Dr M: Leaders shouldn’t have skeletons in closet

(Bernama) – Aspiring politicians or leaders should not have skeletons in their closet, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

He said the people would get to know about them sooner or later.

"If any wrong has been committed, the people will get to know about it. We cannot hide it. That is why, if we want to be in politics or a leader, we must not get involve in anything that is bad," he told reporters at the 9th convocation of Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) here.

He was commenting on the controversy involving Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing over the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) issue, which he described as tarnishing the image of the government and Barisan Nasional.

"Washing dirty linen in public. It is very bad, but the opposition parties are also like that," he added.

In another development, Dr Mahathir, who is UTP Chancellor, said the government should study the statement by the Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah that premature retirement among public service officials could lead to a brain drain in the public service.

The Sultan, when opening the Malaysian Government Retirees' Association's 22nd Annual Delegates Conference at Wisma Samudera in Lumut last night, said that although the retirement age was raised to 58 in July last year, it was still a young age and constituted a loss to the public sector, especially in areas which needed intellectual inputs from experienced officers such as learning institutions, health and medical services, engineering, architecture and science .

A total of 1,169 graduates received their scrolls at the convocation. A graduate in chemical engineering, Hanisah Abdul Halim, was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Award, while Indonesian Muhammad Assad, who obtained a degree in business information technology system, received the best international bachelor's degree student award.