What can we learn from Pakistan, seriously, for better governance?

Arguably, better government in the future with more transparency and higher efficiency will revolve around one thing - technology. Let's look at what the Pakistanis are doing (more here):

• They equipped 1,500 city workers with $100 smartphones and asked them to take “before and after” photographs of their anti-dengue tasks and to upload images, tagged by location, so that they could be plotted on an online map, made available to the public. Besides enabling some analyses to determine the effectiveness of the tasks, knowing they were being monitored and tracked in public, municipal workers also applied themselves more assiduously to their tasks. Anyone looking at the online map could see if the work being done in a particular area was adequate—and complain if it was not.
• Other officials, such as veterinarians who are paid to travel to farms to deworm cows, have to take smartphones to record themselves at work and upload geotagged self-portraits to an official website. This makes it possible to check that they are actually turning up for work. They are also required to record the phone numbers of farmers they visit, some of whom are randomly called afterwards to be asked if the service was up to scratch.
• Making random calls to users of public services—including the police, health services and administrative services such as registering property—to inquire about the quality of service and whether they were asked to pay a bribe. [No-fault provision to bribery reporters with petty crimes or wrongdoings should be established so that they won't be prosecuted to report police wrongdoings]

Here is something simple everyone in the government should do - spend the last 15 minutes everyday to summarize daily work on a personal blog. The blogs don't have to be public, but peers should be able to read each others' to create healthy competition. What seems to be a 15-min non-productive work will actually increase the overall productivity. This approach has been working pretty well in my case managing a handful of 19-20 year old kids (undergraduate researchers, formally).

Reducing Crime

I was in Taiwan for a month or so last year for on-site HSR construction visits in preparation for a new class I was developing. I found out that all cars I rode were equipped with this mounted video camera (I got mine for about RM100):

Their motivation was to protect them from insurance claims during accidents. I thought, hey this could also be used to deter crimes and bad behaviors in Malaysia. Here is my pitch (feel free to run with it to start your next business - selling car video cams):

Smart technologies, specifically, cars with dashboard-mounted video cameras, smartphone app and a website can be used to record and report street crimes, traffic violations, littering and other public nuisances. Captured and submitted video proofs can be evaluated for cash rewards to motivate public involvement in ensuring a safe environment in major cities in Malaysia. 

This initiative is a drastic measure to reduce crimes and problems like snatch theft, robbery, hit-and-run, driving under the influence (alcohols or drugs), etc. in major cities in Malaysia. Everyone will think twice before doing anything wrong in public for the fear of getting caught red-handed by any passing-by car or people with smartphones. This is the key advantage over the common approach to install CCTV cameras at strategic locations in some major cities worldwide to deter crimes. 

A one-year trial phase in Klang Valley areas could involve developments of the app and website, a distribution of a few thousand cameras, and a multimedia public campaign, for an initial cost of between RM2.5 to 3 million. The success of this initiative could support the “packaging” of the whole initiative in the future to be sold as a made-in-Malaysia intellectual business product to other countries or major cities around the world.