Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak allegedly employed British personnel among his advisers known as the "fourth floor boys".

According to former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Najib turned back the clock by bringing British personnel to advise the country's leaders.

"He began to recruit his own fourth floor boys plus a number of British personnel to advise him on how to run the country.

"They also used foreign consultants costing more than RM7 billion.

"We had achieved independence in 1957 and we got rid of British advisers. We did better without them.

"Najib did not seem to believe in the Malaysian capacity to develop the country," he said in his latest blog post today.

Mahathir was alluding to the fact that Najib had emulated his predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi by employing young and ambitious advisers, who purportedly operate on the fourth floor of the Prime Minister's Office.

A key figure among Abdullah's "fourth floor boys" was allegedly his son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin, who now sits in Najib's cabinet.

Creating negative sentiments against Khairy and the "fourth floor boys" was among the instruments used by Mahathir in his campaign against Abdullah back in 2006 and 2007.

PM's new agency

Like Abdullah in the past, Mahathir said Najib would rather listen to his advisers instead of established government agencies.

"Ignoring the economic planning unit and other government departments, he set up a new agency to plan the development of the country.

"This agency was headed by a non-civil servant and the salaries of these personnel far exceed that paid to civil servants.

"The civil servants were very unhappy. In the past they on their own transformed this country from a developing country to a middle-income nation.

"Now their services, their expertise and experience are no longer needed," he said, without specifying the "new agency".

However, it is likely that he is referring to the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), which Najib established in 2009 in order to design his various "transformation programmes".

Pemandu is headed by Idris Jala, who was once one of the most highly paid corporate figures.

Mahathir also claimed that this disgruntlement had led to many civil servants going against the government.

"Some even joined the opposition after retirement and stood as candidates in elections," he said.

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