KUALA LUMPUR – The role of political secretaries for ministers has come under the spotlight after Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today alleged that one such official had overstepped his authority by summoning government officers and being “arrogant” with businesspeople.
The Pejuang chairman explained that the concept of political secretaries was mooted during his time as prime minister, referring to his first tenure from 1981 to 2003, as his cabinet members had complained that their party work was neglected due to their heavy government workload.
“The post was mooted to assist the ministers on gaining feedback from their constituencies and advise them on the politics on the ground,” said Dr Mahathir, 95.
“But instead of that, political secretaries behave as if they are the ministers, calling officers and officials to have a meeting with them, trying to instruct them and all that.
“And that is not the job of a political secretary. A political secretary is about politics.
“He should never call government officers to brief him or hold discussions. That is not his job.
Dr Mahathir said this during a virtual media roundtable held today in conjunction with the upcoming launch of his book Capturing Hope published by MPH.
The memoir attempts to set the record straight regarding the short-lived Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, which he led during his second tenure as prime minister of Malaysia from May 2018 to February 2020.
Dr Mahathir was asked to comment on a statement from Tony Pua, who was political secretary to former finance minister Lim Guan during PH’s rule in Putrajaya.
Even though Dr Mahathir had not mentioned his name, Pua took exception to his earlier reference to “a trusted adviser to former finance minister Lim Guan Eng”.
Pua claimed that Dr Mahathir had accused him of “unauthorised involvement in government business” and being “in business negotiations involving the government despite not being empowered to do so, and had resorted to threats”.
He said that Dr Mahathir alleged that he had “threatened a property developer who had faced financial problems in a joint venture project with the government to develop a multibillion ringgit complex in Kuala Lumpur”.
Pua said this is a completely false allegation.
“It is also not the first time that Mahathir has made the allegation,” he said in a statement.
“He had summoned Lim back in November 2018 to his office to reprimand him for my purported actions,” he added.
“The problem is, I could never have ‘threatened’ the property developer because I have never personally met or spoken to the developer.”
Dr Mahathir said that he had received a lot of feedback from businesspeople, including those from the Chinese community, that a minister’s political secretary was arrogant.
“That is the word they used. Very arrogant,” he said.
He behaved as if he was the minister. Of course he has the ears of the minister, but for a political secretary you are supposed to report on the politics of the country – not go around implementing government policies.”
Dr Mahathir said lots of people complained to him about the “adviser to the minister of finance” being arrogant.
He said that he just cited one case as an example, and if he wanted to relate all cases of political secretaries acting beyond their boundaries, it would fill a book.
Asked whether terms of references for such posts have been established, Dr Mahathir said no.
He stressed that the government does not have anything like standard operating procedures to specify what ministers, their deputies and the political secretaries should and should not do, adding that such standard operating procedures need to be created.
He stressed that ministers have felt overburdened in the past, and so the post of political secretary was mooted during his leadership over the government.
“At that time, we understood the responsibility of the political secretary. But since then, they have done all sorts of things,” he said. – The Vibes, December 7, 2021
