September 30, 2020 (PN)
Money politics and patronage are rife in Malaysia.
After the political putsch in February 2020 to secure power from the former Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin proceeded to reward Perikatan Nasional (PN) loyalists with positions in government-linked companies (GLCs) with well-paid salaries and good perks.
The four companies on Bursa, with politicians as chairmen, are among the largest by market value on the stock exchange to dole out substantial sums for vendor programmes.
They are Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, Boustead Holdings Bhd and Sime Darby Plantation Bhd.
As such, Bumiputera firms with deep political ties are eyeing lucrative deals from these GLCs helmed by these politicians from the current ruling coalition.
Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, in undermining concerns, claimed that political appointments serve as a “check and balance” to ensure GLCs toe the government line.
On the contrary, a fund manager opposed this view, stating instead that the rich political ties within GLCs would instead weaken the governance structure of the board and have politicians override the independence of individual directors to advance their party’s political interests.
Focus Malaysia had stated in May that ‘while there had been nothing explicit mentioned in the law to prohibit politicians from holding posts in GLCs, conflicts could potentially arise between the appointees’ fiduciary duties to the organisation and their political leanings’, reported Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group (MSWG) CEO Devanesan Evanson.
At the same time, political economy specialist, University Malaya’s Professor Dr Edmund Terence Gomez also told the same media organisation that such a move to reward politicians with GLCs was uncalled for as the country still has to overcome the Covid-19 crisis.
“The prime minister by his own admission had said that the government would utilise GLCs to mitigate the economic impact of Covid-19 and one case in point was the discount offered by Tenaga Nasional Bhd for a six-month period. By extension, the government strengthened its control on some GLCs by appointing MPs under its umbrella to boards,” he said.
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