JAKARTA, June 29 — The chief executives or directors of government-linked companies (GLCs) under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government will be from among those who are truly professional and they will not be paid high salaries, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said here.

The prime minister said the previous (Barisan Nasional) government had put many political appointees in charge of GLCs although they lacked management capability and were paid high salaries.

GLC chief executives or directors under the PH government would not be paid high salaries but they would be rewarded with a bonus if they performed well, he said.

"We (the PH government) will look for professionals as far as possible; we will give preference to people who have experience in management,” he said to Malaysian journalists here.

Dr Mahathir, who is on a two-day official visit to Indonesia, said 17,000 political appointments had been made by the previous BN government.

"Generally, we found that these people were selected because they were party supporters but were inefficient and were paid high salaries. In the end, their management and projects failed.

"The 17,000 political appointees by the previous government included some ambassadors who have no capabilities,” he said. — Bernama