Edmund Terence Gomez said the government should not have appointed an Umno politician to head one of the most important government-linked companies (GLCs) in the country.
“We don’t know whether this was done in good faith or if this was done because of political reasons,” he said during a forum titled “Corruption as an economic problem” here.
Asyraf’s appointment as Mara chairman has come under criticism from opposition MPs as well as electoral watchdog Bersih, which questioned if the government had changed its stance on political appointments to GLCs.
Touching on political protection, Gomez said former finance minister Daim Zainuddin was called out in connection with the Pandora Papers after the unity government came to power.
“But we have to ask why Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (Umno president) and Tengku Zafrul Aziz (former finance minister) were not called out as their names were also in the Pandora Papers.
“So this raises a question whether there’s been an element of selective investigation. This is something we have got to think about,” he said.
In February, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim instructed the relevant authorities to continue their probe into individuals named in the Pandora Papers, which linked several prominent Malaysians to offshore tax havens.
Anwar told the Dewan Rakyat that agencies like the police, the national anti-financial crime centre, Bank Negara Malaysia, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Inland Revenue Board had been updating him on the progress of their investigations.
The Pandora Papers refer to the millions of leaked documents put together by an international consortium of investigative journalists and made public in October 2021.
They allegedly reveal offshore accounts of present and past leaders, including presidents, prime ministers, billionaires and prominent business people.
The data leak was the biggest of its kind and involved nearly 12 million documents and other records from offshore service providers who help set up and manage shell companies around the world.
Besides Daim, Tengku Zafrul and Zahid, other Malaysians named in the Pandora Papers included PKR’s Selayang MP William Leong and the parents of fugitive financier Low Taek Jho (or Jho Low).
We are live on Telegram, subscribe here for breaking news and the latest announcements.