PUTRAJAYA -- The loyalty of civil servants such as administrative and diplomatic officers and police and military personnel to the government should not be up to the point of complying with directives contrary to the law, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
If government officers found that the task entrusted to them was clearly wrong or criminal in nature, they should not comply with the instruction, he said.
"You don’t have to follow all orders, just those that come in accordance with government policies,” he said at a town hall session for about 3,500 administrative and diplomatic officers (PTD) here.
The session was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Cabinet ministers and the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa.
“If, as the Prime Minister, I order you to kill someone, would you do it? There’s a difference between an instruction in accordance with certain policies and an order to commit a crime,” he said, Bernama reported.
Dr Mahathir said it was wrong if a government officer received an instruction to commit a crime, such as the concealing of criminal evidence.
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