Policy changes in Malaysia and the United Kingdom INTRODUCTION A land without law would lead to the destruction of peace and harmony.In the same tone,a country without policies will result in dissatisfaction and disunity.Policies are defined as an action plan to influence or determine decisions that proves to be advantageous and expedient whereby the government,private or business.A country undergoes a policy change due to a variety of factors which may include economical,political,social,and climatic.Here,we shall delve into a number of policies in two countries,Malaysia and the United Kingdom.Despite having different goals and objectives,both countries has one vital similarity that is to serve the best for the citizens.It is with pleasure that we study the policy changes that happened in the political,economy and education sector of the respective countries.
POLITICAL POLICY CHANGE MALAYSIA The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission(MACC)(Malay:Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia,(SPRM))is a government agency in Malaysia that investigates and persecutes corruption.The MACC was modelled after top anti-corruption agencies,such as the Independent Commission on Anti-Corruption(ICAC)in Hong Kong and the Independent Commission against Corruption in New South Wales,Australia.MACC use different methods to employ the policy change.In September 2003,Cabinet approved the requirements for minimum anti-corruption capacity for departments in the Public Service.The anti-corruption standards are minimum and it is the duty of the departments to the related department responsible to make sure the correct pathway on how its member should work on.In Malaysia the role of the policy makers are unequalled and many.
The main role of the policy makers is to protect and make sure anti-corruption and ethics are drafted,accept and act in accordance with the principle.Secondly,gathering all the necessary things to put into effect according to or by means of a definite plan to give effect to the policy.Thirdly,they should guide the implementation of the plan that takes place.There are basically many important roles that have to be played by the policy makers to ensure the success of the policy.Mainly there are four essential roles.The first most important bring the duty to ensure ethics and anti-corruption policies are drafted and adopted.They ensure and compile an implementation plan to give effect to the drafted policy.Secondly,they have the role to monitor the issues related to corruption in which they play a prominent role monitoring the implementation of the plan and the resolution of corruption cases.Thirdly they also play an important role in ensuring that the implementation plans are informed to the stakeholders and other alike as well as companies and other institutions.Last but not least they play an essential role in ensuring that the act of reporting corruption is encouraged among workers.There are mainly five factors that can be look upon in validating the relevancy of this policy.These five aspects are;Fraud prevention plan,Strategic objectives related to fighting corruption,The efficiency of the role of policy makers,anticorruption unit or unit that does similar work,existence of whistle blowing policy and mechanism,departmental policy or mandate on anticorruption.On the view point of the fraud prevention plan there are 3 statistical values to show how the plan is carried out.15%of the departments have fraud prevention plans of excellent quality together with evidence of implementation and integration,meanwhile.40%have fairly good policies in place whilst the remaining 45%have no or poor quality fraud plans.In addition 71%of unit heads have relevant experience in combating fraud.Secondly,strategic objectives in relation to fighting corruption have also been introduced.10%of departments have clear written objectives which are well integrated with other objectives and with evidence of planning and monitoring against the objectives.45%of departments have written objectives where the strategy can be deduced from while 45%have poorly formulated and applied objectives or no strategic objective in place.Thirdly is the presence of anti-corruption units in a company.Statistically shown 57%of departments have a dedicated anti-corruption unit.
Furthermore,in the view point of the whistle blowing policy,statistics have shown that 35%only has the policy in place and 30%of departments have a mechanism and policy in place,while the rest doesn’t have both.Lastly,only 40%of departments have a fairly comprehensive mandate or policy of reasonable quality,together with evidence of implementation in place.Meanwhile the remaining 60%have no or very basic policies,of poor quality.Clearly the policies have played an adequate role in ensuring the objectives prevail.Although it does need some form rectification to ensure its applications are deemed at its best.The Anti–Corruption Act 1997(Act 575)is an essential provision that monitors the policies that are drafted by the policymakers,it consists of punishments,jurisdiction of the authority,the definition of words,the procedures involved and etc.
It was drafted by the Anti-Corruption Agency,to make further and better provisions for the prevention of corruption and for matters necessary.UNITED KINGDOM The controversy over the nature and uses of political policy which was initiated more than four decades ago is widely known.While it should clear by now that the case stacked by the behaviourists against political policy has been overstated and normative reflections on politics remain profoundly relevant to contemporary political analysis,the future path of political policy is once again uncertain.Under the circumstances,there is a perceived need among political theorists to reappraise and renovate political policy.In fact,the task of reappraising and renovating has been underway for some time now.But except for a few notable cases in which synthetic efforts did broaden our understanding of some of the important policy issues and accordingly our conception of political policy,reappraisal and renovation have seldom ventured beyond the familiar path set by the traditional mode of theorizing in terms of method as well as substance.It may be argued that this is not particularly unfortunate because political policy has its own logic,form and subject matter.Over the years,in United Kingdom,there are a lot of policies with regard to political field being implemented and adopted in United Kingdom all this while,such as education policies,drug policies,alcohol policies,health policies,socio-economic policies,climate change policies,energy policies,housing policies,immigration policies,nuclear policies,child protection policies and some others governmental policies.Most of these policies had to certain extent being changed to meet the current circumstances and daily situations.
This policy change is based on the law changed made through the authorised legislatures which will reflect new social values or development with society.The important policy change that had taken place in Unite Kingdom in these recent years is the Environmental Policy.Earlier,the laws often focused towards the protection of rights that are associated with the ownership of properties could be indirectly,protect the environment.However,subject to the changes in circumstances and lifestyle,more recent laws have been created and made so as to protect the environment itself.In the United Kingdom,the environment is usually defined to mean air,water and land.The regulatory bodies which in charge of the responsibility for protection of the environment are mainly the Environment Agency which covers England and Wales,the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency,the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland and the local authorities The intention of this policy is to protect the environment and also to integrate the environment for sustainability.Under this,the releases of the industrial wastes to air,water,and land were to be controlled separately.
Besides,the 1990 Environmental Protection Act has introduced the concept of Integrated Pollution Control(IPC)which intended to ensure that all substances were to be managed and handled in a way which minimises their harmful and detrimental effects on the entire system of environment.IPC has from the time it evolved,being part of the European environmental policy,later into the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control(IPPC).In addition,the Environmental policy has also embraced the approach of the sustainable development in which economic and social factors are all taken into consideration alongside with the environment.Several government strategies which aims were to make progress towards sustainable development have been successfully produced,which the latest has set the framework for Sustainable Consumption and Production(SCP).The SCP is intended to extract the most productive usage of renewable and finite natural resources,and at the same time to reduce the wastage and also to change the patterns of consumption patterns.The result of such change is that the current environmental policy is an assortment of both the older and newer approaches towards the regulation.