Civil servants who fail to carry out the directives of the Pakatan Harapan government should be disciplined, said National Patriots Association (Patriot) president Brig Gen (Rtd) Datuk Mohamed Arshad Raji.
He said in a statement today that little napoleons do exist in the various ministries as well as in the local governments, and they must be dealt with.
“Anyone, irrespective of their status and civil service ranking, found intentionally or negligently not carrying out the directives of the new government should face disciplinary action.
“Our new government has so much to do to put things right. As such all civil servants should adopt a no-nonsense work attitude,” he said.
Noting that there had been criticisms against the government for “what is seen as inaction by certain ministers and ministry officials on issues of national interest”, Patriot said it had to be understood that there were some civil servants who were still supportive of the previous government and whose activities and actions ran counter to the policies of the ruling government.
So far, it said, two Cabinet ministers – for education and agriculture – had expressed frustration in having to deal with civil servants who were dragging their feet.
Arshad also called for action to be taken against people who spread divisive messages on social media to cause “discontentment, hatred and confusion among the uninformed populace against the new government”.
“These presumably are the work of people paid by certain quarters for their self-serving interest. There can also be some quarters that have been frustrated with the change of government and deprived of opportunities and benefits they enjoyed with the previous government.
“Patriot takes a serious view against such divisive messages and calls upon the government to enforce greater scrutiny on the originators of such messages.
“Such divisiveness cannot be allowed to fester unabated when the government is doing its best to amend the wrongdoings of the previous government, especially in financial and economic mismanagement of the state,” he said.