YOURSAY | When overseas trips are more 'lawatan' than 'belajar'

YOURSAY | “Do those who were to take part in the junket have the ability to understand what they were to study?”

COMMENT | Why protect those who planned, approved Berlin junket?

Oct: These overseas trips by privileged government staff, government-linked companies (GLC) and government-linked investment companies (GLICs) are nothing compared to the trips made by all the previous prime ministers starting from Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Just review the overseas trips made by former prime ministers Najib Abdul Razak, Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri Yaakob as well as Mahathir when he returned to power the second time.

They started travelling abroad once they entered office, mostly trips to the Middle East.

Malaysia seems to be the only small country in the world that has the most memoranda of understanding and possibly some IOUs.

There has been no other head of state who travelled as frequently as our Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

So if Anwar is allowed to do it, then why not some privileged VVIP?

Anwar must set a good example first before simply going after these VVIPs. There should be an oversight committee to monitor and manage these overseas trips.

Koel: Thank you, veteran journalist R Nadeswaran. We need more details of these 68 government officials’ planned trip to Berlin, Germany.

The heads of this group should be fired. This amounts to irresponsible government servants stealing RM2 million of taxpayers’ money.

Ethics and integrity, anyone? The people should be told who approved this trip and which agency was involved.

More scrutiny of this department and its people is necessary to find out how else they are diddling public money.

Please keep the pressure on this group and others of the same ilk.

Open minded 2281: The new Chief Secretary to the Government Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar must take disciplinary action against those who planned the trip.

Only then will civil servants be careful in planning such trips.

It is ridiculous that Anwar, who is also the finance minister, had to stop this lawatan sambil belajar (study tour) trip.

BluePanther4725: The government should cancel all overseas study trips.

All these trips are wasting millions of taxpayers’ money and offer nothing beneficial in return to the country.

These overseas trips are free, extravagant holiday trips for politicians, government officials and their families to enjoy with taxpayers’ money.

This is massive blatant corruption. This includes the excessive number of officials accompanying our contingent of athletes to the Paris Olympics this year.

F5SPMgrad: An official visit on an overseas trip by MPs on taxpayers’ money should come with procedures as those listed below:

1. Upon invitation by the host. Not self-creation and approval by superiors and financial controllers.

2. A list of daily activities including during non-official hours.

3. Who they will meet, topics of discussion, MOU, venue, attendees and receipts of expenses detailed.

4. Trip report and results.

It should not be a fun trip with family members.

RedMarlin1833: These shenanigans will not change until those responsible are held accountable!

We keep reading year in year out of similar trips and more will be on the way.

Who is brave to bell the cat?

I guess the government is afraid that if it comes down hard, it will lose the important vote bank from one segment of society - those from the civil service.

Observer From Space: Again and again we read of corruption at the expense of the tax-paying rakyat.

Truly there is no shame and integrity in all our politicians, past and present.

Not one of them did the honourable thing to push for change and stronger enforcement against this culture.

It’s always a case of you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. Truly shameless!

OrangeJaguar9341: These “education trips”, and “seminars” at four-star hotels are back. They have been going on for a while.

I was recently at a local hotel and it was full of civil servants - three different groups from various departments. Mealtime and the pool were full of families, lots of children included.

MS: Nadeswaran, you must be naive to expect transparency from Anwar.

How many of the man’s frequent overseas trips since November 2022 were borne by taxpayers?

What has the country gained from these trips in measurable terms?

He won’t tell us which ministry officers were supposed to go on this trip and the conference or seminar they would attend.

He definitely won’t reveal the identity of the person in charge who approved this junket to Berlin.

Straightalk: It is still happening. Do those who were to take part in the junket have the ability to understand what they were to study?

Are they experts in that field of study so meaningful discussions can be conducted?

Would they ask good questions or just cursory stupid ones? Worse still, keep their mouths shut?

Existential Turd: There is more lawatan than belajar. It is more accurate to say belajar sambil melawat than lawatan sambil belajar, if indeed, there is any belajar at all.

If you ask them what they have learnt from the trip, you will probably draw a blank stare from them.

Save Our Currency: Do they share reports and what they learnt during these trips with other bodies in the country to bring more value? Will the prime minister check up on this?

Hafidz Baharom: I remember a trip arranged to somewhere in Africa to see how they dealt with rubbish - I’m still flabbergasted to this day.

RR: It is so sickening to read about these pleasure trips by government officials under the guise of study tours.

Hope the government will review these programmes.

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