Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz has spoken up on allegations of conflict of interest that stemmed from purported family ties with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, pointing out a connection involving three marriages.
Given the distant ties, Zafrul said it does not make him a related party under corporate governance guidelines, despite claims of nepotism raised following his initial appointment to join Muhyiddin's cabinet earlier their year.
"Can you please elaborate on how am I related through marriage to the prime minister?" Zafrul said when quizzed about the matter in an interview with business radio station BFM this morning.
Shortly after Zafrul's appointment, an analyst who is part of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's team, speaking on condition of anonymity, had told Malaysiakini that family ties would allow Muhyiddin to exercise considerable influence on Zafrul.
The analyst had pointed out that Zafrul is related to Muhyiddin's family through his younger brother Tengku Zuhri Abdul Aziz, a former Umno Youth exco leader who unsuccessfully contested for a supreme council position in the 2018 party polls.
Zuhri is married to Fara Nadia Abd Rahim, whose elder sister Fara Ikma Abd Rahim is married to Muhyiddin's eldest son Fakhri Yassin.
"How many marriages is that? Through three marriages," Zafrul said.
He further pointed out that the Security Commission's governance code's definition of related parties did not extend to such connections.
"How is a relative through three marriages a related party transaction? Not related.
"Let me put it this way, if you are me, in a board, will you declare yourself conflicted because you are, through three marriages, somehow connected?" said the former CIMB chief executive officer.
In the interview, Zafrul also denied claims of personal political ambitions, including allegations that he had set up three Umno branches during his time as a corporate banker.
"I am not involved in setting up any Umno branches, I am not a member of any political party, and I am not interested, for now, to join any political party.
"The focus of why I am here is to help stimulate the economy towards the path of recovery," he stressed. - FMT
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