Need for transparent political financing: Don

> UM professor says govt should start GLC reform agenda by enacting laws on this and set up independent review committee

KUALA LUMPUR: The government should kick off its agenda to reform government-linked companies (GLCs) by enacting laws that promote transparency in the financing of political parties.

“This is important because you can see a link here, where the board of directors are getting money which may be going into party coffers. It’s those kinds of issues that we need to look at very carefully and put a stop to.

“The most important thing is transparency and disclosure about the sources of financing of parties. That is the fundamental thing that we need to address,” University of Malaya professor of political economy Edmund Terence Gomez ( pix) told reporters at the launch of the “Malaysia GLC Monitor 2018 – Government in Business: Diverse Forms of Intervention” report yesterday.

Gomez, who authored the report with his team of students, applauded the new government on reforms implemented, such as the devolution of power, whereby key institutions such as the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission and the Election Commission are placed under the control of Parliament. “But now we need a new law, a new legislation on political financing, to look into this matter properly, to check all the loopholes so that there is greater transparency in terms of who is financing the parties,” he said. The report, which reveals the involvement of Cabinet ministers and state governments in GLCs, calls for the establishment of an independent GLC review committee to undertake an assessment of all GLCs in the country, essential towards promoting the right type of policies to reform the economy. The report is a follow up on Gomez’s book entitled “Minister of Finance Incorporated: Ownership and Control of Corporate Malaysia” that was published in August last year. “I was quite surprised about the silence of Pakatan Harapan on the book, considering that they were making a big hue and cry about 1MDB, and 1MDB is a GLC. And the book is about Minister of Finance Incorporated which is one of the key companies involved in the 1MDB scandal. The question then arose, why is it that even they have not spoken about this?” he questioned.

Gomez said a possible reason could be that the then opposition also had control of GLCs in states such as Selangor and Penang, hence the reluctance to discuss GLCs despite Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad referring to the GLC system as a “monster” and linking it to political financing.

“GLCs are closely linked with public policies, therefore we call on the government to set up a review committee to look into this monster and get it right,” he said.

Gomez also called for transparency in the current government’s divestment of assets, including disclosures on asset transfers from various ministries to the Economic Affairs Ministry.

“They should tell us. Has there been any disclosure about which ministries control which GLCs?

“Why aren’t they telling us which ministries have charge of which GLC? I would like to know,” he said, adding that GLCs are key players in the economy and also deal with many social issues.

Gomez said any divestment must be preceded with proper research and the divestment process must be transparent to avoid selective distribution of assets and wealth concentration in the hands of the minority.

He\ added that divestments should be done via open tender to ensure that private investors who are taking over government equity have the capacity and financing to develop the assets and companies.