Why were PNB, Khazanah removed from MOF, asks Gomez
Addressing a hall of politicians, business leaders and foreign dignitaries in Parliament today, Edmund Terence Gomez questioned Pakatan Harapan’s management of GLCs and GLICs.
Speaking at the inaugural Malaysian Economic Symposium, the Universiti Malaya economics professor argued that GLCs and GLICs had over the years been misused to further the interests of politicians...
Addressing a hall of politicians, business leaders and foreign dignitaries in Parliament today, Edmund Terence Gomez questioned Pakatan Harapan’s management of GLCs and GLICs.
Speaking at the inaugural Malaysian Economic Symposium, the Universiti Malaya economics professor argued that GLCs and GLICs had over the years been misused to further the interests of politicians.
Before the 14th general election, Gomez recalled how Harapan had promised a slew of institutional reforms, including not allowing politicians to serve on the boards of such firms.
The coalition had also promised that the prime minister and finance minister would not be one person as had been a practice in the past under the BN administration.
“After the election, since the prime minister could not be the finance minister, what happened was that important institutions such as Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) and Khazanah Nasional Bhd, clearly the two most important GLICs in the country, were taken out (from under the Finance Ministry) and transferred to the Prime Minister’s Department.
“Why was such a decision made?” he asked.
Gomez also queried why companies and agencies previously under the Finance Ministry were transferred to a specially created Economic Affairs Ministry.
“It’s not like we don’t have enough ministries already, so why create another ministry?
Recalibrations notwithstanding, Gomez opined that government intervention into the economy through its ownership of these companies was harmful.
State GLCs only answerable to CM, MB
Gomez also extended his criticism to state governments and their management of state-level GLCs and GLICs.
In particular, he questioned whether it was prudent that some firms were answerable only to their respective chief ministers or menteris besar.
Similar to the federal level, politicians were often involved in the running of these state companies.
The Selangor government’s Menteri Besar Incorporated (MBI) had stakes in investment, education, water management, property development and tourism sectors through companies it owned.
In Penang, a similar network is found in Chief Minister Incorporated (CMI).
The Johor government has Johor Corp, while in Kelantan there is the similarly named Menteri Besar Incorporated.
During his presentation, Gomez urged the federal and state governments to offload GLCs and GLICs that were not beneficial.
“We have to look at the good, and we have to look (at) what has gone wrong... some companies are just not needed. CMI and MBI, they are political tools,” he said.
‘No political hypocrisy’
At a press conference later, parliamentary Reform and Governance Caucus chairperson Anwar Ibrahim (photo) said he disagreed that there is a problem in how GLCs and GLICs are managed.
Asked if it was political hypocrisy that important firms had been transferred to the PMD, despite Harapan’s pledge to separate the finance minister and prime minister portfolios, he also disagreed.
Anwar, however, concurred that several states saw political appointments to state-owned firms.
"We no longer practise this in the federal government, but there are problems with several states. This has been very clear in our policy," he said.
It was previously reported that Bersatu supreme council member Akhramsyah Muammar Ubaidah Sanusi was appointed as the chairperson of Mara Corporation Sdn Bhd in Jan 2019.
Another Bersatu leader, Sukiman Sarmani, was also appointed as Universiti Teknikal Mara chairperson.
The 'Malaysian Economy: Present and Future' symposium today was organised by the Backbenchers Council, the Reform and Governance Caucus and Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof.
Aside from Gomez, Bank Negara governor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus and Economic Affairs ministry deputy director-general Zakiah Jaafar also spoke at the event.
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