Rot so deep clean civil servants are hard to find, says Dr Mahathir

Updated 7 years ago · Published on 6 Jul 2018 7:53PM · 29 Comments

THE rot is so deep in the civil service, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad, that the new administration has trouble finding capable officers to replace corrupt department heads.

At times, the new government had to go three to four ranks down in a department’s senior officer corps in order to find someone clean and trustworthy, the prime minister said in an interview with business portal Investvine.

Dr Mahathir’s latest revelation came as the new Pakatan Harapan government embarked on its reform of institutions, agencies, and government-linked companies.

He, however, said the administration was not going after errant officers simply because they were BN members or they were loyal to ousted prime minister Najib Razak.  

Dr Mahathir said the culture of corruption in the civil service, which he blamed on Najib, would hamper PH’s aims to reform government institutions and implement the rule of law.

“Most heads of departments were not just involved helping the previous government,” Dr Mahathir told Investvine.

“Most became corrupted as they saw opportunities to make money for themselves and they could not keep away from such temptations.

“We are not taking revenge by removing them. But when you find that a person or officer is involved in wrongdoing it would be wrong to retain him.

“It is difficult to change corrupt heads because there will be corrupt officers below them. Sometimes, we have to go down three or four steps before we can find an officer who is not involved (in corruption).

“Because without a head of department who is clean, we will not be able to bring about the reforms that we need or to apply the rule of law.”

As part of its clean-up, more than a dozen heads of key government institutions, agencies, and corporations have been removed within the administration’s first 50 days.

“If they were openly campaigning for the previous party, we cannot expect them to carry out their jobs without being affected by their loyalties. That is the main problem we face.” – July 6, 2018.

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Comments

  • Very true! Most of them are deeply involved in corrupt practices and abuse of authority. It will take several years to clean up, but it has to be done, one way or another as too much is at stake for the entire nation if the government doesn't succeed in revamping the civil service and getting rid of corrupt and deadwood officers.

    Posted 7 years ago by Jawa 3Suku · Reply

  • Remember raykat? It was started by the present pm and home m.

    Posted 7 years ago by James Lau · Reply

  • Change is a must not an option

    Posted 7 years ago by Sakthivel P · Reply

  • Change is a must not an option

    Posted 7 years ago by Sakthivel P · Reply

  • Who to be blamed ? NEP Recruited almost all govt servant are malays. Who are the corrupted ? Almost 100% are malays. They are the spoiled breed.

    Posted 7 years ago by T Mui khuan · Reply

    • It will takes many generations to overcome corruptions but we have to start from
      somewhere.
      Everything starts with a first step & the rest will follow.
      Keep up the good work.

      Posted 7 years ago by Johnny net3828 · Reply

    • Dont just blame the Malays as takers of bribes. The Chinese are the biggest giver of bribes in Malaysia. If there are no givers, there will be no takers.

      Posted 7 years ago by Zaki Razak · Reply

    • If there are no takers, there will be no givers too. Always trying to blame others has become part of your culture now????

      Posted 7 years ago by Raj Manik · Reply

    • Culture of races has nothing to do with the state of corruption in Malaysia. Its the systemic breakdown of governance. It is so bad that the chance of getting caught and prosecuted is so slim.

      Posted 7 years ago by Zaki Razak · Reply

    • Don't justify corruption with no givers no takers notion. Who wants to pay if they are not intimated

      Posted 7 years ago by GS Tan · Reply

    • Which is true but when you are not given any opportunity you have to find a way to make a living. If there is a fair go trust me no one wants to do it

      Posted 7 years ago by Vanessa Au Yong · Reply

    • Which is true but when you are not given any opportunity you have to find a way to make a living. If there is a fair go trust me no one wants to do it @ Zaki Razak

      Posted 7 years ago by Vanessa Au Yong · Reply

  • Yes, keep draining the swamp. Methinks, if you're really serious about flushing all the rotten ones out, you'd be lucky to have 1/2 your civil servants left. I mean, they're corrupted from top to bottom. Believe me, this is not an exaggeration.

    Posted 7 years ago by Groundbreaking Views · Reply

  • AGREED! ALL ARE TO BLAME IF THEY HAVE DEPARTED FROM OR ABANDONED THE WORLD'S 4 GREAT RELIGIONS WHICH first BROUGHT US TOGETHER FOR MERDEKA IN 1957. Hooray! A very long haul ahead indeed. WHAT BEAUTIFUL POETRY! GO BACK TO RELIGION & WE WILL BE VERY FINE..

    Posted 7 years ago by MELVILLE JAYATHISSA · Reply

  • Todays problem is your affirmative NEP policy ... of not implementing the meritocracy policy. From the early stage every Malay is being feed and spoil .Thank you to you. At least now you have realised the mistake

    Posted 7 years ago by Adrian Wong · Reply

  • Seriously civil servant is in dire condition now. Where to start for clean up? Rakyat need to participate for not giving corruption.

    Posted 7 years ago by Rakyat Miskin · Reply

  • Investigate them all. Create a new independent anti corruption & integrity dept to handle all these cases. Issue a secular to all civil servant officers who have any proof of their superior or any members corruption act to report to that dept. This will also applies to all the Malaysia's public. I guarantee there are many who are more than happy to come forward.

    The reason you are facing this,PM, is because too many of the senior position officer are so corrupted, that the junior one are afraid to voice out, for fear of being victimize by their superiors. We have already hear so many cases of junior officers have to apple polish their superior and being forced to pay for special arrangement of hotel,restaurant and ect, ect from their own pocket, whenever there's a visit by the Dept Head.

    The problem is because, the internal rot is so bad that's corrupting more and more officers. TDM, you really need more than just MACC to clean up this rots. I think you know that yourself. As long as these rotten apples are not remove and exterminated, you'll not be able to move forward. It's probably wiser to start now than later.

    Posted 7 years ago by K Teoh · Reply

  • Most Malaysian have voted out AMNO n NAJUIB in GE14. Why would one goes in mud slinging n point fingers ? Support the new cabinet n team n Tun dan give his new team a great chance . Change is coming n its imminent n theres something to look fwd now with the new team of those who worked hard to win the GE after 60 years of being a lamb n herd mentality .

    Posted 7 years ago by Fuad FADZIL · Reply

  • Most Malaysian have voted out AMNO n NAJUIB in GE14. Why would one goes in mud slinging n point fingers ? Support the new cabinet n team n Tun dan give his new team a great chance . Change is coming n its imminent n theres something to look fwd now with the new team of those who worked hard to win the GE after 60 years of being a lamb n herd mentality .

    Posted 7 years ago by Fuad FADZIL · Reply

  • Tun, that included RAIS!!!!

    Posted 7 years ago by Awang Top · Reply

  • These corrupt civil servants should be castrated and incarcerated. These guys lack discipline, capability, honesty, ethics, and are more egoistic. Such fellows cannot serve the government of the day and the rakyat.

    Posted 7 years ago by Peter Johnson · Reply

  • These corrupt civil servants should be castrated and incarcerated. These guys lack discipline, capability, honesty, ethics, and are more egoistic. Such fellows cannot serve the government of the day and the rakyat.

    Posted 7 years ago by Peter Johnson · Reply

  • AAB wanted to do a clean up but you STOPPED him. Remember????

    Posted 7 years ago by Malaysian First · Reply

    • True as God

      Posted 7 years ago by Dr James Jeremiah · Reply

  • you want to find uncorrupted officers in any dept. Easy just ask the public who deals with them

    Posted 7 years ago by Remy Jaafar · Reply

  • It is indeed true.

    Posted 7 years ago by Mokhzani Mohamad · Reply

  • Purge them. Never give up, Tun. The people are with you.

    Posted 7 years ago by Ken destino · Reply

  • True true that include Penang MBPP COB,KPKT,SPRM PENANG AND USELESS ADUAN SYSTEM MORE FOR WAYANG WAYANG

    Posted 7 years ago by DAVID HENG · Reply

  • sometimes i dont know if Mahathir is serious in tackling corruption or he is just saying it to gain votes. He has the power, yet he nominates a person that has no problem with corruption as head of MACC, that guy used to say BN buying items 5 times above market price is not corruption/crime.

    Maybe corruption is allowed as long as it benefits his own group of people - regardless of race and religion.

    Posted 7 years ago by Ty Ngan · Reply