IT is best to put professionals in charge of government-linked companies (GLCs) and agencies rather than politicians, opined MUDA president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.
Citing his past experience as the youth and sports minister in 2018, the Muar MP said having a board that was almost entirely free of political appointees made a difference in the performance of the ministry’s agencies.
He further noted that professionals such as senior or former civil servants and industry experts had helped him revamp the agencies.
“For example, Malaysia Stadium Corporation (MSC) was previously headed by many different politicians,” he was reported as saying after attending a forum titled “AUKU: What is the Ending?” at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) last night.
AUKU is an acronym for the University and University Colleges Act (UUCA).
“But we appointed a corporate man [Tan Sri] Tony Fernandes, who was supported by a professional board, and for the first time, MSC made a profit instead of fully relying on government subsidies.”
AirAsia head honcho Fernandes was appointed as the head of MSC in 2018 when the statutory board was making a loss of RM11 mil.
Syed Saddiq was asked to comment on the recent political appointments made by the unity government.
Recently heavy criticism was fired against the federal administration over a slew of political appointments for several agencies which civic groups had said were inconsistent with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s push for reforms and good governance practice.
However, on March 26 DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook said there are no political appointments in government-linked companies listed in Bursa Malaysia under the unity government.
Loke, who is also the Transport Minister, said in fact Anwar had informed him that he did not intend to appoint politicians to any such companies.
He also clarified that most politician appointed today did not involve GLCs but were appointed to statutory bodies. – April 14, 2023
