KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim denied that his administration was behind the appointment of Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz as Malaysia's next envoy to the United States (US).
He explained that Nazri's appointment was made close to a year ago and the US took about six months to confirm the former Padang Rengas Member of Parliament's appointment before he became Prime Minister last November.
"So when I came in, I had only confirmed it. Cancelling (the ambassadorship) will cause a lot of problems.
"The process of confirmation by the US took a while. When it was settled and I took over, I had only asked the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for a brief postponement of (Nazri's) appointment.
"This was because I wanted to assemble my cabinet first and I needed to inform them first," said Anwar.
The Prime Minister told this to reporters after launching Social Security Organisation's Housewife Social Security Scheme and MyFutureJobs 2023 career carnival, here today.
Anwar acknowledged the criticisms and objections hurled at his administration after news of the former Tourism, Arts and Culture minister's appointment broke.
However, he said those who had condemned the appointment should have sought clarification first.
"I can be called out but do ask first and be patient and let the Prime Minister explain without punishing (him) first," said Anwar.
On Thursday, Wisma Putra announced that Nazri had been presented with the letter of credence by Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah at Istana Negara.
However, many had questioned Nazri's appointment, among them ex-diplomats, Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin and Datuk Dennis Ignatius who described it as very bad judgement and a disappointment.
Noor Farida, the former ambassador to the Netherlands, was quoted by a local portal as saying that it was unfair and demoralising to career diplomats to be denied the opportunity to be promoted as ambassador.
Ignatius, a former Malaysian high commissioner to Canada, responded succinctly by saying: "Day by day, the PM (Anwar Ibrahim) disappoints."