FOREIGN Minister Saifuddin Abdullah should accept full responsibility for the gaffe involving the prime minister’s trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last month, which resulted in the recall of two senior diplomats, Anifah Aman said today.

The former foreign minister said he would have handled the situation differently and urged for an internal investigation first.

“Even though Wisma Putra has issued a statement that such a recall was nothing out of the ordinary due to their failure to coordinate administrative and logistic matters during the Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s visit to the UAE, they should not have recalled the diplomats in haste,” the 68-year-old said.

Anifah doubted that such senior and experienced diplomats would overlook important details, especially when it involved the prime minister.

He added that normally, prior to an official visit by the prime minister to a foreign country, thorough preparations involving the foreign minister would have to be made.

Anifah, who was foreign minister for nearly 10 years, said during his time, before an official visit, the minister would precede the prime minister and would be on site earlier to ensure that the necessary preparations have been made.

“As the foreign minister, I would have taken full responsibility for the shortcomings which happened during Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s visit to the UAE,” he said.

“This is a major embarrassment for our country, and a minister is always responsible for any shortcomings of the ministry, and he must defend his officers.

Anifah, who is Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS) president, said such haste in recalling the diplomats would reflect badly on the nation as they would be deemed as incapable of organising something as ordinary as a head-of-government visit.

He said Wisma Putra officers selected to be heads of missions are usually top diplomats and have years of experience under their belts.

“Incidents like this rarely happen and even if it did happen, it could have been prevented had the foreign minister been in the UAE beforehand to personally look into the preparations for the prime minister’s visit,” Anifah said.

“Being there beforehand is part of the job of a foreign minister and if he failed to be there, he should not have agreed or ordered the recall of the two diplomats,” he said.

“It has always been normal practice for an internal meeting (pre-council) to be held in Malaysia at the ministry for every event, especially one involving the prime minister, followed by a briefing with the Prime Minister’s Office on logistical arrangements, followed by the foreign minister and an advance team arriving earlier, and a final pre-council meeting at the country of the event prior to our prime minister’s arrival.”

He said this ensures that mistakes such as the ones that took place in the UAE do not happen.

“This type of action reflects badly on the foreign minister, and consequently, also reflects badly on Malaysia,” he said.

Yesterday, Wisma Putra said two of its senior diplomats were recalled because they had failed to coordinate administrative and logistic arrangements for Ismail’s visit to the UAE last month.

In a statement, it said the diplomats had failed to properly plan the arrival of the prime minister on March 29, which should have been based on ministry operating procedures for high-level visits abroad. – April 12, 2022.