Dear Chief Minister, Mr. Lim Guan Eng:

Sorry to bother you, but it’s me again. Yea, the one who asked you to give a verifiable source to the data you quoted. Thanks to a reader, Leong JT, I now know the data first surfaced in Business Times. Crucially, it was the Transport Ministry’s special maritime adviser, Datuk Captain Abdul Rahim Abd Aziz who made the mistake in the data.

Obaid Mansor, PPSB General Manager of Containers Strategic Business Unit, clarified that they have notified the Ministry of Transport about the error, but it was not widely reported. He was being gentlemanly, compared to the Managing Director, in saying that perhaps “nobody saw that” and he believed you have “picked up the wrong report.”

Now that all that is sorted out, everything is fine and dandy – except for this. Sure, you are only quoting the figures from the ministry, and we all know he made an honest mistake. However, we also know you relied on the figures without verifying it first with PPSB. Perhaps the state government’s relationship with PPSB is less than friendly. In that case, you could have relied on  the data provided by SERI.

We are not blaming you for relying on a wrong report. After all, it was wrong, and it’s not really your fault. We are, however, holding you accountable for making inaccurate conclusions without seeking clarifications. You did say “if there is anything wrong in the report, the person concerned should take the responsibility to correct it.” Therefore, we should hold you to the same standard you espouse, and you should take some responsibility for making the report that the cargo traffic dropped 24%.

Commentators from various websites seem to agree:

You cannot pass the ball back to the person preparing the report. You are the one reading it and therefore has to be 100% responsible for its accuracy. You are suppose to be the CEO of Penang and not a copy speech writer of Penang. I am not happy that each time after you have made a statement, and if someone points out to you of an error, straight away, you go into defensive gear and blame somebody for providing you the information. Ridiculous! (by concerned, 26/09/09, TheMalaysianInsider)

Its worrying when important figures like the CM of Penang can get his facts wrong! What message is this sending us! (by Dzurina Razuan, 24/9/09, TheEdge)

I do have to wonder – is it so hard to take responsibility for it, even partially? It is, after all, just your honest mistake. This is not even the first time you relied on false information, and for that you admitted your mistake and apologised in the State Assembly of Penang. What changed this time? By not admitting it was partially your fault, you appear to be playing the blame game and shirk responsibility. By apologising, you appear  courteous and gentlemanly, and you show that you, like the 6.2 billion or so human in this world, are just human who sometimes do make mistakes.

So, Chief Minister, please do try to verify your information with various sources next time, and when you do make an honest mistake, please be responsible by admitting it. That is what Competency and Accountability is all about.

Sincerely,
WhatTheToot!

Tags: Government, Lim Guan Eng, Penang

Dear Chief Minister of Penang, Mr. Lim Guan Eng:

How are you? I hope you are doing well and has recovered from your flu. Recently you published in your blog that the traffic at Penang Port, managed by Penang Port Sdn. Bhd., has declined sharply. Specifically, you said that the twenty-foot equivalent unit at said port has declined by 24% in the second quarter of 2009, compared to the first quarter. You proceeded to show following table, and quoted the source of “Ports, Marine Department”:

Your blog post generated quite some news, and unlike all the news reports, I tried to verify the data you have given. I went to the website of the Marine Department of Malaysia as well as the Department of Statistics Malaysia, but I couldn’t find the aforementioned table. It might be that my searching skill or my information source is not as great as yours. However, without you actually providing a verifiable data source or link, you reminded me a well known XKCD comic:

Then, this news surfaced, and followed by this. The Managing Director of Penang Port, Datuk Ahmad Ibnihajar, lambasted you for quoting the wrong figure. Admittedly, his reaction is overly excessive, and his statement that your figures will tarnish the port and cause quite some financial implication is, in my opinion, a little exaggerated.  He even called you a “clown”, as the Chinese daily reported, which is highly out of place.

He, however, does have a point. You see, I remembered a small research institution in Penang called SERI – the Socio-economical and Environmental Research Institute. In fact, SERI, which describe itself as the “Think Tank for the State of Penang”, has some prominent and re-nown researchers, and in fact is established by the State of Penang – the Penang State Government.

More importantly, SERI publishes important monthly research articles since 2003 and compiles quarterly statistics about Penang since 1999. On Page 22 of their latest statistical report for the second quater of 2009, this table is included:

If you calculated the figures, you would notice that the second quarter TEU traffic actually increased from 199391 to 255322. An increase of 25931 TEU, which is 13% – not a drop of 24%.

I don’t really know why you didn’t refer to the figure given by the SERI report – maybe you didn’t know it existed. Well, this is me informing you about the existence of SERI and their wonderful reports and research articles. Seriously, they have some good information and ideas there. Moreover, you could have just given the Penang Port Sdn. Bhd. a call, and I assume they would have cleared your doubts about the declining cargo traffic.

Thus, Chief Minister, please do try to verify your data, and give a verifiable data source next time in accordance to your governing mantra of Competency, Accountability and Transparency. More importantly, please read the various publications by SERI. I’m sure you will greatly benefit from it, and you will govern the state even better.

Sincerely,
WhatTheToot!

Tags: Government, Lim Guan Eng, Penang