An online portal reported today that Tun Faisal was also sore because of the government’s decision to dissolve JASA. — Bernama pic

KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Special Affairs Department (JASA) director Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz has blamed Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) manifesto for Putrajaya’s austerity measures, including the Cabinet’s wage cut.

He said the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government had not needed to cut down on civil servants and even managed to give raises.

“What choice does [Dr Mahathir] have? The government doesn’t have any money because of their irrational promises during the GE14.

“Malaysia has not been saved but things have gone worse because they are implementing the wrong policies,” he said in a tweet on his account, citing Malay Mail’s article on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s announcement earlier today.

Dr Mahathir had reduced Cabinet members’ pay by 10 per cent, replicating a similar step he took in 1981.

The pay cut appeared designed to reinforce his previous revelation that Malaysia was over RM1 trillion in debt due to the excesses and abuses of the defeated BN administration.

“A RM1 trillion debt is not a concrete excuse. From the total of external debt, the government debt is less than 3 per cent.

“The government had debts before too, but there was no need to reduce the number of civil servants. They could even raise their wages. The main reason was PH’s election promises were unrealistic,” he claimed.

Online portal Free Malaysia Today reported today that Tun Faisal was also sore because of the government’s decision to dissolve JASA, claiming those who had been sacked were being “victimised”.

Tun Faisal claimed that not all JASA staff were political appointees, and they earned between RM2,000 and RM4,000 per month each, while the previous director-general had earned RM20,000.

“If the new administration wants to sack political appointees I can understand, it’s okay, but we have 850 contract staff who are non-political appointees and 300 staff who are permanent civil servants. It’s not right to victimise them,” he reportedly said.

“If you want to sack those political appointees linked to Umno, it is fine, but not the other civil servants.”