Catch22@PJ:Innovation

An overzealous Government will not let innovation growth. While Government takes care of everything from cradle to graveyard is welcome by every citizen, the impact on individual and community development is more damages than good. Everyone is creative within his own rights but choose not to do so due to the good living and working environment. A Government providing high quality of living environment made people think less, concern less and worried the least. The values of exploratory, adventurous, courageous and gut of people are diminished or even being killed over time. People resist changes and will only do so if a crisis occurred or gaining visible benefits. This attitude is worsening with the presence of “Good” Government.

Creativity and innovation cannot be nurtured through Government’s funding and legislation initiative alone. It is a battle for all. Innovation and creativity will only blossom whenever parents let the children think freely, the education system allows children to come out from the box and the society looks upon knowledge highly rather than the results. The Society is only interested to get As in examination, materialistic and making profits without looking serious onto learning, providing quality services and solutions. People prefer to raise questions, but very few can provide workable solutions.

I presume in order to inculcate innovation and creativity, Government has to provide room for market manipulation, to reduce control and to transform the role as development facilitator rather than service provider. The role of Government is to build a stage for people to dance freely. It is not the concern of the Government who, when and how the dancing are. The dancers will command respect if performance is excellent or else the dancing troop is facing problem of closure. Of course, if the Government feels that the performance is of low standard and public interest is affected, then it is necessary to formulate basic guidelines. However, participatory process is crucial and we need to be competence in determining what is good or bad. It is uncalled for banning any dancing performance immediately looking at surface without studying carefully the substance. For instance, dress code is always an issue.

We are in the Catch 22 situation now. On one hand, creativity and innovation is important catalyst for nation development. Human capital becomes an asset with the presence of creative and innovative workforce. For a country with small capital and consumers’ market as well as resources constraint, human asset is crucial. On the other hand, Government is trying to provide everything for her citizenry and this will kill off innovation and creativity.

The question is how to find a middle path. For me, the answers are good governance and sustainable development. Good governance means every stakeholder is involved in a transparent and just planning and decision-making process. Sustainable development meanwhile calls for a balanced and integrated development focusing on social, economic and environmental aspects. Some might argue that it is very idealistic as saying is easy than done.

I presume that we need to keep trying to find an appropriate model for everyone is crucial and way forward, even a small step is leapfrog to structural change, albeit slower pace. For example, declassify the “not-so-secretive” decisions making process on matters closely related to the general public or organizing more town hall meeting to discuss in mutual principle, and not only receiving feedback or even empowering the community-based organizations to take charge of their living environment. We might be surprise to note that they are so creative in managing their neighbourhood and resources, with minimum facilitation.