Several overseas delegates appointed by the previous government have been asked to return to Malaysia while some have also had their contracts terminated.
Malaysian ambassador to Indonesia Datuk Seri Zahrain Mohamed Hashim is coming home today as his stint ends today.
The Star reported that an embassy source said Zahrain had made all his preparations to leave Jakarta a month ago.
He was conspicuously absent during Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s recent visit to Jakarta.
The former Bayan Baru MP was a PKR member but he quit the party following a dispute with then Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng over the latter’s proposal to use an RM2 company to operate and manage Bukit Jambul Golf & Country Club.
Zahrain then became BN-friendly and rejoined Umno two years later. He did not stand in GE13 but was appointed as the ambassador a few months after the polls.
The Star also quoted another source in the Foreign Affairs Ministry who said the contract of Malaysia’s first ambassador to the Vatican, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, was terminated on June 7 and he will arrive back in Malaysia next week.
The former Sabah chief minister was appointed for two years from March 2016. His political appointment was extended for another two years until April 18, 2020.
He had also held Cabinet positions as minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and plantation industries and commodities minister.
Citing sources, the English daily also reported that Malaysian ambassador to Finland Puan Sri Blanche O’Leary, Malaysian Friendship and Trade Centre in Taiwan president Datuk Adeline Leong and, High Commissioner to Brunei Datuk Ghulam Jelani Khanizaman might also be axed.
O’Leary is the wife of former MyPPP president Tan Sri M Kayveas while Leong was former Sandakan Municipal Council president.
Ghulam was the permanent secretary of Sabah’s Ministry of Rural Development prior to his appointment in Brunei.
Sources also said that Leong and Ghulam were close to former Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman and his brother, former foreign affairs minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman.
Several ambassadors who resigned before the May 9 polling day include former ambassador to the United States Tan Sri Zulhasnan Rafique (April 23) and former ambassador to Cambodia Datuk Seri Hasan Malek (March 31).