THE “New Malaysia” – a term used to describe the country under Pakatan Harapan rule, following the historic May 9 polls – should be “certainly better” than when the nation was run by previous administrations, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“The New Malaysia is an improvement even to the period during which I was prime minister for 22 years,” he said in an interview with Investvine, a Hong Kong-based business news portal covering Southeast Asia.

Dr Mahathir’s first turn at being prime minister was from 1981 to 2003.

He said in the New Malaysia, the government must return to democracy and the rule of law, and respect the people’s wishes.

“They have shown that they did not like the previous government, and of course, we have to take corrective action now.

“In the past, civil servants, for example, did not dabble in politics.

“They are there to carry out the policies and rules of the government, and not to be members of the (ruling) party.

“But, it’s quite clear that in the past 10 years or so, civil servants have changed so much so, that they were seen to be openly campaigning for the government. This is wrong. It makes them biased.

“It made them want to ensure that the previous government won (the general election), sometimes, by doing the wrong things.”

In his interview with Investvine director Imran Saddique and correspondent Firoz Abdul Hamid, Dr Mahathir also spoke about corruption in the civil service.

“They saw opportunities to make money for themselves, and didn’t hesitate to keep away from such temptation.

“Seeing the leader of the (former) 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 (lack of) ethics is not what is expected of civil servants.”

He said the PH government is not exacting revenge by removing such individuals from their posts.

“Those who are in the clear, they are retained. Sometimes, it’s 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 return the rule of law.”

He said the government is removing “quite a lot of people” because they had openly campaigned for Barisan Nasional while the pact was in power, and not because of their BN membership.

“We cannot expect them to carry out their jobs without being affected by their loyalties. So, that is the main problem there, and then, we have to uphold the rule of law and once again accept the democratic system of governance.”

Asked how he plans to change such a culture in the civil service, he said this will take time.

On the previous BN government’s fondness of giving money to the people, Dr Mahathir said not just the deserving poor received it.

“In fact, everybody was given free money by the (previous) government. This made the people government-dependent, and they no longer worked in order to earn an income.

“They expected their income to come from the government… to the point where they no longer work to earn a living.”

He cited money given to fishermen every month, regardless whether they caught fish.

He said this practice cannot be continued as the previous government had sourced the funds “illegally”, such as from 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

“Money from 1MDB was taken by the government and given to the people. We can’t do that as we don’t have the money.

“But if we tell the people ‘sorry, we cannot give you what you have become used to’, it won’t be easily accepted because they will say, ‘well, the previous government was better’.

“But, we have to slowly tell them that there is no way we can give them money, unless, of course, you work for your income.”

Asked if the review of the Public Service Department’s performance management system is part of efforts to change the said culture, Dr Mahathir said there is a need to promote younger civil servants, to replace “incorrigible” older ones.

“They may be less experienced, but with training, there will be a new breed of people who are not tainted by the bad practices of the past.” – Bernama, July 8, 2018.