Khoo Poay Tiong (PH-Kota Melaka) said in the Dewan Rakyat that the government should listen to civil servants’ views to win their hearts for unity government initiatives.

“This (the civil service) is like a company. If we have already hired employees, but the employees do not support the employer, how can these plans and projects be carried out smoothly?” Khoo said when debating the 12MP mid-term review.

He said that the state polls’ results in Selangor, Penang, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu last month saw most army and police officers supporting Perikatan Nasional.

Thus, Khoo said, engaging civil servants would also help the unity government gain their support.

Ilham Centre’s executive director Hisommudin Bakar had previously said that according to the think tank’s research, voting patterns in last month’s state elections showed that civil servants were more supportive of PN.

He said that judging from their interviews, the civil servants were still mentally trapped in PN chairman Muhyiddin Yassin’s era, when he was prime minister from 2020 until 2021.

Meanwhile, in an episode of the “Keluar Sekejap” podcast, former Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan said that PN’s selection of former civil servants as election candidates reflected the strong support establishment members had for the opposition coalition.

He said the trend was evident from the voting patterns of the police and military servicemen, and from PN’s success in winning the Putrajaya parliamentary seat from Barisan Nasional.