Some ministers ‘afraid of media, senior civil servants’

Mohd Farhan Darwis Mohd Farhan Darwis Updated 7 years ago · Published on 25 Nov 2018 9:10AM · 3 Comments

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says he won't reshuffle the cabinet despite some disappointing performance. – EPA pic, November 25, 2018.

THERE are cabinet members who are afraid to meet the media and deal with senior civil servants, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

There was a minister, said Dr Mahathir, who did not want to meet a private sector representative to a point where the representative had to seek out the prime minister over a matter.

“The private sector official tried to meet the minister eight times but could not, and finally he came to see me.

“The new ministers, some of them are afraid of meeting civil servants who are far more experienced than them, they are unsure and felt it would be better not to meet them. In fact, some of them just avoid these meetings as they are afraid,” he said yesterday during a meeting with 207 senior civil servants in Langkawi.

The remarks last night come after he had told his ministers to buck up in September.

It fuelled speculation that Dr Mahathir is set to reshuffle the cabinet in December but the prime minister later said he had no plans to do that.

Council of Eminent Persons chairman Daim Zainuddin also weighed in and said the current crop of ministers were smart but have never been in government before.

“What is important now is to let them be. They are smart. But they do not have the experience, so give them time,” Daim said recently. 

Dr Mahathir said he has advised ministers not to fear civil servants and they must meet officials from the private sector.

Dr Mahathir said he had 22 years’ experience as prime minister and had dealt with a cross section of the civil service.

“I have the experience. Meeting civil servants is not a problem. I must have dealings with civil servants. Those doing the work are civil servants, not me. I only give direction.

“I am comfortable with senior civil servant and junior civil servants when I served as prime minister the first time around. Now I work with the children of civil servants whose parents worked with me during my first term in office.”

As leaders, politicians should meet and be friendly to everyone, he said.

“I meet everyone. I have programmes every day. I meet people until 6pm to the point it is impossible to do work.

“But I have to be friendly. I have to show leadership by example,” said Dr Mahathir. – November 25, 2018.

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Comments

  • With ministers like these Tun M has only one choice. Remove and replace. Reshuffle is definitely on the cards. Lets hope the replacements are high achievers with leadership qualities.

    Posted 7 years ago by Lily Cheong · Reply

  • Meeting people, consultations, processing, making decisions, giving directions, are all part & parcel of managing. If afraid to do any of these, sadly its just unfit for the job

    Posted 7 years ago by Jon Lang · Reply

  • No time for compassion Tun. Just as voters need to be realistic in our expectations on when impact of reforms can actually be felt, so too PH needs to be mindful not to allow lame ducks or greenhorns without even credible prior work experience to falter on in any Ministry. PH has less then 4.5 years to prove you deserve to continue helming the country. Any unfit Ministers must be removed and replaced now.

    Posted 7 years ago by Mahsuri Smiles · Reply