Internship Experience at the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Prime Minister s Department, Malaysia

UPPSALA UNIVERSITY Internship Experience at the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Prime Minister s Department, Malaysia Alizan Mahadi 3/14/2012

Contents Introduction... 1 Methodology... 2 Analysis... 2 Self-Evaluation... 2 Reflection... 5 Relevance to Sustainable Development... 5 Positioning on Sustainable Development... 5 Institutionalizing Sustainable Development... 6 Challenges... 6 Implementation of policies... 6 The cultural context, hierarchy and formalities... 7 Time and resource constraint... 7 Malaysia a small an open economy... 7 Conclusion... 8

Introduction From 2 nd October 2011 until 31 st January 2012, I undertook an internship at the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), part of the Prime Minister s Department of Malaysia. Within EPU, I was stationed in the Economy of Environment & Natural resources Section (ENR). The institutional organisational chart can be viewed in figure I below. Figure I: Institutional Organization of the Prime Minister s Department (Source: Prime Minister s Depart, date unknown) Institutionally, a sustainable development commission, department, agency or section does not exist within the Malaysian government. There is no institutional body that explicitly uses the term Sustainable Development. Despite this, the responsibilities of Sustainable Development in Malaysia rest with ENR. 1 P a g e

The Section was set up to be responsible in leading and coordinating the National environmental and natural resources stability, with better efficiency and effectiveness (EPU, website). Historically, amongst the duties are involvement in United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992, and other meetings on environment at international level such as Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), United Nations Framework Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Convention on Persistent Organics Pollutants (POPs), and others (EPU website). Post Rio Earth summit of 1992, ENR was responsible for ensuring the implementation of Agenda 21, which directly ensures the section assumes the role of achieving the global sustainable development objectives that were set in Rio. As the Agenda 21 can be considered a precedent in cross-cutting policymaking, the role of the section expanded beyond its remit of focusing on environment and natural resources towards a holistic approach to policymaking. Fast forward 20 years onwards, my internship period coincided with the preparation of the section for the Rio + 20 Sustainable Development summit. This provided a valuable experience for me as I had the opportunity to be involved in the implementation of sustainable development at policy level and reflect on the progress of sustainable development of Malaysia, as well as internationally, through the perspective of the Malaysian government and at governmental level in general. Methodology The report is conducted through a qualitative analysis approach. The Participant Observation research strategy is adopted, whereby the internship role provided a platform for direct observation of the institutional practice of sustainable development in Malaysia as a participant. Active participation within the organisation led to involvement in the core practices and duties within the ENR section. This allowed for an intimate familiarity and understanding of the ENR section in particular, and the wider governmental institutions in general. Please note that this report does not contain any literature review and consists of opinions of the author. Analysis Self-Evaluation In evaluating my performance during my time on the internship, I will attempt to undertake an objective assessment through identifying the activities that were undertaken, the output or outcome of the mentioned activities along with the feedback received. Please refer to the table I below. 2 P a g e

Nr Topic Task Output/Outcome Feedback 1.0 Sustainable Development Indicators (SDI) Present report on International methods of SDI Presented report with the UN CSD SDI recommended as the most internationally used SDI Satisfied, with UN CSD SDI set as the reference document for comparing international standards with national objectives 1.1 Introductory report on a national SDI process 1.2 Chair and undertake interviews for assessing institutional capabilities 1.3 Organise Kickoff workshop for a national SDI 1.4 Prepare an SDI report to recommend a way forward for SDI in Malaysia Presented report with a Plan of Action recommended to get the SDI project underway Led and undertook interviews for a preassessment of the institutional capabilities in the run-up to the kick-off workshop A one-day workshop consisting key stakeholders involved in developing indicators in Malaysia was held. Bringing in expert stakeholders led to an indepth discussion on ways forward for developing a national SDI. Prepared a detailed SDI report recommending a way forward. The report was broken down into activities in different phases over a 2-year period. Satisfied, report adopted as a plan of action for a kick-off stage of the national SDI project Satisfied, with the interviews used as an input for the final SDI way forward report. Satisfied, with the workshop outcomes and organisation. The section commissioned a report to be written (by myself) to list the key outcomes of the workshop and recommend a way forward for a national SDI Satisfied, the report is still under review but will be used as the blueprint for Malaysia s SDI. 2 Rio + 20 Prepare reports on consultation of stakeholders as part of the Rio + 20 process Prepared various internal reports on consultations with various stakeholders for the preparation of Rio + 20 Satisfied with report with a thorough discussion in the lead up to Rio + 20 3 P a g e

3 Green Economy Undertake an assessment of the Green Economy Prepared an internal report on the Green Economy and its implication for Malaysia Table I: Self Evaluation Satisfied with report with a thorough discussion for an understanding in the lead up to Rio + 20 My tasks were heavily based on the SDI project as I was installed as the individual responsible for the project. I felt I had successfully carried out this role as all the objectives were met with satisfactory feedback. The SDI report prepared by myself will be presented at the cabinet for approval and pending approval, I have been asked to return in a consultant capacity for continued involvement in the national SDI programme (currently, I am employed full time as an analyst with ISIS, a think tank in Malaysia). I believe this demonstrates the success of the overall project and an evaluation of my contribution. My involvement in Rio + 20 and the green economy was less significant, though this grew in time due to the growing momentum in the agenda of developing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Starting as an observer of the overall process, I was integrated within the team with time and involved in the overall process. I have now been asked to supervise the writing of the national report to establish Malaysia s position for the Rio + 20 Summit. Although all the key objectives were met, the internship was a huge learning curve for me. Prior to undertaking the internship and joining Uppsala University, I had five years of experience working within the private sector. This consisted of a focus on sustainability within the construction industry. Where this provided me the experience and knowledge on practical matters of implementing sustainability through technological measures, I had no prior practical experience of being involved at the policymaking level. This was one of the feedbacks for areas for improvement where I had to understand the inner workings at policy level in general, and in the Malaysian government context in particular. Challenges in dealing with bureaucracy, hierarchy, formal reporting, formal processes were amongst the issues that had to be understood, in both an institutional and cultural context. These issues will be discussed in more detailed within the reflection section of this report. Due to both time and resource constraint in my capacity of intern at EPU, some of the objectives set prior to the internship period were not met. The timing of my internship coincided with a busy period in the run up to Rio + 20, which allowed me to be involved in interesting international issues, but did not allow for me to be more involved in other issues that were meant to start during my internship period. Payments for Ecosystems and Economics of Climate Change projects were delayed and my involvements in these areas were minimal. This though provides a glimpse of the practical challenges faced by policymakers as time and resource constraints may result into delayed programmes, unachieved targets and ultimately resulting in a reductionist approach. These will also be discussed in more detail within the reflection section. 4 P a g e

Reflection Relevance to Sustainable Development In searching for an internship role, I was keen to be involved in sustainable development as a whole, rather than an aspect of sustainable development. This provided a challenge as institutionally (private or public sector), there were not many possibilities to undertake a position that oversees the holistic nature of sustainable development. I was very lucky to be afforded the opportunity to undertake a position in the section of the government that has the responsibility of dealing with sustainable development in a whole nation. This provides a direct relevance to sustainable development and allowed for a reflection on sustainable development issues from a governmental perspective, of which some are briefly discussed below. Positioning on Sustainable Development An interesting perspective that I found during my capacity as an intern in general and the Rio + 20 process in particular, was the government s perspective on positioning with regards to sustainable development issues. Sustainable development is somewhat unique as it is truly a global cross-cutting issue. The academic world may prioritise solving certain issues individually, or even holistically, but at policymaking level, along with the emphasis on the Rio + 20 process, I felt the securitization of sustainability was an important issue that required a positioning on both the overall level of commitment towards sustainable development and positioning on certain key issues. In this case some opportunities may be lost in working towards global solutions as the negotiation table mentality takes place within international political processes. Issues on sustainable development were likely to be discussed on how certain issues impact negatively on a country, in this case Malaysia. Issues such as trade barriers, the common but differentiated responsibilities principle and measurement methodology of sustainable development took precedence over issues that directly concern sustainable development such as mitigation and adaptation of climate change, poverty eradication, environmental justice, etc. This national securitization of sustainable development is perhaps down to the fact that governments who are elected and therefore has the consent of the governed, are set up and institutionalized in such a way to fulfil their obligation to first and foremost protect their own citizens from harm, grounded in the social contract theory. It would be harsh and simplistic to argue that these people simply don t care about sustainable development, as my experience on that note has been a positive one, where the individuals involved are passionate in being able to contribute towards the environment and society as whole. On the other hand it should be emphasized that the end results are what matter and these issues need to be looked into more critically to ensure that ultimately we move towards a more sustainable future. This will require a global partnership at an unprecedented level, paving the way for more a better global institutional setup towards common interests and more work on how to foster trust between nations to get rid of this negotiation table problem. This is a huge challenge to say the least as the politicizing of sustainable development takes place. 5 P a g e

Institutionalizing Sustainable Development Referring to the organizational chart (introduction), the ENR section deals with sustainable development, whilst there are separate sections that deals with Energy, Agriculture, etc. On top of that, there are separate government ministries and agencies that deal with natural resources, environment, macro economics, green technology, etc. This causes a fragmentation in dealing with sustainable development at a national level. It is overly simplistic to solve this through having a single agency that deals with all the mentioned issues, as it will not be practical to fulfil all their respective functions. Despite this, an umbrella institution of some sort may be required that explicitly assumes the role of sustainable development and coordinate the issues centrally. Although the responsibilities of sustainable development rests with ENR, the institutional setup causes confusion and it was found many agencies were not aware of ENR to be the responsible party on sustainable development issues. One does have to understand though, that sustainable development is still a relatively new agenda. The Malaysian government was not set up to deal with sustainable development issues directly. Furthermore, Malaysia s objectives are set within an organic set of policies, the 5 yearly Malaysia Plans. The institutions are set up to mirror Malaysia Plans objectives. Sustainability issues have been incorporated within the recent plans, but a change in institutional set up is undesirable as the Malaysia Plans evolve (rather than revolve) to ensure that the long term plans that were set are still on course. This does not allow for sustainable development to take prominence, with a focused institutional setup established. My experience within the SDI project highlighted this, where data on sustainability were scattered around in different agencies and ministries. Furthermore, separate initiatives within Malaysia to produce indicators duplicated efforts in collecting data. These points to the difficulty of introducing a new agenda into a fixed institutional setup, requiring a balance between fulfilling the long term goals that were set with new and emerging challenges. Challenges In the course of my internship, I also acquired knowledge and exposure towards general challenges at policy level. These are discussed briefly below. Implementation of policies The first impression I had of the policies with regards to sustainable development is that I was quite impressed. There are a range of policies in Malaysia that directly deals with issues on sustainable development. Despite this, the performance of these policies is very unclear. First of all, there is no tool to measure the performance on sustainable development (hence, my involvement in SDIs). Secondly, the private sector and the general public are not aware of the policies in place, causing a disconnect between the policy level and the implementation level. Once again, this is a complex issue. First of all, there is the issue of federal and state level coordination. According to the constitution in Malaysia, the states have a sovereign right apart from a few essential provisions. This causes challenges in implementing federal laws at state level and therefore at implementation level. Even if the 6 P a g e

laws and policies are in place, the state is generally responsible for enforcing these policies. As the state has the right to their land for example, the federal government will require state approval to undertake a physical project. Apart from the federal-state coordination issues, cultural issues on adopting policies are also poor. Elections are usually won and lost through character politics within Malaysia, whereby policy literacy is generally low. Programmes and initiatives to encourage participation of the private sector and the general public are required to turn policies into actions. The cultural context, hierarchy and formalities The cultural context was an interesting experience as part of my learning curve. In referring to the cultural context, I am referring to both the organisational culture as well as the national culture. Hierarchy and respecting of the elders is a culture that is important in Malaysia, and prevalent within the government agencies. This obviously may cause bureaucracy, but that arguably exists, albeit to different degrees, in all governments. On top of the challenges of bureaucracy, there is also the working ethic that has to be adopted in dealing with government personnel. In my capacity as leading the SDI project, I had to deal with many personnel that are heads of their ministries, agencies and so on. This required an approach that is sensitive towards the power structure, especially when producing constructive criticisms. The issues that are championed by the heads of sections and agencies will have much more momentum on them, requiring strategic relationships to be established to ensure the smooth running of any initiative. Although this can undoubtedly be a challenge, this is a culture that is deeply ingrained in the nation and within the organisation (with debatable positives and negatives) and it simply requires an understanding of the cultural context to ensure that objectives are being met. Time and resource constraint As briefly mentioned previously, time and resource constraint are one of the biggest issues facing the Malaysian government in particular, and arguably other actors in dealing with sustainable development. Sustainable development is still not a priority topic in Malaysia, and this causes a lack of expertise within this area. A lack of capable personnel means that the experts are utilised in full and have no remaining capacity and time to pursue issues in more detail. This may lead to a reductionist approach to sustainable development. The ENR section consisted of less than 20 staff that had to deal with the cross-cutting issues of sustainable development for the whole nation. Of course there are consultants on top of this, but the coordination efforts are time consuming and at the same time require capable personnel to synthesize issues that cut across various issues. Capacity building efforts are under way to fulfil the skills gap. Malaysia a small an open economy Malaysia is a country that is economically dependent on external developments. This places Malaysia in a less influential position (in Rio + 20 and other issues generally) in dealing with global issues. Although my experience during my internship is that there is a drive for sustainable development in Malaysia, the rules of the games is more often than not 7 P a g e

determined by influential countries. This has also resulted in a positioning that is not towards sustainable development, but rather strategic objectives and partnerships on the global stage, whilst concentrating on efforts towards sustainable developments that directly affects the local stage. Conclusion The experience gained during my internship at the Environment and Natural Resources section of the Economic Planning Unit, Prime Minister s Department was an extremely valuable experience. The opportunity of applying academia to policymaking highlighted many practical issues of sustainable development that could not be learnt in the classroom. Through active participation within the duties of the section, I have experienced the challenges, rewards and an in depth knowledge of how the institution system works in Malaysia. Furthermore, the experience also provided me exposure towards key individuals within the sustainable development scene locally, regionally and internationally. This resulted in a conducive learning environment and enhanced my knowledge greatly within this field. I was satisfied with my overall performance in my capacity as an intern. Coming from a different background, it was a steep learning curve as they showed faith in me by allowing me to lead the SDI project. It was a fruitful decision in the end as both my objectives were met and the ENR s target of getting the SDI project on track was also fulfilled. I also faced many challenges to adjust to the institutional and organisational culture of the department, but managed to learn and respect their way of work. Finally, the internship led me to be employed as an analyst at the leading think tank in Malaysia, the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS). This arrangement allows me to be involved in the Rio + 20 and SDI project along with frontier work in Sustainable Development in Malaysia and the region. The internship period also allowed me to focus on the area of Sustainable Development Indicators of which will become the subject of my thesis along with invitations to co-write a paper for publication. The opportunity in the end became a valuable stepping stone towards moving forward in my career. 8 P a g e