Should Malaysia have a Chief Disruption Officer?

The Malaysian Government should appoint a “Chief Disruption Officer”, the Minister of Youth and Sports has said today.

Khairy Jamaluddin wrote on Twitter that it is one of his “personal recommendations” for the government to “have a Chief Disruption Officer to create [an] administration of the future”.

A Chief Disruption Officer could think about how government service delivery is rapidly changing. They could encourage government to work with new partners.

For instance, Japan worked with Airbnb to create a new law allowing house-sharing, while Canberra in Australia partnered Uber to provide last mile transport over Christmas.

A Chief Disruption Officer could also create new opportunities for the private sector by sharing government data. Malaysia would be the first government with such a role, if it were to go ahead. Other governments have created similar roles, however.

UAE has a Chief Innovation Officer in every federal agency, while Bandung City in Indonesia and Denmark have Chief Design Officers.

Agencies in Singapore have Chief Data Officers. Jamaluddin announced his recommendation as part of Malaysia’s 2050 vision, Transformasi Nasional 2050.

He is heading efforts to gather citizens’ feedback and ideas on what Malaysia could like in 30 years. Unlike past long-term government plans, Malaysia is attempting a bottom-up approach by going to citizens much earlier in the process.

The government intends to set concrete targets to meet the goals. Some of Malaysia’s ideas for a future government include “traditional government services predominantly privatised” and “governments focus on cross-border functions such as cyber mitigation”.

Image from Khairy Jamaluddin's Twitter