The electoral watchdog also called for the Perikatan Nasional-led (PN) government to stop using leadership roles at GLCs as bargaining chips to win political support and consolidate its power.
Instead, the coalition urged the government to introduce a GLC appointment law that will put in place proper mechanisms to appoint individuals to corporate positions based on meritocracy, transparency and fairness.
“GLC appointments should be screened by bipartisan Parliamentary Select Committees (PSC) to ensure they are based on merit, and not to favour political allies,” it said.
The new law should also explicitly ban elected representatives, whether MPs or state assemblymen, from being appointed to positions in GLCs to prevent any conflict of interest in these agencies.
Bersih’s statement today follows the announcement by Umno vice-president Mohamed Khaled Nordin and Supreme Council member Razlan Rafii that they will be resigning as chairman of Boustead Holdings Berhad and board member of the Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT), respectively.
Last week, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced that Umno will be withdrawing support for the PN-led government, urging MPs and party members to resign from their positions in government and GLCs.
“The PN government must not use the position in Boustead and LTAT to fish for political support and fill the positions with their supporters again,” Bersih added.
Bersih cautioned that the practice of political appointees to GLCs has had a disastrous impact on the country’s political stability, with the collapse of the federal government and several state governments after the “Sheraton Move” in February last year.
“Such abuse of GLCs and political patronage breeds corruption and cronyism, often at the expense of the effective functioning of the GLCs with appointments to positions that are not based on merit, as in the case of former Prasarana chairman Tajuddin Abdul Rahman.”
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