[4][7][8] Although most special envoys have been appointed with ministerial rank, the salaries drawn have varied depending on portfolio.

The appointment of special envoys during the Barisan Nasional (BN) tenure was met with repeated accusations of unnecessary government expenditure due to the high salaries of these appointees.

[28] When the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition came to power, all previously appointed special envoys had their tenures cut short.

[6] Nonetheless, the PH eventually appointed a single special envoy, albeit without ministerial rank,[5] when Tan Kok Wai was announced as special envoy to the People's Republic of China and concurrently as chairperson of the Malaysia-China Business Council (MCBC) in August 2018.

[29] The then-Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Saifuddin Abdullah, commented that the role of the special envoy would be to "complement" that of the ambassador in specialised areas.