This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 11, 2018

PUTRAJAYA: Corruption had become so widespread in the previous administration that the government may be crippled if all civil servants suspected of bribery were terminated, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He was speaking about removing a number of key civil servants after the Pakatan Harapan government came into power. Dr Mahathir said the level of corruption had not been as high when he was the prime minister for 22 years.

“Previously, there was not so much corruption,” Dr Mahathir said at a press conference at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday.

“We cannot terminate everyone that we suspect, otherwise we will have no government machinery to operate [with]. When I became prime minister [for the first time], the government machinery was as clean as it can get.  

“Currently, we find that because Datuk Seri Najib [Razak had] promoted corruption — he said ‘cash is king’ — the government machinery was also implicated and we have to choose and filter before taking [any further administrative] action.”  

Since the Pakatan coalition took over the government in the May 9 general election, it proceeded to reform government agencies to eliminate corruption and reduce operational costs to manage the high national debt.

This included terminating and restructuring agencies such as the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), downsizing the workforce such as that in the Prime Minister’s Office, and not extending the contracts of employees deemed as “political appointees”.  

Dr Mahathir also said it is not a problem if civil servants’ salaries were slightly lower than those of private sector employees.

“It is not too low. Did you know some of those working with GLCs (government-linked companies) get paid as much as RM7 million per year?” Dr Mahathir said.

“The government provides a house; pays for the electricity, water; gives you transport; provides you with credit allowance — everything is paid for.”