MALAYSIA
In his first address to Malaysian Public Servants since winning the country’s General Election, Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad (pictured) said the Public Service had been compromised during the previous administration and he was disappointed that staff had become compliant and passive.
However, he was determined to work with PS employees and to use their knowledge and expertise to “heal” Malaysia.
He said the separation of powers was crucial to check and balance the system.
“If there is no separation of powers, with one taking control over others, there will be no efforts to criticise or reprimand things that are against the country’s laws,” Tun Mahathir said.
“Changes are coming, but I will not give details yet because information is still being gathered.”
He was speaking days after the Government had begun to sack PS staff it said were political appointees.
Earlier, Tun Mahathir said there were 17,000 people working in the Public Service who were political appointees.
“We have to sort this out,” the Prime Minister said.
“We want to reduce Government expenditure, so some contracted officers are affected.”
He said he wanted to separate those who are doing normal administration work from the political appointees.
However, he said there were some PS employees whose salaries were too low.
“They might need the job for survival,” Tun Mahathir said.
“We will give them other positions.”
Kuala Lumpur, 22 May 2018
