PETALING JAYA: You are dead without the civil service — that was the warning issued by Tun Daim Zainuddin to ministers in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) cabinet, just days before its one-year anniversary in power.
The close confidante of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he noted the ministers’ distrust towards the civil servants of the Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak-era, one of the reasons he claimed was to be blamed for the government’s slow reforms.
“Now, you are in the government. When you are in government, you have to deliver. You cannot deliver by yourself, the civil servants are the implementers, not you.
“You plan policies, then you say [to the civil servants], take over. (If) you don’t trust them, they just sit down,“ he said in an interview with the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Daim said while he could not be certain if there were indeed efforts by the civil servants to sabotage the ministers, it was incumbent of the Cabinet members to work together with them.
“Without them, you are dead,“ the chairman of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) set up by Mahathir soon after winning the election last year was quoted as saying.
Daim said he was informed by several senior civil servants of ongoing friction with the ministers and their reluctance to work together, and that the latter were placing more trust and reliance on political appointees in the running of the ministries.
“The civil servants have been coming to see me. They say ‘oh, the minister doesn’t trust me, okay’ ... and they (political appointees) run the ministry.
“How can they run the ministry? They are outsiders. I have been telling the ministers, the civil servants have been there since the British (colonial era). When they came here, they brought the civil service. And you try now to discard them? You cannot!” he said.
Daim said both ministers and their political appointees should practise restraint from issuing statements and criticising their government, noting that the civil service makes up a huge number of voters that could determine the outcome of an election.
“I have been telling them, you like it or not, there are 1.6 million civil servants. And we are paying them every day. Can you imagine? One, plus wife, plus one child. (There are votes there, so get them onside or) you are in trouble,“ he said.
The former Cabinet minister also suggested that the growing discontent towards PH could be down to poor communications between the ministers and the public.
He said it was the duty of the ministers to go down to the ground and explain to the rakyat why certain reforms could not or needed a longer time to be accomplished.
“People are reasonable, explain to them. Instead you stay away, ‘scared that I cannot deliver my manifesto promises, don’t want to go and see them, they will scold me’.
“You go. I have been going around the country, they say okay. They understand. I am not member of any party, only I like to talk to people and say look – this is the real situation. Give it a bit of time,“ he added.
