WE refer to our statement titled GE15: Yeo Bee Yin’s nomination in Puchong, a grave concern for conflict of interest of major proportions, issued yesterday.
When preparing this statement, C4’s review of the 2022 Annual Report of the IOI Properties Group Bhd (IOIPGB) indicated that the company has vast business interests in Puchong.
Yeo, however, brought to our attention that IOIPGB’s business interests were in the Puchong constituency until the redelineation exercise in 2018.
Since then, these areas were situated in adjoining parliamentary constituencies.
However, we remain perturbed by the fact that although IOIPGB’s vast business interests may be cut out from the Puchong constituency, this company has had a major presence in neighbouring constituencies and in other parts of Klang Valley.
C4 also stresses that our core concern in our statement remains, specifically, that of the disconcertingly close nexus between politics and business in Malaysia.
In C4’s recent report, Business in Politics, we highlighted the following concerns when election candidates with strong business ties enter public office:
1. How will politicians with business links vote in Parliament on matters that do not serve the interests of companies linked to them?
2. How will politicians with business links shape budget debates if companies associated with them are unfavourably affected by government programmes?
3. How will politicians with business links vote on environmental-related policies, including those related to property development?
4. How will politicians with business links discuss social benefits for employees and an appropriate minimum wage?
While we meant no malice or harm to Yeo, we would like to invite her to offer a response to these matters of public interest and engage in open conversations pertaining to her relationship with IOIGB Group Bhd.
Ultimately, political parties must remain vigilant in ensuring that the circumstances giving rise to the expansion of the business-political nexus are limited as much as possible, especially if those parties are campaigning on an anti-corruption and reformist agenda. – The Vibes, November 7, 2022
The Centre to Combat Corruption & Cronyism (C4 Centre) is a non-partisan and a non-profit entity advocating good and clean governance in Malaysia
A rebuttal to C4 Centre's claims has been made by Selangor’s Kinrara assemblyman Ng Sze Han as well as Yeo
