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In recent days, Ahmad Zahid - who is also the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) president - has come out to defend the public sector appointments of senior UMNO officials.
He stressed that only those with the right skills were picked for the roles, including the appointment of UMNO secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki as Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) chairman.
According to Free Malaysia Today (FMT), Ahmad Zahid said on Mar 14 that all political appointments to the government-linked companies were subject to scrutiny by the unity governments secretariat. The secretariat is led by Mr Asyraf.
Mr Asyrafs appointment at MARA was slammed in March by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih). The group had also criticised the appointment of Balik Pulau MP Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik as MyCreative Ventures chairman.
FMT reported that Bersih chief Thomas Fann had called for a clear framework to be established when it came to appointing individuals in government-linked companies, even if it involved politicians who were not elected representatives.
According to the Malay Mail, over 230 political appointments were made to government-linked companies from Aug 2021 to Sep 2022 under the Ismail Sabri administration. Of these, 119 appointments were new while the remaining 115 were retained from the previous government led by Muhyiddin Yassin.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2023 at 8:18 am