COMMENT | The political wrangle surrounding FGV shows clearly the difficult environment in which this Felda subsidiary, a public listed company, has to operate as a commercial enterprise in the marketplace.

With Felda as the majority shareholder of FGV and Ministry of Finance Inc, having the “golden share" in the company, giving the government the ultimate power over the board, there is a heavy political presence that makes good corporate governance difficult to achieve.

Felda itself is highly political as it is a statutory body set up by the government 60 years ago to spearhead the country's land development and resettlement programme for the landless.

With the big government sitting on top of both the statutory body and the operating company, FGV is in a double jeopardy situation. Changing the board chairman and directors is only part of the solution.

There are other statutory bodies like Felda which have companies involved in a business. They include Mara, Risda, Felcra, Tabung Haji and State Development Corporations. The chair and board positions in these bodies are treated as political rewards for the boys. However, qualified the political appointees may be, they cannot escape the tentacles of cronyism and corruption associated with the politics of party patronage.

The government carried out the GLC Transformation Programme with the objective of introducing good corporate governance practices into the management of government-owned companies. The primary objective of the GTP is to remove ministerial control and political influence over the running of GLC companies so they can operate in a professional manner, with clear checks and balance in the decision making process at both the board as well as at the management level...