JOHOR BARU: The Foreign Minister should shoulder the responsibility over the lack of coordination during the Prime Minister’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), says Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

       The Umno vice-president said what happened to Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob was regrettable but putting the blame entirely on two Malaysian diplomats was unprofessional.

       “Blaming everything on our diplomats is very unprofessional. The Foreign Minister should take responsibility for everything that happens.

       “He forgot that he is the one who leads Wisma Putra,” said the former Johor mentri besar in a Facebook post on Tuesday (April 12).

       He noted the Prime Minister, on his inaugural visit to the Middle Eastern country, did not deserve to go through what he went through.

       “Wisma Putra failed to ensure that he was given the honour in accordance with his position.

       “UAE itself is a very welcoming country and of course, if we used all the resources and strength of our friendship network with them, such an incident would not happen,” he said.

       He added the failure to plan and manage such an important visit was very embarrassing.

       Meanwhile, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah must take full responsibility for the failure to ensure proper protocol was in place for the Prime Minister's United Arab Emirate visit.

       The former foreign minister said Saifuddin could have handled the situation better and should have held an internal investigation before ordering the recall of the two diplomats.

       "As a minister, Saifuddin should have taken full responsibility. I personally would have handled the situation differently and would have urged the internal investigation to be done first," said the Parti Cinta Sabah president who was foreign minister from 2008-2018.

       “Even though Wisma Putra has issued a statement stating that such a recall was nothing out of the ordinary due to their failure to coordinate administrative and logistic matters during the Prime Minister’s visit to the UAE, they should not have recalled the diplomats in haste.

       "I have my doubts about such senior and experienced diplomats overlooking important details especially when it involves our Prime Minister,” said Anifah.

       Normally, Anifah said that prior to an official visit by the Prime Minister to a foreign country, thorough preparations involving the Foreign Minister would have to be made.

       “The Foreign Minister should arrive before the Prime Minister to ensure that the necessary preparations were made on site.

       “This is a major embarrassment for our country, and a minister is always responsible for any shortcomings of the ministry," he said in a statement Tuesday (April 12).

       He said recalling the diplomats would reflect badly on the nation as it would be deemed as incapable of organising something as common as a visit of a head of government.

       The officers in Wisma Putra are all experienced and those selected to be heads of mission are usually top diplomats and have years of experience under their belts, he added.

       “Incidents like this rarely happen and even if it did happen, it could have been prevented had the Foreign Minister been in the UAE beforehand to personally oversee the preparations for the Prime Minister’s visit," he said.

       "The Foreign Minister must be there before the PM's arrival as it is part of the job of a Foreign Minister and if he failed to be there, he should not have agreed to or ordered the recall of the two diplomats,” Anifah added.

       On Monday (April 11), two senior Malaysian diplomats in the UAE were ordered home because they had allegedly failed to coordinate administrative and logistic matters during the Prime Minister’s visit to the country last month.

       Wisma Putra said the Malaysian ambassador to the UAE as well as the consul-general in Dubai failed to handle tasks as per the standard operating procedure for high-ranking visits overseas, especially during Ismail Sabri’s arrival in Dubai on March 29.

       “The failure resulted in the Prime Minister having to wait long at the normal arrival hall for passport and immigration clearance.

       “Also, there was no security coverage such as a motorcade that should have been provided for the Prime Minister,” Wisma Putra said in a statement.