Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is to be congratulated for stressing the importance of penghulus to be made an integral part of implementing development plans and projects as agents for change and innovation at the grassroots level (The Star, Oct 31).

He has accordingly stated that the government will initiate special courses to educate these village heads, whom he has described as 'councillors of development' not only in ICT but also and more importantly, to enhance the capacity and capability of villagers to be innovative. Only by this means, Abdullah argues, can there be continued successful development that the country has enjoyed over the years.

The prime minister's comments, however, take on a much greater significance considering that since his tenure there has been a clear and distinct paradigm shift in government policies geared towards the agricultural sector, specifically in the rural area. For instance, the Ninth Malaysia Plan for the first time has committed a significant proportion of the overall financial allocation to agriculture and related programmes and projects.

Indeed, more recently the launching of the regional development plans such the Iskandar Development Regent as well as the other regional corridor plans will more or less mean that the aspirations of the rural people can now be met at their doorsteps.

Against this background, there will be the obvious need for qualified and trained officials with hands-on experience to serve as 'enabling' personnel to help the rakyat develop their capacities and capabilities as stakeholders thereby enabling them to actively participate in the decision-making process in a level-playing field.

But it seems clear that for this to happen the government needs to show more commitment to the entire planning process, especially during implementation at the grassroots level instead of simply depending on penghulus to undertake such complex duties and responsibilities. Granted that the latter are "closest to the villages" but, with respect, this is generally more in relation to the "heart" rather than the mind.

As far as is known, they are already tasked with the responsibility of data collection regarding poverty levels and even here there is no record of how they undertake this basic and fundamental task of submitting vital valid and reliable data which is imperative for development planning.

In fact the announcement in the local media (New Straits Times, Nov 14) regarding a 'Poverty Line Index' is defining because it throws into sharper focus the absolutely important need for such qualified and trained personnel to be involved in the entire process of poverty eradication. The said press report states that the "Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) will 'create' a database on information collected by ministries and government agencies involved in poverty eradication."

Two immediate questions come to mind. First, it means that the ICU does not currently have such a database. Second, there is no mention as to who will be responsible for collecting the data in terms of whether they are qualified and experienced to undertake this task on a continuing basis.

In this connection, perhaps the prime minister may wish to take a closer look at the potential of trained social workers being deployed for the above mentioned duties and responsibilities. It is seldom realised that a cadre of such workers among social welfare officers were in fact at the forefront of some of the major development projects during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

They were deployed to live and study living conditions in the kampungs of Kedah, in Felda settlements and in advising the Rural Development Ministry (under the direction of Abdul Razak) through the only study undertaken to persuade farmers to double their paddy crop in the then Muda scheme.

As a result of these contributions the government introduced the Kemas scheme, Felda initiated the settler development programme and double cropping (despite the serious reservations of farmers) was a resounding success. Indeed Razak was so impressed by their performance that he appointed the leader of the team to the prestigious 11-man National Committee for Gerakan Maju of which he himself was the chairman.

It is therefore most timely to note that the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry should announce (NST, Nov 14) that the "Welfare Department is to be beefed up with the recruitment of 1,800 officers next year to tackle social problems at their roots."

While these officers would obviously be deployed to undertake the more 'traditional' functions and in improving the quality of existing services, they ought to be directed to undertake the functions that the prime minister had suggested penghulus might do.

Of course, this cannot be done nationwide all at once. But at least preliminary steps should be taken to set the stage for this provision. In connection to this, there is an online professional training programme in Applied Social Sciences at both undergraduate and graduate levels that, with certain modifications, would be suitable for the purpose intended.

It only remains for me to suggest that perhaps Abdullah may wish to call on some of those 'vintage' pioneering officers that are still around to rally and share their successful experiences in the training programmes for the new recruits.

The writer is a social development consultant.