Driving Drivel

Bill Sienkiwicz's Elektra

A very good one:

“Everything I've heard so far are just promises. You are promising that you want to improve something. But you haven't told me what you want to improve, how it's going to be improved, and how I am supposed to know whether it's improved.”

Do read the linked article in whole to understand what the quote above is all about.

It is also a classic in what journalists have always had to face when interviewing politicians.

Not all, mind you, but a good majority would come out just like Koh Tsu Koon; round and round with a whole lot of goobledegook and not much in substance.

Back door appointment to the Cabinet notwithstanding, I believe the Gerakan head honco was given an infinitely impossible assignment of KPIng the Ministries.

Just how do you KPI certain Ministries such as Home, Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister's Department?

The mind surely boggles are the substantive qualifications that should go into the KPI for these Ministries.

Perhaps one KPI that should be a priority is how fast can the Cabinet approve the making public the PKFZ's audit report.

Should that be a Transport, a Finance or a Cabinet KPI point?

It's a ticking time bomb that's been passed around a whole lot of late.

All and well really, as the billions in Ringgits attached to the alleged scandal is far too much a burden to be borne by a single shoulder.

Anyway, back to the interview which I do wonder if it was published verbatim.

My experience with politicians is that they tended to be very long winded and imprecise especially when it is something which is not handily tackled with a “kita akan kaji' answer.

KPIing the KPI Minister is yet another point worth asking of the Minister in the PM's Department.

Koh's answer to that was this:
“I just submitted what was being used as preliminary KPIs, the number of incidents that have been reported to and recorded by the police. I said this was all that we had (as a yardstick).

But I have asked the Institute for Inter-Ethnic Relations of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, headed by Professor Shamsul Bahrin, and his researchers to help me find out whether there are already existing ones in other countries and new indices we can create to more effectively measure "national unity" and "social harmony".

If we can come up with certain measures as an indicator, then we can come up with an implementation plan to enhance social harmony, national unity, inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony.”

Now, does that answer the question?

Still, the interview cannot beat the one The Star did with Khir Toyo.

That is forever destined to be THE ONE.