KUCHING, May 12: A DAP special assistant believes that PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s view of civil servants shows that the latter is “disconnected with reality”.
Michael Kong, special assistant to Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chief Chong Chieng Jen held that civil servants are to serve the public and not the government of the day.
“PAS President, Hadi Awang’s recent Facebook post is the clearest sign of this disconnection with the present reality.
“By asking civil servants to resign if they do not agree to the instructions meted down by the PN (Perikatan Nasional) government, it is as good as asking these civil servants to totally disregard their moral compass and be a rubber stamp to the PN government.
“This should not be the way because the civil servants are there to serve the general public through the respective government departments, and not merely to serve the ruling government of the day,” said Kong in a press statement today.
He said Hadi Awang’s recent stance is akin to saying that the civil servants must also follow the instructions of their superiors, even when it is blatantly wrong, immoral or illegal.
“We can never let that happen. We have seen in the past how dissenting opinions can help this nation. In the 1MDB saga, it was an officer from the National Audit Department director, Nor Salwani’s conscience that stopped her from following orders for the original report from being destroyed.
“This allowed us to see the behind-the-scenes events surrounding this mega scandal,” said Kong.
Kong also alleged that the current PN government has been dishing ridiculous instructions and directives to civil servants.
“Just last month, MCMC issued an instruction to ministry staff as well as departments and agencies under MCMC to ‘like’ or ‘follow’ the social media accounts of its minister and deputy minister.
“It is time for members of the PN government to wise up and be careful with their words and actions. Do not belittle the civil servants especially since they are carrying all the weight now in light of your inefficiency and inability,” said Kong.
Had Awang had been quoted by The Star of saying that civil servants must follow instructions of the ruling government even if they do not support it.
He was quoted saying that civil servants have a role to play to strengthen the government and not create confusion and contraction, in the context of explaining the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judiciary. — DayakDaily
