PM questions loyalty of civil servants who campaigned for BN

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has questioned the loyalty of civil servants who openly campaigned for BN in last month's general election.

“Many civil servants, whether voluntarily or not, campaigned for BN.

“We are doubtful about their loyalty and whether they still hold onto their loyalty to the old government or the new government,” he told a press conference in Petaling Jaya today.

The prime minister said while civil servants have the right to vote, they are not supposed to publicly endorse or campaign for any political party while carrying out their duties.

The Harapan government needs to implement its way of governing, as well as its manifesto, he said, so it needs to have cooperation from all civil servants.

"But because they were involved in the elections which they were not supposed to, but now that there is a new government, we need to decide whether we can get cooperation from these civil servants," he said.

However, he reassured that they do not want to punish civil servants unnecessarily as that is not Harapan's "way of doing things".

"But we need to know the loyalties of these civil servants because unfortunately, they had committed themselves so deeply towards propagating the propaganda of the previous government.

"We hope they will change their attitude and become neutral again but of course, they have to carry out instructions of the (new) government," Mahathir said. -Mkini