreast of best international practices if there is to be a return of public confidence in the way we conduct our business affairs. We have to raise the ethical bar by putting ethics in the driving seat. The international punishment for breaches of business ethics meted out to a country perceived to be corrupt such as ours can be swift and damaging in real terms.

Ethical behaviour is no longer the luxury of the virtuous; it has become a business necessity. Malaysia's capacity to prosper must be predicated on the highest international ethical standards. The way forward for Malaysia is to embrace integrity and put it to good use in our fight for a place at the global top table of clean nations. Is the government up to the task? — mysinchew

Najib wants to recruit private sector talent for civil service

The Malaysian Insider
Sunday July 19 2009

By Adib Zalkapli

PUTRAJAYA, April 28 – Datuk Seri Najib Razak today proposed to open up key positions in the government to talent from the private sector and government-linked companies (GLCs) in an attempt to modernise the civil service.

He also admitted that there was a need for the government to justify the high expenses of RM41 billion to maintain the civil service last year.

“The time has come for key positions in the public sector to be opened to talents from the private sector and GLCs and from services other than the administrative and diplomatic service.

“We cannot be too dogmatic, we need selected talent, the best and tested for the benefit of the people,” said.

The proposal, said the prime minister, was part of structural changes to the civil service, which he called “multi-level admission system.”

“Under this concept, we would be able to benefit from ‘cross fertilisation’ process between talents from the civil service and private sector,” said Najib to thousands of civil servants at a special assembly here.

He asked the civil service to emulate the career development plan and head hunting process practiced by Petronas, PNB and Bank Negara in order to attract the best talent.

He also wanted civil servants to be seconded to GLCs for better exposure to the private sector.

In improving services, Najib wanted operational procedures to be revamped to ensure efficiency.

“Why should we operationally continue practising obsolete work processes, if it can be made faster. This thing can be done if there is a will, it is not impossible,” he said citing the passport application process which can now be completed within hours.

Najib also explained that forming new agencies or departments would not solve the problems facing the civil service.

“We need to control the size of government because the government doesn’t know everything or is in possession of every solution. The reality is, the era of big government and government knows best has ended,” he said.

Ku Li decries routine extension of service for top civil servants

The Malaysian Insider
Sunday July 19 2009;

By Leslie Lau

Consultant Editor

KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 – Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah criticised today the routine extension of service for top civil servants which he said creates cults of personality and promotes a cosy relationship between senior officers and their political masters.

“This politicises the leadership of a service that is supposed to promote by its own independent processes. Those extended become, in effect political appointees. This erodes the independence of the service as a whole.

“It is by an accumulation of bad practices like this that the independent ethos of the civil service has gradually been eroded by political masters who take the ‘master’ part rather too literally,” the Umno veteran wrote on his blog, today.

He said that the routine extension of service has resulted in a “log jam” all the way down the line. An extension for one person who ought to have retired, he said, was a “promotion freeze” for hundreds of others.

Extension of service is meant to be an extraordinary measure but is now in danger of becoming the norm, said the former finance minister.

“This is bad practice,” he said.

Sidek pledges re-engineering to cut graft, red tape

The Malaysian Insider; Sunday July 19 2009
By Leslie Lau

Consultant Editor

KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 – Chief Secretary Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan says the answer to corruption and inefficiency in the civil service is to cut red tape and re-engineer the way contracts are awarded and payment for work is approved. He said the government would cut down the steps taken to award contracts or make payment, but the post-audit process would have to be tightened to catch corrupt and lazy officials.

“If you have a roadblock everyone has to slow down but if there are no roadblocks people can drive faster. Of course if I were lazy then I don’t have to work. So you have to catch it at the post-audit stage,” he told The Malaysian Insider in a recent interview at his office in Putrajaya.

Mohd Sidek, who has been chief secretary since 2006, was responding to questions about civil service graft and constant delays in the awarding of contracts and payments. Such delays have hampered government efforts to attract businesses and investments, as there have been cases where it could take up to a year from the time a letter of intent is signed until a contract is awarded. Responding to this, Mohd Sidek said the current practice of imposing a series of checks contributes to delays and is based on the notion that government officers cannot be trusted.

“But if you empower one person to check through the documents then it will be much faster. “And at the post-audit stage, if we find that person has been naughty then we will come down with 30,000 tonnes of bricks,” he said.

The chief secretary pointed out that when he took up his appointment in 2006, he received many complaints that payment for contracts was often not on time, even though the rule then was that contractors were to have been paid within 30 days of an invoice being received. “So I told my officers to shorten the period even further, to 14 days,” he said, pointing out that he did not increase his staff strength but instead made his officers work extra hours to clear the backlog.

Citing last month’s statistics, Mohd Sidek said that of the RM100 million in contracts handled by the prime minister’s department, 97% were paid out within seven days. But he acknowledged that it would take time to push through this re-engineering process to all ministries and government departments.

For now, the chief secretary’s office directly monitors the performance of all government departments and ministries. If any ministry is found to have failed to make the 14-day deadline, a directive is issued for the matter to be resolved within 24 hours. Mohd Sidek said that a dipstick survey conducted last year showed that the worst performing government departments were the various land offices and local councils.

He also refuted the perception that the civil service, at 1.2 million strong, was bloated and needed to be trimmed. The chief secretary pointed out that there were nearly 500,000 government school teachers, university lecturers and other staff involved in education. The health services has more than 200,000 civil servants. The police and armed forces also had approximately 100,000 personnel in each service.

“But the public is actually clamouring for smaller classrooms so that means we need to hire more teachers. There is also a shortage of doctors,” he said. Mohd Sidek said his focus now was not on the size of the civil service but to build a “culture of competence and perfection” among government servants.

6,337 complaints on govt agencies in first six months

KOTA BELUD, July 19 – The Public Complaints Bureau (PCB) received 6,337 complaints against the public sector agencies in the first six months of this year over dissatisfactory service delivery.

PCB director (Complaints) Aziz Ismail said of the figure, 4,281 cases or 67.6 per cent were resolved.

He said complaints over delays or inaction made up 31.5 per cent of the total, followed by poor service including at the counters or through the phone (18.4 per cent) and failure to enforce (10 per cent).

“Although not all the complaints were on delays in taking action to resolve problems, they nevertheless give negative public perception that the civil service is more of a bane than a boon.

“Therefore, public servants must give satisfactory service to the public as that is what the service is for in the first place,” he said when officiating at a programme on the Integrated Mobile Counter for Complaints organised by the PCB and Kota Belud District Office, here, today.

Sabah PCB director Georgie Abas and Kota Belud district officer Mohd Najib Muntok were also at the programme where 21 state and federal government agencies took part. Aziz said by going to the ground to meet the people, it was hoped that public service delivery could be enhanced as the community could directly forward complaints, pose queries or make suggestions to improve services.

“This programme is a people-friendly approach to also prove the government’s seriousness in providing efficient, quality service to the public towards improving their quality of life in line with the concept of ‘1Malaysia, People First, Performance Now’,” he said.

Aziz also urged the public not to make wild accusations that could tarnish the government’s image, but to use the right channels to forward their complaints or suggestions for the good of the nation. – Bernama

KPI theory sounds good but the devil is in the execution

Friday July 17, 2009 (fr the STARONLINE)

Psychology at Work - By Dr Goh Chee Leong

“KPIs” (key performance indicators) and “KRAs” (key result areas) are fast becoming a buzzword among Malaysian organisations, both private and public. It’s part of a trend that began 10-12 years ago, in line with the global push towards performance management systems as a means for accelerating growth and attaining organisational focus and discipline.

On the whole, I think this is a positive development – it’s a necessity, especially for larger organisations which may have outgrown more informal means of managing goals and resource allocation. The theory is good. Everyone in the organisation must be clear about what they are to achieve, every day, every week, every month, every quarter, every year. All strategic business units are clear on what their targets and goals are. Everything is aligned to the organisational key result areas. Neat, nice, clear and meaningful. The challenge though, is in the implementation. As most of us with management experience will know, the devil is in the execution. It’s easy (relatively) to map out the institutional KRAs and KPIs, but whether this leads to real organisational change (for the better) will depend on the following two things:

Do we have the guts to tie performance with reward and punishment ?

No performance management system will work unless it is directly tied to remuneration. When the system carries no bite, it holds no power. The causal relationship must be clear; if I achieve my goals (as captured in my KPIs) then I will be rewarded accordingly. If I fail to meet my goals, then I will not be rewarded. In fact I may even be punished by being dismissed or demoted.

Human beings more often than not are creatures of necessity. We do things when we have to. If performance doesn’t matter come bonus review or promotion time, then don’t expect anything to change. It takes guts to enforce such a system, especially in organisations that have not been accustomed to performance based rewards. Staff in these organisations may have become comfortable with a more subjective system of evaluation. Some are used to systems that emphasise patronage or systems that emphasise longevity over performance. There will be resistance. Some will leave. This is the cost of change management. No matter how well the process is managed and how well the message is communicated, there will always be those who are determined to resist a genuine, bona fide performance management system because they have all this while been getting away with contributing very little. To be fair, the goals and KPIs themselves need to be achievable and reasonable. It is bad practice when organisations purposely set targets that are out of reach, as they perpetuate the attitude that “it doesn’t matter anyway, because these targets are impossible.” Never set unreachable goals. Some organisations have two levels of targets: basic targets and stretch targets which are a little higher. Staff are rewarded when they meet their basic targets and are rewarded even more when they meet their stretch targets. I think this is a fair system; by providing two tiers it is reasonable and at the same time provides incentives for staff to over-perform.

Have we trained the line managers to run performance management systems?

Some performance management systems fail because no one below the middle management level has any clue as to what is really going on. In some organisations, the KPIs may be displayed all over the office (as part of ISO compliance) but when you talk to the individual staff, they have no idea how the goals will be measured or how their individual jobs are linked to the departmental KPIs. Similarly, there are many staff in many organisations who have no idea how they will be evaluated and appraised because their direct superiors do not manage the evaluation and appraisal process with any clarity.

I remember some executives telling me “I don’t think my boss even knows how to evaluate me; in fact, he gets me to fill up my own evaluation forms because he does not have the time.” This is symptomatic of a lack of buy in from the line managers who may see staff evaluations as an unimportant nuisance. Others comment that “my boss doesn’t provide any feedback; positive or negative during my evaluation meetings; so I have no idea whether he is happy with my performance or not.” This may be due to some managers fearing confrontation with staff and therefore, they avoid providing any critical feedback. A recent survey by a local consulting firm among 50 organisations in Kuala Lumpur indicated that less than 45% briefed their staff regularly on whether their department had met their KPIs. This should be of great concern. If staff don’t know whether they are hitting their targets or not, how can they calibrate their performance?

We must brief all our line managers and make it clear in no uncertain terms that the evaluation and appraisal process should be taken seriously and that all staff must be well aware of their KPIs and should be given regular feedback on whether they are achieving them. It helps when we have clear, hard targets, KPIs that are easy to quantify. Many supervisors struggle with evaluating soft targets. This of course, can be a work in progress.

When organisations introduce performance management systems, it is my recommendation that for the first few cycles, they start with the hard targets. It makes it easier for the organisation to get “comfortable” with a new system when it is neat, clean and clear. Over time, soft targets can be introduced and training and mentoring must accompany these to support the line managers in implementing them.

● Dr Goh Chee Leong is vice-president of HELP University College and a psychologist. We welcome feedback on this article. Please email to starbiz@thestar.com.my

PM Najib's 6 key areas for KPI

2009/07/11 derived from NST Online;

KUALA LUMPUR, Sat: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today announced six national key result areas (KRA) for more effective attainment of the targets of the key performance indicators (KPI).

He said these are :

1. crime prevention,

2. fighting of corruption,

3. widening access to quality and affordable education,

4. raising the living standard of the low-income people,

5. upgrading infrastructure in the rural and interior regions, and

6. improving public transportation in a moderate period of time.

Najib said these six areas will be given priority focus by himself, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Cabinet ministers and Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan.