SECRETARY-General Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki has called for Malaysians to offer constructive criticism of Putrajaya, saying there was nothing wrong in speaking out against the government.

He said the people deserved to be given the best public service, which meant Putrajaya needed to pay attention and consider all forms of feedback, even negative ones.

“It’s good for people to be outspoken. I hope all Malaysians will be outspoken. We must all give constructive criticism and the government must listen,” Asyraf said at a press conference at the Mara headquarters here.

The Mara chairman was responding to criticism of the unity government by Umno veteran Shahrir Samad and Supreme Council member Isham Jalil.

Shahrir had accused the Anwar Ibrahim administration of being inefficient in managing the country, while Isham had urged Putrajaya to take immediate action to mitigate the decline of the ringgit.

Earlier this month, Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi trained his guns on economy minister Rafizi Ramli over his performance as economy minister.

Rafizi later reminded the Rengit assemblyman that they were allies in the unity government, while Asyraf said Puad’s criticism was akin to “shooting ourselves in the foot”.

But Puad stood firm, saying he had the right to criticise ministers who did not perform in the interest of strengthening the government.