RENOWNED economist Prof Edmund Terrence Gomez has lashed out at the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government by saying that the one-year old government is no different from the old Barisan Nasional (BN) administration when it comes to political financing and patronage.

Speaking at the dialogue on National Challenges in New Malaysia yesterday, the author of countless books compared how the country was run by BN and how it is being administered by PH now.

“Today we have eight different political parties in control of the state government. They control it in the same way, via patronage networks.

“There is no political will from the part of the parties to break this system that will perpetuate the financing of politics, patronage will not allow us to bring along the reforms that we really need to help people, especially the poor,” Gomez said.

“This system must be reformed but there is no political will to do it. Let me ask you this, has there been any change (on reforms on political funding and patronage). You have looked at the data and you ask yourselves, are they any different?”

Gomez showed to the audience on his findings on political appointments on state owned government-linked companies (GLC).

“Here is the Selangor state government under PKR. Look at the number of companies they control and look too, who are the directors. Penang state under DAP. Same figures, look at the politicians who sit as directors in the GLCs.

“To be fair, Umno, Johor same case. PAS, even PAS,” said the academic, referring to the appointments of politicians on state-owned GLCs.

In June, Gomez called for state governments to dissolve their respective investment arms, the Menteri Besar Inc (MBI) and Chief Minister Inc (CMI).

He said state governments should instead utilise their respective state economic development corporation (SEDC), which is more transparent, accountable and in coordination with the federal government.

“We said politicians should not lead GLCs, but we keep on hearing that politicians are appointed as directors of the GLCs,” he had said during the Malaysian Economic Convention 2019, where he was one of the panellists.

Gomez from the Faculty of Economic and Administration of Universiti Malaya also questioned the reform promises made by PH prior to their election victory on May 9 last year.

“Can we expect change? Where is the political financing reform act? They have been telling us to be patient but I am worried that they are not going to give us this act.

“Where is the reform in GLCs? Will they reform GLCs, they will not reform the GLCs. Why? Let me tell you. We wrote a book called Minister of Finance Incorporated. We showed clear data on how GLCs are being controlled and this is why Najib Razak didn’t want to give up control or privatise these firms. (It is) Enormous power.

“After we finished the book we gave it to Dr Mahathir Mohamad, to Pakatan Harapan. We thought they were going to use the book and tell the people this was what Najib was doing. But they didn’t say a word. Why would they refuse to talk on this?,” he asked.

Gomez also said both BN and PH are using the Bumiputera policy to consolidate support from them.

“I tried approaching people from PH and BN to tell them that there is a need to review the new economic policy (NEP) because that is what divides us. The answer I received from both sides were similar. If we talk about it, we will lose the Bumiputera support.

“This is what we are dealing with right now,” he shrugged.

Yesterday’s event was attended by Minister at the Prime Minister’s Department P. Waythamoorthy. Others who spoke were Prof Tajuddin Rasdi, Mohd Shariff Kassim, Reverend Julian Leow, Eddin Khoo and Prof Medelin Berma. – July 14, 2019.