Graft-fighter Gomez calls for public scrutiny of GLC web

 

Economist Edmund Terence Gomez says reforming the GLC ecosystem reduces the amount of ‘dark money’ in the political system.

PETALING JAYA: 

The web of government-linked companies must be subject to public scrutiny if there is to be meaningful reform in the war against corruption, according to a new book by Edmund Terence Gomez, a prominent economist and anti-corruption activist.

Gomez writes that the opacity of the GLC ecosystem allowed governing elites to create public concessions and move them around without any transparency and accountability.

Doing away with such a lack of transparency will keep politicians accountable during the distribution of public concessions, he writes in his book “Misgovernance: Grand Corruption in Malaysia”.

Reforms to the GLS ecosystem are needed because in countries plagued by systematic corruption, politicians in power are known “to be extremely proactive” in creating and distributing concessions through public policies.

The book “Misgovernance: Grand Corruption in Malaysia” by political economist Edmund Terence Gomez is available at majorbookshops.

“This is particularly disconcerting in the context of Malaysia because a core component of public policy implementation and rent distribution is a GLC infrastructure that connects the corporate sector and the political system,” Gomez writes.

Such reforms would also reduce the amount of “dark money” in the political system, he said.

Dark money is defined as funds raised to influence elections by organisations that are not required to disclose identities of their donors.

Gomez says Putrajaya must publicise its role when promoting economic and corporate development via its business-related institutions. Such publicity would prevent public concessions from being channelled to well-connected companies, party members and the electorate in strategic constituencies, he said.

“This is obligatory to dispel concerns that the resources in the GLCs are expended to fund the party machinery,” he writes.

Reform of the GLC ecosystem could also curb “clientelism”, or the selective allocation of public resources in exchange for political support.

Gomez describes clientelism as another form of grand corruption, comprising the presence of high-level public officials, and the abuse of power, leading to the appropriation of public resources to accumulate wealth.

“Malaysia’s long list of controversial state-business relations features these trends,” Gomez writes. - FMT

“Misgovernance: Grand Corruption in Malaysia” is on sale at MPH and Kinokuniya, Eslite, Tsutaya and Gerakbudaya bookshops.