COMMENT | Less than three weeks after coming into power, the Pakatan Harapan government and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim appeared to deliver on one of its most prominent pre-election pledges: ending political appointments. Long said to be a “little extra income” for party affiliates, supporters, hangers-on, and sycophants, such appointments were extended to civil servants - past and present. Little by little, political appointments returned. By May the following year, Umno leader Reezal Merican Naina Merican was made Matrade chairperson. His was among a series of political appointments involving...