Liew: Gov't will continue monitoring disobedience among civil servants

PARLIAMENT | There is no sign of disloyalty from civil servants towards the government, despite public perception saying otherwise, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Liew Vui Keong.

Liew (photo) said this in response to a question posed by Ronald Kiandee (Harapan-Beluran) during the minister's question time whether it's true that, based on public perception, there's a deep state and an act of sabotage by the civil servants, and whether there's action taken against those involved.

"Basically, there is no disobedience among civil servants towards the government because they have, at all times, given their undivided loyalty to the King, country, and the government as accorded by the law," he said.

Noting the public perception towards civil servants, Liew said the government would continue to monitor them to prevent any disobedience.

"Although there is a change in the government, the civil servants remain and continue to carry out their duties.

"However, there's a perception from the public toward civil servants. As we know, this is intangible. We cannot read people's mind.

"But to dispel the perception, the government always monitors (the civil servants) in all aspects, including taking action against them."

Liew said while there is no statistic to show that civil servants were disloyal, the government has, until June this year, taken action for various misconducts.

This includes corruption, abuse of power, sharing fake news on social media, sexual harassment, going out of the country without permission, and absence from duty.

Last year, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad stressed that the culture of sabotaging the implementation of government policies still exists among civil servants.

“There are still officers who are not committed... for example, there are civil servants who have not been paid for four months when it clearly can be done. I do not understand why.

“One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch,” Mahathir had said.

Last month, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng had raised the issue of the deep state across different government departments.

In an interview with the Oriental Daily, Lim, who is also the finance minister, elaborated on his claim that covert forces across different government departments were behind the recent string of scandals implicating the DAP.

He told the daily that Harapan had enough time on its hand to deal with the issue and he himself had experience in dealing with similar resistance when he first became the Penang chief minister in 2008. - Mkini