敦马哈迪被认为是一个能控制自己情绪的人（如果你不计算他曾多次在巫统大会上哭泣）。作为第四任及现任首相，马哈迪在国家经历最严重的金融和政治动荡时，都是一幅镇定的样子。
因此，上个月一次内阁会议上，当马哈迪因为部长们投诉他们的官员如新闻秘书、私人助理、政治秘书有两个月没有领到工资，其中一些更长达三个月时，马哈迪失去了冷静，非常愤怒，他的内阁同僚都有点意外。
这显示新政府遭到内部的破坏，政府首席秘书拿督斯里依斯迈巴卡尔受指示去解决此问题。媒体也报导了这些事，马哈迪指责忠于前朝政府及领袖的公务员，企图通过破坏这些官员的任命来打击新政府。
政府首席秘书依斯迈保证会在一天内解决此事。虽然有一些人已经获得他们委任信和工资，但一个月后，仍有官员需向他们的朋友和同事借钱，因为他们的薪水支票尚未得到处理。
一些人也面对官僚的繁文缛节，如部门的财务和人力资源部互相推诿责任。与此同时，一些官员因委任信卡在官僚系统，使他们在没有正式任命信件下执行任务，导致部门官员混淆，许多人也拒绝接受新官员指示。
然而，也出现另一种情况，在一个部门的部长办公室里，我们有一个“没有职责的官员”，可向包括副秘书长在内的所有人发出命令。由于她是部长的亲信，官员们都遵循她的指示。
最多委任6名官员
这个人原本受委任出任该部门的高职，但由于她与报穷局有著悬而未决的问题，她的名字在马哈迪审查部长们委任的高官名单时，遭马哈迪拒绝了。但这并没有阻止部长坚持他的选择。所以如今有一个未受任命的人从部长办公室发号施令。
首相一直强调，他的管理团队是依循法治的团队，但其执政团队里，却有一个未经受委任的人参与内阁会议后的部门会议，而这人却不受如同部长和副部长般的保密规则限制。
部长们也被提醒，他们最多只能委任6名官员，通常这些人是支持者、助手、朋友，而至少有一名部长，委任其商业伙伴。几年前，时任旅游部长拿督斯里阿莎丽娜就因为通过部长办公室雇佣20人，并指示其部门的总监安排通过该部的子公司支付薪水而受到抨击。
当年批评阿莎丽娜的人就有包括现任内阁成员。因此，希盟最明智的做法，是先清理好自己门户，并提醒那些不遵守规定的同侪遵守条例，除非他们认为事件可以因人而异。
新政府虽然会面对著各种磨合问题，但在涉及法治、透明度和治理方面问题时，绝不能妥协。当人员委任及安排，这最基本和简单的事情，都陷于官僚主义和争议时，无疑反映著部长、部门和整个政府的拙劣。如果某些官员的委任确实是受到公务员的阻碍，为何可以让这些公务员任意妄为？如果希盟执政团队乱七八糟，其又如何有效地履行受人民委托的责任？
《执政团队乱七八糟》A house in disarray 原文：
Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is known as a person who always keeps his emotions in check (if you do not count the numerous times he has wept at UMNO general assemblies).
Our fourth and current Prime Minister was a picture of calm even when the nation was going through its worst financial and political turmoils.
Hence his cabinet colleagues were a little taken by surprise when Dr. Mahathir lost his cool at a Cabinet meeting last month, following complaints by ministers that their officers such as press secretaries, private secretaries and political secretaries had not been paid salaries for two months some of them up to three months.
Implying that the new Pakatan Harapan Government was being sabotaged, Chief Secretary to the Government Datuk Seri Ismail Bakar was given terse instructions to sort out the problem.
The matter was reported in the press where Dr. Mahathir blamed civil servants loyal to the previous administration and leadership of attempting to undermine the new government by scuttling the appointment of these officers.
Ismail assured that the matter would be resolved within a day.
While several have had their appointments and salaries sorted out, a month on, there are still officers who are taking loans from their friends and colleagues as their pay-cheques have yet to be processed.
Some of them are also mired in red tape as the finance and human resources department keep playing poison parcel and push papers to each other.
In the meantime, even letters of appointments are stuck in bureaucracy for some of these officers who have been performing their duties without official appointment documents causing confusion among ministry staff, with many refusing to take instructions from the new officers.
By contrast however, in one ministry we have an ¨officer without portfolio〃 parked in a ministerˇs office and is barking orders at everyone including the deputy secretary general.
As she has the right ear of the minister, her instructions are followed to the letter.
This individualˇs name was initially submitted for a top role in the ministry but as she has outstanding issues with the Insolvency Department, her name was rejected by Dr. Mahathir who was vetting his ministersˇ choices for senior officers.
This did not deter the minister from sticking to her choice. So today you have an un-appointed individual calling the shots from the ministerˇs office.
The Prime Minister keeps emphasising that his administration is one that is governed by the rule of law, but here one has undesignated characters participating in post cabinet meetings without being subject to the same rules of confidentiality that governs others, including ministers and deputy ministers themselves.
Ministers had been reminded that they can only hire up to six officers usually these make up supporters, aides, friends, and in the case of at least one minister, a business partner.
Some years ago, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said came under fire for cramming her office with 20 staff and instructing the director general of her ministry to make arrangements to pay their salaries through the ministryˇs subsidiary companies.
Several of those who had criticised Azalina include current cabinet leaders. Hence it would be wise for them to keep their house in order and remind their non-compliant colleagues to abide by the regulations unless they subscribe to the motto ¨different strokes for different folks〃.
While teething issues are expected from an untested government, there is no compromise when it comes to issues relating to rule of law, transparency and governance.
When something as elementary and rudimentary as staff hiring is a tangled mess of bureaucracy and controversy, it reflects poorly on the minister, the ministry and the government as a whole.
If it is true in some cases the civil servants are frustrating these appointments, why are they allowed to hold the government to ransom?
How are you going to discharge your responsibilities to the rakyat effectively if your own house is in shambles?
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