AFTER seven months in power, Pakatan Harapan has revived the civil service and improve the government machinery, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Dr Mahathir said Putrajaya, too, has been infused with a new healthy political culture.

“Alhamdulillah in these six to seven months, we have managed to revive the government administration to a healthy level. We want to clean up the country and once again be known as an Asian Tiger. This is our wish,” he said at a meeting with some 200 senior civil servants in Langkawi last night.

The PH administration, he said, has stopped the practice of appointing politicians to government institutions even though many helped the coalition win the last general election.

“We did not just clean up the civil service. Politicians, too, had to deal with this clean up and accept the change.

“For example, last time the politicians were given high positions in government-linked companies even though they did not have the credentials for the job, which lead to many mistakes on their part.

“Now we ensure those appointed to government positions and institutions are qualified professionals and not politicians.”

The Langkawi MP said some politicians wanted top positions not to ensure the success of the organisations they wanted to helm but to take care of their personal interest.

“We have stopped this practice appointing those who had worked towards PH’s success. Now the vacancies have been filled by those who had nothing to do with our win.”

He conceded that there were some PH politicians who were disappointed with this decision but it had to be done for national interests.

“For the country to move forward and to have an excellent administration, favouritism has to be ended.”

On sabotage of the administration by civil servants, Dr Mahathir said it could not be ended overnight.

“It will take time and it cannot be done overnight. Not all civil servants were involved but a handful were. Just because of these few people, the entire service was tainted.”

This forced the PH administration to remove some of them to revive the service and clean up its image, he said. – November 25, 2018.