FROM NATION BUILDERS TO NATION MOVERS
The Immediate Past President, Past Presidents, Deputy President, Vice-Presidents, Members of Council, and my fellow engineers.
1. INTRODUCTION
It is indeed a very great honour for me to be standing in front of such a distinguished gathering today at this 49th Annual General Meeting (AGM) to deliver my Presidential Address. I would like to start by expressing my gratitude to the IEM Council for re-electing me as President of our learned Institution for a second term. I am humbled by the trust placed on me and I give my pledge to carry out this heavy responsibility with utmost diligence, care and integrity.
Next, I would like to thank the Executive Committee (Excomm), Council and most of all, the members of IEM for the support and assistance that you have given over the past 12 months as together we strive to bring our beloved Institution to ever greater heights. Your selfless dedication and invaluable contributions in terms of both time and effort has helped to ensure that our Institution and her members remain relevant and at the forefront of our nation’s development.
As Malaysians, we are proud that our nation has progressed by leaps and bounds over the past half century after attaining our independence in 1957. From a third world developing country, we are now poised to join the first world as an equal partner. With a strong and stable economy, Malaysia continues on her quest to become a developed nation by 2020. Whilst much progress has been made in the past, much more needs to be done over the next twelve years if we are to meet the demanding target of Vision 2020. And this has to be achieved in the context of an ever more competitive and borderless world.
IEM was established in May 1959. This means that our institution is entering her 50th year of existence after this 49th AGM. In many ways, the evolution of IEM over the past half century closely parallels that of Malaysia. This is not surprising considering the role that we, the engineers have played in building our nation, both literary and figuratively. Nevertheless, will the engineers and will our institution be able to deal with the coming challenges and will IEM still be the leading professional organisation in the country 12 years on? This question is particularly relevance in the light of the ever-evolving and ever-changing social-political situation, now greatly magnified by the reverberations of the recent 12th General Elections.
The role that we, the engineers have played as nation builders, is by no means small, either in the past, present or in the future. However, again and again, history has shown that those who do not change with time or heed the aspirations of society become irrelevant and are doomed to fall by the wayside. With this in mind, I have decided to address the challenges that our profession and Institution are currently facing, and I have chosen this need to change as the theme for my Presidential Address. More importantly, I would like to redefine the role of engineers in these challenging times. To remain relevant, the engineer has to change from being a nation builder (ie a service provider) into a nation mover (moulding the shape of our nation’s future).
Thus, fellow engineers, the title I have chosen for this year’s Presidential Address is ‘From Nation Builders To Nation Movers’.
2. BACKGROUND
When I stood before you a year ago, I spoke on ‘Re-engineering an Engineering Institution’, viz. the need to take a strategic approach so as to keep IEM relevant and make it the premier professional organization pivotal to Malaysia achieving Vision 2020, a theme which is as relevant today as it was then. A recap of my address included a review of the vision, mission and strategic plan of the IEM and the thirteen issues identified by the Review Committee on the IEM Organisational and Administrative Structure chaired by me in 2005. Moving on to the theme, I began by defining the meaning of the word re-engineering. Finally, I elaborated at length the processes involved in re-engineering and the strategic planning framework needed for its implementation.
How far have we progressed since then? I am pleased to report back that over the relatively short period of twelve months, and with the input and assistance of the Council, Excomm, the various Standing Committees, Sub-Committees and the general membership, there have been a number of notable achievements. Here is a quick review of our progress.
- Many more engineers and engineering students have recognised IEM as THE representative body for our profession, and our membership has increased by an unprecedented 1,700 or 11 %. In line with the rejuvenation process, more than half of this new intake are young people. Meanwhile, the G&S (Graduates and Students) Section is re-branding itself as YES (Young Engineers Section).
- Last August, the Excomm had a meeting with the Captains of Industry in Penang to look into attracting more Electronic engineers into the IEM fold. We are now finalising the establishment an Electronic Engineering Technical Division to be based in Penang.
- The Council has accepted a proposal to speed up the process of membership. This requires some amendments to the Constitution which were placed before the AGM.
- We have acquired a new building strategically located opposite the existing Bangunan Ingenieur. At the Branch level, we close to having a business plan for our land in Sabah, and we are amending our Rules and Regulations to permit us to take up the offer of a piece of land from the Government of Sarawak.
- In moving with the times, IEM has made greater use of ICT by emailing information of its activities at all Branches and levels to its members. Similarly, the Annual Report and Statement of Accounts were uploaded into our Home Page for quick retrieval by members. We are now looking at greater use of the on-line capabilities of the internet eg. a member should be able to update and retrieve his/her CPD record on-line.
- IEM is currently studying a possible restructuring of the governance structure to make it more decentralised, compact and agile, while retaining the institutional memory through better documentation of the decision making process and a possible creation of a Council of Elders or Advisors.
- To improve our services to members, the IEM Secretariat has been strengthened and an Executive Director has been appointed. To retain staff and reduce turn-over, an improved remuneration package has been approved.
- We will be organising a Colloquium to get feedback from members on the proposed revamp of the Registration of Engineers Act.
- IEM has been playing a more proactive role in society by offering our services to the government (Federal and State), namely to assist in the OSC (One Stop Centres) under the CCC, and to be members in local government councils.
- We have established an IEM-Pemudah Chapter to give our input to Pemudah, the body set up by Government to examine ways of improving our country’s competitiveness.
- We have established a Pro-ETI Committee to help promote the export of Malaysian Engineering Services Abroad with assistance from MATRADE and MITI. The first such joint-venture was the participation at the Malaysian Services Exhibition 2008 in Sharjah, UAE.
- In the international arena, IEM was requested to be the Secretariat of FEIAP (Federation of Engineering Institutions for Asia and the Pacific) which will replace the almost defunct FEISEAP (Federation of Engineering Institutions for South East Asia). The immediate task at hand is to operationalise FEIAP and to work on the “Asia Accord” along the lines of the Washington Accord.
The theme for my Presidential Address this year does not deviate from the core message of last year’s address. In fact, the one main lesson of the recent General Election is that the process of re-engineering ourselves is more urgent now than ever. If we are honest with ourselves, I would venture to say that we have barely begun on our journey. My role today is not only to remind us how important is the process, but more importantly, to define more closely the issues we need to focus on.
3. ENGINEERS AS NATION BUILDERS
When Malaysia gained independence in 1957, the national poverty rate was 57 %. Today, a half century later, that rate has dropped ten-fold to 5.7%. Back then, Malaysia was a developing country depending mainly on primary products such as tin, rubber and palm oil. Even then, engineers were already playing an important role in the economy. We were there in developing the plantations and in operating the mines and dredgers.
The initial stage after independence was a period of nation-building and at the forefront were the engineers who planned, designed, implemented and operated the basic infrastructure for the country. We built the roads, railways and new townships. We were the ones who brought electricity to the towns and countryside. We started water supply schemes to bring clean potable water to our towns and kampungs. These played a major role in improving the quality of life for the population and in reducing the level of poverty.
With the basic infrastructure in place, the country moved into the next stage viz. industrialisation. Engineers were again at the forefront - we built the factories and operated the machinery in them. We expanded on the national grid to meet the energy and power demands of our industries. We strengthened the highways, ports and airports to facilitate the export of our products.
Next, we helped to move our nation into the information era. We built the cyber networks and the hardware, and we were among the pioneers in developing the software. In many of these areas, the backbone of these systems requires engineering input. The hardware and software for producing computers and handphones, for example, requires the input of engineers.
Now, 50 years later, Malaysia is on the brink of realising her vision to be a developed nation, moving from an industrialised economy into an ICT economy. As an engineer, I am proud to say that the primary driver in this journey was the engineers who bore the brunt of the efforts to bring Malaysia into the 21st Century. Almost every aspect of modern Malaysia is due to the effort of engineers. Truly, we can claim that we, the engineers, were the nation builders. If there were no engineers, we would today be no better off than how we were 50 years back. The things that we have taken for granted and the huge improvement in the quality of our life has in fact come about through the toil and sweat of the engineers.
4. STATUS AND STANDING OF THE ENGINEER
Given that the engineers played such an important role in nation building, one would expect to see the status and standing of the engineer to be second to none. Given that engineering is so indispensable to the country and our quality of life, one would expect to see the demand for engineers in our economy to soar, and that the young would put engineering as their top career choice. Sadly this has not come to pass.
Fifty years after independence, it is obvious that the status of engineers and the desire to be an engineer has not kept pace with their contribution to the country. Engineers should be in high demand as well as highly paid, but this is not the case. Among the professionals, engineers comparatively draw a lower remuneration package. Even within the engineering dominated industries, such as the construction industry, engineers are not the most highly rewarded.
Engineers should be among the leaders of society but this is not so. Other than engineering-based organisations, few leaders in civil society are engineers. Even in the Malaysian Academy of Sciences, proportionately fewer engineers are elected as Fellows compared to the other disciplines.
To assist in the running of the Government, the Prime Minister has, in the past and present, appointed many advisors, including a science adviser, a religious adviser and most recently, an adviser on women affairs. He has had advisers in many areas, but we have not yet had someone appointed as his engineering adviser.
In the previous Cabinet, only one minister was an engineer. The situation has improved somewhat after the last general election. There are now three engineers in the current Cabinet, and even an engineer who was appointed as Menteri Besar (of Perak). However, no engineer has been promoted to be the State Secretary of any state or has ever risen to become Secretary General of a ministry, even for engineering centred ministries such as the Ministry of Works or the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communication.
In the workplace, few engineers are rising to the position of chief executive officers (CEOs). Even in engineering based companies, accountants and lawyers are replacing engineers as CEOs. Organisations that In the past were headed by engineers are no more headed by engineers today. A good example is in government linked companies (GLCs) such as Telekom Malaysia Berhad and Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB).
Even among the children of engineers, and among the cream of students, we are not seeing this great desire to be an engineer. Last year, during the IEM Open House, I had the opportunity to present prizes to the children of our members who had excelled in their exams. As they come up on stage to receive their prizes from me, I asked those who were entering university what field they were going to study. The sad truth is, very few of them chose engineering.
We, the engineers, have contributed so much to the nation - we have helped to reduce the poverty rate by ten-fold, and we have improved the quality of life for our population. So herein lies our dilemma - if engineers are so critical in developing the country and building the nation, then we should be in the forefront of society and in great demand. Why, why, why, are we not?
5. MOVING FORWARD AS NATION MOVERS
It has been said (perhaps too frequently) that the only constant is the need to change. After the ‘Political Tsunami’ of the last General Election, there has been much self-reflection and demands for change. Interestingly, the word most commonly used for drastic change is ‘re-engineering’! This is perhaps a recognition from society at large of the role of engineering, for the word engineering has its roots in ‘ingenuity’ and not ‘engine’ as is commonly believed. This is also why in Malaysia, professional engineers are allowed to use the honorific ‘Ir’ which is derived from the French word for engineer, Ingenieur.
Last year I spoke about the need to re-engineer our profession and our Institution. Frequently the process requires a paradigm shift in outlook. Thus, if the engineer as nation builder do not reap the anticipated rewards, then the engineer needs to reassess his/her role. Here, I am advocating that we change our role from nation builders to nation movers. A nation builder is in a sense a mere service provider, in this case providing the necessary engineering input as part of a bigger process. A nation mover on the other hand, will manoeuvre to be right at the centre of the process, to provide the direction and become the vital cog.
The first step in this journey will be to change the public (and perhaps the engineer’s) perception on the role of engineers. We need to shift from being backroom boys to become front-liners. Engineers are usually so engrossed in the technical aspects of what they do that they sometimes do not care to see the bigger picture.
A common fault seems to be that we focus too much on our view of the world that we sometimes do not see the forest for the trees. For example, the engineer who designs a building gets his/her joy and satisfaction in coming out with a fantastic design, and often neglects to appreciate the role of the building in society or how it would contribute to the economy. We forget that the building has to have a function and that it has to meet the needs of its occupants. Also, in an era or rising concern about global warming and climate change, we are still not looking sufficiently at the environmental footprint our works are creating.
Engineers are so engrossed in what they do that they have not ‘looked beyond the structure’. When working on a project, we need to not only consider the technical aspect, but the environmental, social and political aspect as well. Although the engineer is well trained and very competent in the former, we are not so conversant in the other three. Therefore, we need to look more at those areas. We need to think outside the box and look beyond the structure. We also have to reach out to our stakeholders. We need to care more for the environment and make sustainability a priority in our use of our natural resources.
From being nation builders, we now need to be nation movers. We have to play a bigger role in civil society and champion relevant issues such as road safety. We also have to be concerned about the environment, climate change and global warming. We have to be more vocal and active in fighting for a more prominent role for engineers, and we can start by being more active in IEM. At our last Council elections, only a mere 20.7 % of corporate members returned their ballot papers!
As we embark on this journey of change, we have to work towards making improvements in a number of areas such as :
- Educating from young
- Improving the training of engineers
- Encouraging a better gender ratio in engineering
The shortage of engineering students, or more appropriately the reluctance among the young to pursue an engineering education is a phenomena faced not just in Malaysia, but also in a number of countries eg. Australia and UK. Partly this is due to the belief among school leavers that engineering is a difficult course (which it is) and thus they prefer to opt for an easier route. Partly it is due to the difficulties faced by many school children in maths and science. In addition our education system focus too much on teaching rather than learning ie. children are taught facts and information and are expected to remember, rather than learn through a more hands-on approach that encourages their inquisitiveness. I believe there is an urgent need to revamp our education system, and to deal with this problem from the roots up.
It is crucial to create greater awareness and cultivate greater interest in science and technology from young. Unfortunately the average child is spending more time watching entertainment programmes on television rather than informative documentaries, because science and technology are deemed to be ‘boring’. As a whole, our society lack awareness and appreciation of science and technology.
It also does not help matters when career guidance counsellors are not encouraging their students to take engineering courses, and are instead, advising them to opt for easier courses. One reason could be because an average student would have a tougher time dealing with these heavy subjects. Another reason, I believe, is also because there is a lack of appreciation of what engineers are doing and the role that they are playing.
Similarly, there is very little incentive for teachers to want to take up the tougher subjects like science and mathematics, when at the end of the day they get the same deal even if they specialised in lighter subjects. Thus, it is not easy to find teachers who are good in mathematics or science because the pool is very small. One way to improve this situation is to provide bigger incentives for people to be science or mathematics teachers. At the same time, more scholarships should be provided for students pursuing engineering courses.
At the tertiary level, there is a need to review course contents and study load. Our universities are churning out technically competent engineers with good technical knowledge but weak interpersonal skills, especially in communication. Traditionally, engineers tend to communicate through their drawings. However, in the process, they lag behind other professions in terms of their communication skills. Not many engineers speak and write well, and many would be very nervous if they are required to speak in public. This is certainly a weakness on the part of our education, or at least in our engineering education.
In addition, since the work output of engineers impact so much on all aspects of society and the environment, more attention has to be given to non-engineering subjects such as Engineer and Society, Sustainable Development and Use of Resources, Historical and Cultural Aspects of Engineering, Engineering Law, Green Building and Green Technology. Engineering students should be required to sign up for some liberal arts subjects so that they get a more holistic education.
With regards to gender, one of the main issues we need to deal with is the public’s perception that the engineering profession is exclusive to males. Yet in today’s world of science and technology, it is brain power and not brawn power that is crucial. Although the number of lady engineers is probably improving every year, it is still small compared to many other professions.
We need to encourage more response from the fairer sex. Some parents are reluctant to allow their daughters to go into engineering because there is a perception among the public that engineering is a physically demanding subject. They believed that, if you were a civil engineer, you would have to work under the hot sun.
We must now reach out and get more women to join engineering, for after all, women make up half the world’s population and our profession would be so much the loser if we do not tap this half of our brightest talents. We have to show that engineering is no longer a male dominated sector and physical strength has little or no role in making one a good engineer. Besides, as I have pointed out earlier, the word engineering is derived from ingenuity and not engine.
Fortunately the situation is not as bleak as it was in the past. Let me share with you a pleasant experience I had when I was recently invited as the guest of honour to the Malam Seri Budiman by Kolej 11, Universiti Putra Malaysia. This particular college is very unique because it is only open to girls, and only for those who are studying engineering or architecture. The fact that they allocated one college, which has about a few hundred students, only to girls is a good sign because this means that there are now quite a large number of females studying in these two fields which have always been very male dominated.
This is certainly a great improvement compared to when I was in university (much too long ago), where in my civil engineering class of 70, when there was only one female student. In the whole final year class of the various disciplines, there were only four women. Today, in some universities, we are seeing more girls than boys, and soon, we might come to a stage where people are asking, where are the boys?
For the moment though, the ratio is still too skewed. Within IEM, the number of women members is still small, and it is even worse when we look at the numbers participating in our committees or in Council. To address this imbalance, I would like to suggest that we consider some form of affirmative action and introduce a quota for women. After all, at the moment we have two representatives from the G&S Section in Council, but not from our Lady Engineers Section. We should remind ourselves that women make up half the general population and in the near future, they are likely to make up half the engineer population.
6. THE WAY FORWARD - TAKING THE LEAD
I started my Presidential Address by noting that IEM will be entering her 50th year of existence from next month, marking a half century of service to the members, the profession and the nation. Over this period, our Institution has grown from infancy to become the largest professional learned society in our country. This is the legacy of our forefathers, the Past Presidents and Council Members whose untiring efforts and selfless dedication were instrumental in making the IEM star shine so bright. We are all indeed thankful to them.
As IEM takes the first steps into her next half century of existence, the baton has now been passed to the Council of today to continue this fine tradition. The way forward will be even more challenging, but failure is not an option if our Institution is to remain relevant and respected by the public and our stakeholders. We have to learn from the mistakes of the past if we want to stay ahead of the competition. We will have to take the lead in a number of areas such as :
- Making IEM more relevant and meaningful to the members
- Empowering the young
- Reviewing our core competency and our value proposition
- Utilising the full potential of the Web
- Speeding up the process of re-engineering
The ‘raison d’etre’ (reason for its existence) of IEM is to service the needs and aspirations of the general membership. As needs and aspirations change with time, more frequent feedback is necessary to better feel the pulse of the membership. We need to narrow the gap between the governing bodies and the general membership. We need to ensure that our activities are demand-led. As a start, more dialogue sessions will be organised and greater emphasis made to reach out to the Branches.
At the same time, I would like to see greater participation of members in IEM activities as well as in the governance. During the recent General Election, the voter turnout was about 70 % - 80 %. However, during the recently concluded 2008 IEM Council Election, only 20.7 % of eligible members voted. The question that begs to be asked is, why are so few of our members voting? Why are the majority not exercising their right to decide on who should be in Council to run the Institution on our behalf? We are all paying a subscription, why don’t you want to have a say in how it is to be utilised?
The second area in taking the lead is to reach out to our young members, as after all, they make up half of the membership. More importantly, they are going to be the leaders of tomorrow. Currently within IEM, we have a structure of governance in which out of the 16,700 members, only half are entitled to vote or to stand for office. Isn’t it time we consider giving the graduates (and the affiliate and the associate members) the same rights? During every AGM, graduate members have to be reminded that they cannot participate in the voting and, even though we have G&S representatives in the Council, they are only observers who are not entitled to vote. Isn’t it ironic that they can decide who the Prime Minister should be, but not their President?
Thirdly we have to review our core competency and our value proposition. In the past, many engineers became members of IEM solely because it was the pathway for them to be registered as professional engineers with the Board of Engineers. That was our value proposition for them. They were not really interested in what was happening within IEM, nor were they eager to participate in IEM activities. Today, engineers can become professional engineers through a separate route ie. through the PAE. For this group, we have to enhance our value proposition and value add to the services provided by IEM. One such area is in increasing opportunities for members to gain CPD hours.
Year by year, the internet is exerting an ever greater influence in how business should be run. The potential is mind bogging, yet IEM is barely exploiting it. We use email to communicate and to circulate news and notices. We make our reports and papers available for downloading. However, these are just the tip of the iceberg. IEM has to be more techno savvy and utilise the full on-line potential of the internet. In the future, members should be able to pay their annual subscriptions on-line, or to directly make a change in address. Electronic versions of our Bulletins and Journals can reduce our postage bills.
As President, I too cannot continue to shy away from the Web. I will have to overcome my ignorance and start a presidential blog. In the age of technology, we have see how the politicians have already begun to do that as they realise the power and reach of the Internet. After the recent election, we have seen bloggers becoming Members of Parliament, and we have also seen ex-Menteri Besar and ex-Members of Parliament becoming bloggers.
Finally, we need to quicken the speed of re-engineering ourselves. Business as usual is no longer tenable. In the past, life was more leisurely and we could afford to get by with strolling. Today even striding is considered too slow and we have to move several gears up to jogging pace and thence to sprinting. If we cannot keep pace with change, we will end up as the relics of history; outdated and of no more use. Instead of remaining the premier professional organisation in the country, we could end up as the organisation that has outlived its ‘raison d’etre’.
As I stated last year, none of these actions would be easy; but we have to move ahead with courage and honesty, because our members’ and our profession’s interests over-ride anything else. I will work with members of the Council to find the most effective combination of actions. I will listen to anyone who has a good idea to offer - you can blog me!
7. CONCLUSION
My fellow engineers, ladies and gentlemen. Looking at the bigger picture, I would like to draw a parallel with the recently concluded General Election to describe our transition to become nation movers. In a sense, this election was a watershed that led to a major change in the political scenario in the country. It has brought to the fore the question of relevancy and change. For the first time since independence, we now have a viable choice, the main effect of which is that both the ruling party and the opposition party will have to improve or risk losing even more public support when the next election comes around.
The lesson that IEM would have to learn from all of this is that the world is changing, and changing fast. If we do not put our eyes and ears to the ground, we could find that we have been left behind. We are facing many changes and challenges, and we need to be able to respond to them. Many of the things that we took for granted are disappearing. What used to be so comfortable for all of us, would not be so in the future. I would like IEM to take the lead in this quest for change, and to change the engineers from being nation builders to becoming nation movers. Together, we can make our profession better known, as well as improve the status and image of engineers. If we succeed, then even 50 years from now, we would still be maintaining our position as the largest and most relevant professional body in the country.
In closing, I take this opportunity to thank all of you for the trust you have placed in me and the incoming Council, and I hope for your continued support and cooperation during my second term as the President of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia.
