A note to the Ministry of Finance I like the GST. I think it a much better, robust and fairer tax system and will benefit the country. It should have been implemented a long time ago but bla bla bla it will only be implemented in 2015. Nevertheless we have finally got to implementing it. Well done, nah pisang sebiji, tahniah, bla bla bla. Very good. My question. Where is your freakin’ communications plan? [If you have one, I definitely have not seen or heard of it. If you are just preparing it, you are already one week late] The government has just announced a major intervention that will affect all Malaysians. It requires businesses to changes their procedures, it will cause price changes (+ve or –ve) to many goods and services, taxes will not be the same again, etc, etc How are you going to educate the people? How are you going to communicate the benefits of the GST? There is already much confusion among people. People are worried. Rumors, misinformation, spinning, etc have all started. But we can’t really blame the people. If the government does not proactively communicate about a major intervention, people will start listening to other sources. Today several major blogs carried stories about the GST which gave very wrong information. People read them. In fact, thousands of people read them and many will believe the blogs. Can you blame them if there is a lack of communication from the government? The government cannot simply say “oh... it is on our website. Pi baca lah”. Not many are going to do it. Furthermore, your website is boring and the FAQ about the GST is not written in manner that is easy to understand. The government needs to PROACTIVELY communicate. And communicate in a manner that people can understand. Let me tell you something. I forage the social media, the internet, all the newspapers, major websites, and news portals everyday. So far I have not seen any serious effort by the Government to ensure that people understand GST and that there are no real reasons to worry about it. Perhaps MOF can produce some short videos that explain GST in simple terms and disseminate it widely? I have seen a video by PWC which is okay. Perhaps MOF can produce similar videos and in BM. Flyers, booklets, advertorials, TV and radio ads and outreach programmes, whatever can help inform the people better about the GST. I haven’t seen anything on social media yet. Too much communication is not a bad thing. And please be creative lah.. make your communications interesting Your comms plan should have been ready before the PM announced the GST. Still it is not too late. Start communicating NOW. And communicate intensively. Otherwise you risk alienating the people further. p.s. Of course there will be people who will spin anything you say. There is little you can do about it. But the majority of the people will appreciate if you can talk to them, you can explain to them, you can educate them about the GST.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 12:51:24 +0000
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