Political appointees axed with immediate effect

The contracts of all chairpersons and board members made through political appointments in government-linked firms and bodies will be terminated with immediate effect.

In a text message to Malaysiakini this afternoon, a minister confirmed the cabinet’s decision.

“True,” the minister replied when asked to comment on a Malaysian Insight report quoting a letter by Chief Secretary to the Government Mohd Zuki Ali regarding the matter.

The letter stated that the cabinet made the decision during its meeting yesterday.

Those whose contracts are terminated included political appointments to federal statutory bodies, government-linked companies (GLCs), Finance Ministry (Incorporated) companies, government-linked investment companies (GLICs) and key institutions.

Increase in appointments during ex-PM’s tenure

Meanwhile, the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) noted that there was an increase in political appointees within federal statutory bodies (FSBs) during former premier Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s tenure, reported Malaysian Insight.

According to Ideas, 234 such appointments had been carried out from August 2021 to September 2022. Among that, 119 were new entries while 115 had been maintained from the previous Muhyiddin Yassin-led government.

The think-tank said Umno dominated the number of politicians retained in federal statutory bodies with 52 appointments while Bersatu had 28 appointments and PAS 11.

More than half of the new appointments were said to have come from Umno (61), followed by Bersatu (19), Parti Bangsa Malaysia (15), PAS (seven) and MCA (five).

Of the 133 federal statutory bodies, 72 (54 percent) bodies had been directly affected by the appointments. This involved 22 out of 27 ministries (81 percent) during Ismail Sabri’s tenure.

The ministries with the highest volume of political appointments were in higher education (10), rural development, transport, agriculture and food industries (eight each), and plantation industries and commodities (seven).

Ideas claimed that the Cooperative Institute of Malaysia saw the largest number of appointments on its board of directors, with 10 recognisable political figures.

It also found that 56 federal statutory bodies are highly susceptible to political influence due to the clear affiliation of their chairperson with political parties, or are either former MPs, assemblypersons or senators.

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