Noor Farida Ariffin, a former ambassador to the Netherlands, said politicians usually did not understand the work of a diplomat.
“When a politician is appointed as ambassador, most of the work in the embassy will fall on the diplomatic officers. The politician will attend only to programmes where they are needed, such as networking.
“Many of them have no experience (in handling diplomatic duties) and this will burden the embassy’s staff,” she said when contacted by FMT today.
Yesterday, Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said the ministry would no longer appoint politicians as ambassadors.
He said future appointments would follow existing procedures set by Wisma Putra.
Among the politicians appointed by the previous government as ambassadors affected by the new policy are the envoys to Indonesia and the Vatican City.
The contract for former Malaysian ambassador to Indonesia, Zahrain Mohamed Hashim, was terminated four months ahead of the actual date in October.
Malaysian envoy to Vatican City Bernard Dompok, meanwhile, was reported to have returned to Malaysia following instructions from Wisma Putra.
Another former ambassador, Yeop Adlan Che Rose, who served in Mexico, said the foreign ministry should only send trained people to become ambassadors.
“Individuals without the necessary training will cause problems. We do have individuals in the country with experience in many different fields who can be tapped to become diplomats.
“We just have to find them and make the selection,” he said.
Yeop said for someone without the required training to be picked as a diplomat, the person would have to have extraordinary talent.
“They could be from industries, universities or any other relevant sector but possess the necessary expertise,” he added.