Civil service must remain neutral

THE media reported last week that our Prime Minister Tun Dr Maha­thir Mohamad questioned the loyalty of senior civil servants who went overboard to support the former Barisan Nasional government in the last general election. In fact, their blatant acts of partisanship shocked many Malaysians, including me (I was a civil servant for 15 years), who were brought up to believe in the concept of civil service neutrality.

Our civil service was introduced by the British, whose integrity and independence are unquestionable. Perhaps, after being under the same coalition government for so long, our civil servants, particularly the younger ones, forgot how they are supposed to act, hence this short article.