Datu Haji Len Talif In his Dayak Baru blog, Dr. John Brian’s question as to why there were few Dayak civil servants in any government departments nowadays drew a host of reactions and comments from the readers. But one comment regarding a senior civil servant, Datu Len Talif being likened as a “superman at work” caught my attention.
I must take off my hat and salute Datu Len Talif Salleh as he is, I believe, not only the most remarkable civil servant in the Sarawak Civil Service, but also possesses a super human ability and capacity. With a Bachelor of Science in Forestry degree in 1979, Len Talif’s right connections and his rapid rise to the top is therefore not surprising at all.
Today after a period of 29 years, he is now the managing director of Sarawak Forests Corporation, the Director of Forests Department, the General Manager of Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC), and the Deputy Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Planning and Resource Management.
In addition to the four, he has also been given four other special tasks. All these departments, corporations and ministry are extremely important, the ones that are involved in multi-billion ringgits worth of projects, resources such as land and forest products including timber.
One commentator said: “Len Talif must be a super human to be able to cope with the tasks or duties of these organisations. He should be cloned to create more “Len Talifs” to deal with the development of the proposed Sarawak Corridor Renewable Energy (SCORE) worth about RM110 billion in terms of possible investments. Another “Len Talif” should be assigned to Sarawak’s first silicon that is now losing close to RM2 billion.
While we do not envy Len Talif’s unbelievable ability, his appointments, however, are depriving others especially in the four organisations of being promoted. In the STIDC, for instance, there are a number of civil servants including one Dayak PhD holder who are capable and qualified to helm the corporation.
In the forest department, there are also a number of highly qualified Dayak officers and so are in the Sarawak Forestry Corporation. Given a chance, they are as capable as Len Talif or as good as Idris Jala. (Idris Jala is a Dayak who is able to turn the ailing MAS in 2005 into an airlines that reaped a profit of nearly one billion ringgit last year).
But sadly, the Dayaks are not given a chance to prove themselves, although heading the Dayak promotion exercise in the State is a Dayak minister.
I must take off my hat and salute Datu Len Talif Salleh as he is, I believe, not only the most remarkable civil servant in the Sarawak Civil Service, but also possesses a super human ability and capacity. With a Bachelor of Science in Forestry degree in 1979, Len Talif’s right connections and his rapid rise to the top is therefore not surprising at all.
Today after a period of 29 years, he is now the managing director of Sarawak Forests Corporation, the Director of Forests Department, the General Manager of Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC), and the Deputy Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Planning and Resource Management.
In addition to the four, he has also been given four other special tasks. All these departments, corporations and ministry are extremely important, the ones that are involved in multi-billion ringgits worth of projects, resources such as land and forest products including timber.
One commentator said: “Len Talif must be a super human to be able to cope with the tasks or duties of these organisations. He should be cloned to create more “Len Talifs” to deal with the development of the proposed Sarawak Corridor Renewable Energy (SCORE) worth about RM110 billion in terms of possible investments. Another “Len Talif” should be assigned to Sarawak’s first silicon that is now losing close to RM2 billion.
While we do not envy Len Talif’s unbelievable ability, his appointments, however, are depriving others especially in the four organisations of being promoted. In the STIDC, for instance, there are a number of civil servants including one Dayak PhD holder who are capable and qualified to helm the corporation.
In the forest department, there are also a number of highly qualified Dayak officers and so are in the Sarawak Forestry Corporation. Given a chance, they are as capable as Len Talif or as good as Idris Jala. (Idris Jala is a Dayak who is able to turn the ailing MAS in 2005 into an airlines that reaped a profit of nearly one billion ringgit last year).
But sadly, the Dayaks are not given a chance to prove themselves, although heading the Dayak promotion exercise in the State is a Dayak minister.
