Chief secretary to the government Mohd Sidek Hassan's failure to reprimand Penang state development officer Nik Ali Nik Yunus for appearing at an Umno press conference should be condemned, said DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang.

NONE Lim ( left ) said Sidek should have reprimanded Nik Ali for violating the civil service code of being strictly non-partisan and apolitical.

"It is regrettable that when ‘Little Napoleons' rear their ugly heads, they are given full defence and support instead of being reprimanded and put in their proper place," he said in a statement today.

He was referring to Sidek's statement yesterday, in which he came to the defence of Nik Ali and criticised Pakatan Rakyat's Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for being "excessive" in criticising a top civil servant.

Guan Eng is involved in a war of words with Nik Ali over the federal government hand in an illegal sand mining controversy in Balik Pulau, demolition of expensive, decorative arches at the Penang Botanical Gardens and the allegation that no seat was provided for the chief minister during the launch of the Penang Hill Railway.

For this, Nik Ali blew his top at a press conference organised by Umno on July 19, calling Guan Eng biadap (rude) and bacul (gutless).

Lim warned that Sidek and Nik Ali's actions were examples of Little Napoleons who were threatening Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's Government Transformation Programme.

"However, if Little Napoleons like Nik Ali are allowed the impunity to show utter contempt for elected representatives and even an elected state government in open disregard of the civil service code to be politically neutral, impartial and civil, then this pillar of Najib's national transformation programme is being torn to shreds and smithereens, losing all public credibility and legitimacy," he said.