Oil and Gas Industry in Malaysia - Institution of Engineers Malaysia

COMMENT
So, you could soon expect to be
invited (together with fellow
stakeholders) to jointly man various
IWRM committees, work groups,
think tanks, boards, councils, and
whatever-have-you, where you
could sit pretty, walk tall, and make
smart contribution as you should in
the name of ‘Public Empowerment’.
In anticipation of that, you
should now brush up on your paper
writing and presentation skills; you
could soon be recognised as
important discussants of IWRMrelated
topics, or as able managers
of public discussions such as
facilitators, moderators and
organisers. Your hitherto dull
intellectual life could soon light up;
you could help electrify IWRM
workshops, seminars, forums,
and conferences etc., which are held
as a matter of routine at various
local, regional and international
scenes. Wow!
Closer home, you should learn
the art of working – as coveted
partners – with regulators and
authorities to enforce their rules and
regulations, and in the monitoring
of their enforcement. The best part
yet is that you get to participate in
the drafting of the desired
regulations, not to mention in the
governance of the entities too. Now,
whoever said that democracy is
only about going to the ballot
box every five years (to kick
out the deadwood or corrupt
representatives, and/or to elect
fresh new faces in their places)!
Don’t expect to be amply
rewarded for the participation
though (that’s the essential spirit); at
least until the country – well the
taxpayers (a.k.a. you and I) – can
very well afford it. In any case,
should you ‘prove your real worth’
convincingly enough – when you
get to become the most critical part
of the whole process – you could
actually ‘compensate yourselves
appropriately’ in ways that you
deem fair; no enlightened taxpayers
should ever complain, should they?
After all, you do represent them too,
remember? And this empowerment
thing is supposed to eliminate the
communication gap between the
participating public – who are
now the driver of actions – and
their partnering regulators and
authorities – whose staff are welloiled
competent executives!
Sounds too good to be true? Well,
just try it. ■
JURUTERA, JANUARY 2005 36