‘New Malaysia should be better than old govt’
New photo features smiling Dr Mahathir in pink baju Melayu, wearing songkok
KUALA LUMPUR: The New Malaysia, a label popularly used to describe the Pakatan Harapan government after the general election, should be “certainly better” than the previous administration, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“The New Malaysia is even an improvement on the period during which I was prime minister for 22 years,” he said in an interview with Investvine, the Hong Kongbased business news portal covering mainly Southeast Asia.
Dr Mahathir said the New Malaysia would mean the government would have to go back to democracy and the rule of law, and respect for the people’s wishes.
“They have shown that they did not like the previous government and, of course, we have to take corrective action to bring back the country to its former organisation. In the past, civil servants, for example, did not dabble in politics, but they are there to carry out policies and rules of the government and not become members of the party.
“But it’s quite clear that in the last 10 years or so, the civil servants have changed so much so that they were openly seen to be campaigning for the government and it was wrong. It makes them biased and it makes them want to ensure that the previous government wins (the election), sometimes by doing wrong things.”
In the interview with Investvine director Imran Saddique and correspondent Firoz Abdul Hamid, the prime minister spoke about corruption in the civil service.
“They saw opportunities for making money and succumb to such temptations.
“Seeing the leader of the government himself being accused of corruption, we find that many of them are involved in corrupt activities and, of course, we cannot have those people continuing because their perception of things, their ethics towards things are not what is expected from civil servants.”
He said the new government was not taking revenge by removing them, but when such persons or officers were involved in wrongdoing, it would be wrong for the government to retain them.
“Those who are clear, they are retained. Sometimes, it’s so difficult to replace officials because below them would also be corrupt officers. Sometimes, we have to go down three or four steps before we can find an officer who’s not involved.
“So, the process has taken quite some time because without a leader or head of government who is clean, we will not be able to bring about reforms and the rule of law.”
He said the government was removing “quite a lot of people” because they were involved and not due to their involvement as party members, but rather for cases where they were openly campaigning for the previous ruling party.
“We cannot expect them to carry out their duties without being affected by their loyalty. So, that is the main problem there and then we have first to uphold the rule of law and once again accept the democratic system of governance.”
On how he planned to change such a culture in the civil service, he said this would take time as the people’s value system had been undermined, especially under the previous government.
He said the previous government was fond of giving money to the people because of poverty. However, even those who were not poor were also the beneficiaries.
“In fact, everybody was given free money by the government.”
THE official portrait of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will soon adorn public and private offices again after they were taken down in late 2003 when he left office.
The prime minister led Pakatan Harapan (PH) to victory in the 14th General Election two months ago.
Netizens were able to get a sneak peek of the new portrait, featuring a smiling Dr Mahathir, who is Langkawi member of parliament, clad in a pink baju Melayu and wearing a songkok.
The Information Department photography unit’s official Facebook account posted a series of seven photos showing Dr Mahathir going through a selection of portraits. The posting had earned more than 400 likes and shared 250 times since it was made on Tuesday.
The department’s visual communications and graphics division director, Mohd Roffee Mohamad, was seen in one of the pictures showing Dr Mahathir two shortlisted images for the prime minister to choose.
Roffee was accompanied by two officers from the division at a session in the department’s office at the Prime Minister’s Department in Putrajaya.
Dr Mahathir then put his signature on the preferred portrait.
Apart from creating history by becoming the first Malaysian politician to be elected to the prime minister’s post twice, Dr Mahathir, who turns 93 tomorrow, is also the world’s oldest serving prime minister.