Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today launched the "MADANI" concept as an effort to drive and restore Malaysia's dignity and glory in the global arena.
MADANI is the Malay acronym for SCRIPT, which stands for sustainability, care and compassion, respect, innovation, prosperity, and trust.
Here is the SCRIPT policy framework.
Our vision
To build a sustainable and prosperous Malaysia based on care and compassion, mutual respect, innovation, and trust, where inclusiveness and equality are embraced by the whole nation - ultimately a just Malaysian society.
The Script Narrative
"SCRIPT: Sustainability, Care and Compassion, Respect, Innovation, Prosperity, Trust - key terms for shaping and building a thriving, dynamic future for Malaysia."
Our goal is to build a Sustainable, Caring and Compassionate, Respectful, Innovative, and Prosperous Malaysia based on mutual trust.
The key words of our vision spell SCRIPT, is about shared trust between the government and the citizens based on transparency and cooperation. It recognises the right of every Malaysian citizen, whatever his or her background, to live in sustainable communities and environments.
It highlights care and compassion in all segments of society to promote equality and equal opportunity. It encourages mutual respect as a social and cultural norm to enhance inclusiveness.
It seeks to make innovation prevalent in all aspects of national life.
SCRIPT Policy Framework
Our policy agenda focuses not just on the current on problems and requirements of Malaysia but also on the nation's future needs and potentials.
It takes into consideration the changes that have transformed the world; and aspires to navigate the country through the complexity, contradictions, and chaos of post-normal times.
The language, concepts, and culture of Malaysia are at the heart of this framework.
The emphasis is on synthesis, combining established practices with new methods designed to cope with emerging issues and uncertainties.
The six drivers of SCRIPT - Sustainability, Care and Compassion, Respect, Innovation, Prosperity, and Trust - as well as different aspects of the policy framework are interconnected and integrated, enforcing and enhancing each other.
The framework is designed as a reiterative process, subject to changes and constant revisions; and as a participatory endeavour that invites involvement and inputs from all segments of society. Together, using this framework, we can heal our nation with substantive reform and progress into a brighter future.
"We must ever be mindful that written constitutions are mere parchment pieces. It is important that there must be, in the hearts and minds of those who are entrusted to administer and uphold the Constitution, a belief in the values and principles that animate the august document." -Sultan Azlan Shah, Fifty Years of Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law, Opening Address of the 14th Malaysian Law Conference, 2007
First, for each driver, we will outline:
Conventional definition
The commonly understood meaning of the term.
Our definition
What we mean by the term and how we define it in the contemporary Malaysian context.
Vision
What is our specific vision regarding the driver?
Target population or areas
Who, where, and what is the policy aimed at? Is it targeted at a specific group of people/persons? Or a specific place or region? Or a specific issue or trend? Or is the target regional, national, or international in scope?
Policy imperatives
What are the essential elements of the policy regarding each driver? We will explore policy requirements for each driver, in some detail, from the following perspectives:
-Economic/Financial
-Legal
-Institutional
-Educational
-Social
-Cultural
-Urban
-Rural
In analysing these different perspectives, we need to have ongoing reflections. We must constantly reinforce the interwoven relationship of the six SCRIPT drivers. In other words, how does each driver acknowledge and follow the other five?
At the same time, this reflection must take stock of the contemporary history of Malaysia.
What existing structures, systems, and ideas work, can be enhanced, or ought to be done away with?
Lastly, we should bear in mind the multiplicity of potentialities. When an action is taken, we must not only ask in what ways can we enact a policy, but also what variety of positive, negative, or subsequent order outcomes could result.
Second, we will add the postnormal dimensions.
In postnormal times, SCRIPT policies have to be able to cope with:
Speed, Scale, Scope, and Simultaneity; rampant Contradictions; increasing Complexity, and have the infrastructure to deal with Chaos. We need to explore a set of specific questions for each element of post normal times.
Complexity
Do we have mechanisms to cope with emerging complexity? How do we reduce complexity? How d o w e look for profoundly simple solutions that would enable us to navigate and affect complex situations? How do we, in an increasingly interconnected global world, remain aware of entangled global and domestic linkages and systemic risks that may arise?
"BOAR: Complexity lies between order and randomness.
DEEP: Complexity cannot be easily Described, Evolved, Engineered or Predicted. - Scott E Page, Diversity and Complexity, p32
Contradictions
What potential contradictions are intrinsic to the polices? Where will resistance and opposition, producing contradictions, to the policy come from? Institutions, bureaucracy, interest groups, opposition parties, protests on the streets, radical movements, or spontaneous mobs? What risks can we anticipate and how could we defuse main risks and hurdles?
Chaos
Are we overlooking a potential chaotic event lurking in the near future? What social or cultural elements may lead to ignorance of potential threats and chaotic events? Can we detect and monitor movement towards chaos?
Is it possible to perceive an emerging chaotic event? Are w e prepared for a full-blown chaotic event? How and why can chaotic instances wreak havoc on Malaysia? How can we keep Malaysian society informed and maintained in times of chaos?
Simultaneity
Complex policy requires the simultaneity principle - working simultaneously across sectors, institutions, and organisations.
How do we make connections and ensure that policies and goals- some seemingly opposing and contradictory - are implemented simultaneously by all concerned parties: government institutions, as well as public and private sectors, social and volunteer organisations, and NGOs?
Third, we will take into account the changing circumstances and potential possible and probable futures.
Futures/Change
Are the policies adequately equipped for rapid change? Will accelerating change make the policies redundant in the next few years? How do we adjust the policies to continuous change?
What is the difference between the current and future policy context? What trends and emerging issues may lead to rethinking and reformulating of policies? What are potential scenarios and how can they assist us in navigating our preferred futures?
Finally, we will consider how these polices could be monitored and if new and innovative establishments are required to nudge society towards SCRIPT policies.
Monitoring
How is the delivery of policies to be checked and progress tracked? Do we need mechanisms for feedback?
How do we ensure that policies are connected across all levels and issues of contradictions and complexity while also being simultaneously handled? Are we able to monitor and prevent the emergence of chaotic events?
Enabling Institutions
A key focus of policy within the complex evolving economy involves positively influencing the evolution of key institutions that appreciate complexity and the potential for chaos, and work to transcend contradictions.
What new and innovative institutions would be needed to take ownership of the policy, guide it from its inception to the final outcome, oversee it through Malaysia's complex government and bureaucratic machinery, promote it to the public, adjust it to changing situations, and monitor its progress?
Due to the problems that have arisen over the last two years concerning bloated cabinets and government apparatuses, the general policy stands against the creation of institutions, but where necessary many of the existing institutions will be integrated, consolidated, or reoriented to make for an efficient government and bureaucracy capable of carrying out the change our nation needs.
The SCRIPT policy framework is a joined-up, multiple level endeavour, presented here as a somewhat linear process. The diagram on the following page attempts to show the various dimensions of the policy framework and how ti is related to futures and postnormal issues.
In the post normal age, "acts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high, and decisions urgent."
Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome Ravetz, 'Science for the Post-normal Age