(Aug 3): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today has urged the civil service to help improve and restore the people's faith in the government, as his administration faces public scrutiny over various issues.

He said this in his speech at the monthly gathering with civil servants in Putrajaya this morning.

"In the political aspect, I think the political transformation involves how we, as a government, can increase public confidence in us.

"Some calls this 'trust deficit', so this is our duty – to restore, and improve the people's confidence in us," he said.

The prime minister urged civil servants to help the government overcome negative perceptions through social media.

"We are faced with the challenge of how to address social media where different paradigms exist.

"This is one of the challenges where between perception and reality in politics, perception is always stronger than reality."

Najib's address to civil servants comes about a week since he reshuffled the Cabinet, dropping Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as deputy prime minister and replacing him with Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Najib also replaced Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail as Attorney-General.

These changes took place amid ongoing investigations into debt-ridden government investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad, raising concern that critics of the firm and those trying to uncover its alleged wrongdoing were being silenced. – The Malaysian Insider