Wee: Why wasn’t Guan Eng appointed to Khazanah board?

PETALING JAYA: The Finance Minister should have also been appointed if the Government wanted to appoint politicians to Khazanah Nasional Berhad’s board of directors, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (pic).

The MCA deputy president and Ayer Hitam MP said Khazanah is fully owned by Minister of Finance Incorporated, a body incorporated pursuant to the Minister of Finance (Incorporation) Act 1957.

“Is the Finance Minister only fit to be a bookkeeper and to take care of Tabung Harapan, but not qualified enough to sit on the board of our country’s only sovereign fund?” he said.

In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday, Prime Minister Tun

Dr Mahathir Mohamad was announced as Khazanah chairman, while Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali was named as its director.

Tan Sri Mohd Hassan Marican, Dr Sukhdave

Singh and Goh Ching

Yin were also named as Khazanah’s directors.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng was not included in the list.

Dr Wee said Dr Mahathir’s appointment as Khazanah chairman showed that the Pakatan Harapan Government could not keep its promise to reduce the powers of the Prime Minister.

He also found it strange that Khazanah’s main objective had been revised by the Prime Minister to help bumiputras.

“Permodalan Nasional Berhad was supposed to play that role whereas Khazanah was supposed to be the sovereign fund for all Malaysians,” he said.

It was feared that the Government’s most lucrative assets could pass into the hands of cronies or proxies, Dr Wee said, referring to Dr Mahathir’s statement that Khazanah would eventually sell the shares it owned in profitable companies to unspecified bumiputra owners.

Dr Wee also said it was disappointing that no DAP or PKR leaders had come forward to say whether they agreed with Dr Mahathir that Khazanah was only meant for bumiputras.

Separately, MCA publicity spokesperson Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker said DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang should look at Pakatan before calling on Barisan Nasional component parties MCA and MIC to close shop.

Ti said Kit Siang had no locus standi to make such a call.

He added that Kit Siang also forgot that the Barisan candidate for the Sungai Kandis byelection, Umno’s Datuk Lokman Noor Adam, was originally from PKR.

Kit Siang, in a statement on Monday, had said MCA and MIC should close shop.

He also said MCA should also not contest in the Balakong byelection if the party’s leadership did not state whether it wanted Lokman to win or lose in Sungai Kandis.

Ti said DAP had remained silent when a fellow Pakatan party with fewer seats than DAP dominated and dictated terms of governance.

He added that it was best for Kit Siang to take a good look at his own backyard instead of interfering in the affairs of others.

This was especially so with Guan Eng’s exclusion from directorship of Khazanah when he should rightfully or inherently be on the board, he said.