FAQ

The appointment of people that hold the following positions as chairman or director of Federal Statutory Bodies and Government-Linked Companies.

Legislative Position: current and former Members of Parliament (MP), Members of State Legislative Assembly (ADUN) and Members of Dewan Negara (Senator)

Executive Position: current and former Federal Ministers, Chief Ministers and state executive council members (EXCO)

Political Party Position: current and former members of the party executive committees at the national, state, division or sub-division level, including the executive committees of party wings, and regular party members.

Pantau Kuasa dataset does not include politically-connected individuals who do not hold any of the positions listed above.

Many federal statutory bodies own subsidiary companies which are considered government-linked companies (GLCs). Majority ownership over the GLCs enables federal statutory bodies board members to influence decisions over key matters in GLCs including appointment of GLC board members. Therefore, we aim to first understand the extent of political appointments in federal statutory bodies before moving to GLCs.

Another consideration is the availability of primary data. Statutory Bodies are required by law to table annual financial statements and reports to the Parliament. We rely on these reports to track political appointments.

We plan to eventually include political appointments in GLC in Pantau Kuasa soon. Do check the site from time to time for the latest update.  

Statutory bodies are incorporated by parliamentary legislation, while GLCs are incorporated under the Companies Act. Statutory bodies have the power to sign contracts, own, acquire, and hold assets. They may also own subsidiary companies, which we know today as GLCs. Statutory bodies are sometimes referred to as public enterprises or government agencies.

Check out this insight for more details!

Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, the 6th Prime Minister has been in office for 9 years and 1 month, from April 2009 until May 2018. Our data tracks from 2015 until 2018 (about 3.5 years)

Tun Mahathir Mohamad, the 7th Prime Minister held the position for 22 months, from May 2018 until March 2020.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the 8th Prime Minister served for only 17 months, from March 2020 until August 2021.

Dato' Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, the 9th Prime Minister served for only 15 months, from August 2021 until October 2022.

Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as the 10th and current Prime Minister of Malaysia on 24 November 2022.

Note that Dato’ Seri Najib’s administration is longer thus this affects the number of political appointments under his administration, as it includes changes in board members over more years.

You can see the most number of political appointments happened under 9th PM Dato' Sri Ismail Sabri's era, followed by 6th PM Dato' Seri Naijb Razak's era, then by 8th PM Tan Sri Muhyiddin 's era. 7th PM Tun Mahathir Mohamad's era had the least amount of political appointments.

To view the appointments by political parties, click on the visualization tab. If you wish to see a specific appointment by person, ministries, or statutory body, you can find them through the navigation bar at the top.

All information on the board of directors is retrieved from the annual report of the Federal Statutory Bodies (FSBs) from 2015 until 2024 and the respective FSBs official website. 

Information on resignation and new appointments are also taken from reliable news sources.

The last update was in August 2024. We are planning to update the website annually.

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You can check out IDEAS publications and recommendations on GLC on our website here.