KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government had a staggering 234 political appointments placed in numerous federal statutory bodies (FSBs) in his short 13-month stint as prime minister, latest data from the Pantau Kuasa tracking website revealed.
The figure transcends the total number of political appointments made by any of his three predecessors, according to the site under the initiative of think tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas).
It eclipses even the combined number of appointments made under the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s administrations, which respectively recorded 72 and 139, and is also higher than the 233 during Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s premiership.
In a statement today, Ideas said based on the latest data, of the 234 appointments under Ismail Sabri, 115 were retained from the previous administration while as many as 119 new entries were identified.
Unsurprisingly, Umno dominated the number of political appointments, with 52 being retained from Muhyiddin’s era and 61 newly appointed after Ismail Sabri took office.
Bersatu and PAS also saw a high number of retention, with 28 and 11 respectively. Of the new appointments, Bersatu trails in second place behind Umno with 19, followed by Parti Bangsa Malaysia (15), PAS (7) and MCA (5).
Describing the increase in the number of political appointments for FSBs as worrying, Ideas chief executive officer Tricia Yeoh said this indicates possible political compromises that had to be made by the prime minister to serve the interests of various parties within the coalition and to maintain the federal government stability.
However, she said having an abundance of political figures within FSBs, amid the country's recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and transition into endemicity, only brings into question the due diligence aspect of the appointment processes.
With Parliament now dissolved and the federal polls set to be held by early next month, Yeoh has urged any new government that comes into power to proceed with caution in any post-election appointments.
“Given what this research reveals, it is imperative that all political parties pledge to minimise political appointments as part of their election manifestos.
“The post-election landscape must see a reduction of unnecessary political appointments, especially if we are to see better-governed businesses,” she said.
Yeoh added that it would only serve the best interest of all Malaysians to see greater commitment from the government to resist pressure from political parties to reward loyalty with positions.
“Ideas looks forward to continuing its existing Pantau Kuasa work, providing more analysis on monitoring the executive branch, and to potentially further expand its scope to also cover appointments in government-linked companies and government-linked investment companies in the near future.”
Today’s revelation lends further credence to claims of internal pressure on Ismail Sabri throughout his premiership from the various components within the government.
He had also claimed that his decision to dissolve Parliament last week was largely influenced by instability. – The Vibes, October 18, 2022
