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I asked two friends for their views on the latest imperative uttered by the Prime Minister today:

Six months is the deadline given to the newly established Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (Pemudah) to show results and “make a difference”.

The responses are worlds apart:
- One said the PM is acting tough, no nonsense, demanding results. Good for the nation.
- The other said "6 months" means adhoc-ism, stop-gap measure, fire-fighting, general election is near.

I am not sure if the country is equally split in halves on this. But these two business friends of mine are.

Sec-Gens, DGs & Ministers

Several readers also emailed to ask me if certain ministers, whose heads of bureaucracy were singled-out to be enlisted for the Task Force, are actually lackeys that had posed problems to the Business Sector?

They said the Task Force comprised secretaries-general, directors-general and a chief executive from 7 ministries, namely three from the PM's Department:

1 ) Public Service Department director-general Ismail Adam;
2 ) PM’s Department Implementation Co-ordination Unit director- general Khalid Ramli;
3 ) Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu) director-general Yaacob Hussin;

One from the Finance Ministry:

4 ) Treasury secretary-general Izzuddin Dali;

Two from the Ministry of International Trade & Industry:

5 ) International Trade and Industry secretary-general Abdul Rahman Mamat;
6 ) Small-Medium Industries Development Corporation (Smidec) chief executive Hafsah Hashim;
7 ) Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (Mida) director- general R. Karunakaran;

Two from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government:

8 ) Housing and Local Government Ministry secretary-general Ahmad Fuad Ismail;
9 ) Local Government Department director-general Datin Arpah Abdul Razak;

and one each from the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment, Ministry of Human Resources, and Ministry of Federal Territories:

10 ) Natural Resources and Environment Ministry secretary-general Suboh Mohd Yasin;
11 ) Human Resources Ministry secretary-general Thomas George M.S. George; and
12 ) Federal Territories Ministry secretary-general Ahmad Pheisal Talib.

I have no answer, but some PR may be seriously needed here.