The Chief Minister, YAB Datuk Patinggi (Dr) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg formally announced the appointment of Datuk Amar Jaul Samion as the 7th State Secretary of the Sarawak Civil Service (SCS) on 22nd August 2019. That day marks a historic day among the Iban ethnic group as he was the first of their community to command the highest post in the Sarawak Civil Service. As the new State Secretary, Datuk Amar Jaul said that he is “both honoured and humbled by the trust given to him by the Chief Minister”.
He brings a set of credentials that make him more than ready and capable to face the daunting and challenging responsibilities of such a position. Datuk Amar Jaul is an economist, having obtained his Bachelor of Economics (Applied Economics) from the University of Malaya in 1979. He also has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree from Ohio University, USA and he was also a recipient of the Senior Excutive Fellows program of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
His civil service career spans more than four decades starting in 1979 when he first joined the SCS as Assistant Secretary in the State Planning Unit (SPU). Next, he served as Principal Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Industrial Development (MID from 1987-1999). He was then appointed as Director of Utilities under the State Financial Secretary’s Office and the Ministry of Finance and Public Utilities 1999-2002. From 2002-2016, he served as Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries Sarawak (MAFI) (2002-2004); at the Ministry of Modernisation of Agriculture Sarawak (MOMA) from 2004-2009 and at the Ministry of Land Development (MLD) from October 2009 –June 2016.
He was promoted to the post of Deputy State Secretary (Rural Transformation) in 2016. In an interview with RAKAN Sarawak then, Datuk Amar Jaul stated that in order to achieve the goals set out for Sarawak’s rural transformation agenda, “the State will have to start doing things differently, and definitely doing things beyond the “normal speed”. I will use two words – ‘transformational development’. It’s about fast-tracking achievements of certain things… so we have to do some hard thinking, to identify new growth areas in the economy, for example.”
As State Secretary, his main goal and challenge now is to ensure that “all the programmes, projects, initiatives and approaches of the Sarawak Civil Service are all aligned with the vision set forth by the Chief Minister as the Chief Executive of the State. Alignment is important because if it’s not aligned we will not move fast.”
“Our Chief Minister has clearly articulated his vision for Sarawak, which is to transform the economy of Sarawak from the resource-based model to that of the digital economy model. It is imperative that all of us who are in the employ of the SCS must be wholeheartedly supportive of this development agenda for Sarawak, and we must be prepared and quick to adjust, reform or change any policy, process or procedure, and attitudes and mindset that will impede the realization of this development agenda.” Datuk Amar Jaul emphatically stated.
“Being chosen to deal with this, is a huge responsibility but I am confident that our SCS will rise up to the challenge,” said Datuk Amar Jaul. “It is an honour to be part of the team which has continuously evolved to rise to meet the challenges that they are presented with through the years. I am grateful to my predecessors – all the State Secretaries who have served before me – for the kind of organisation that they have shaped and molded. Humbly, I will do my best to make this organisation an even more responsive and people-centric civil service, living up to the highest standards of the service ethos.”
