Former FGV chairman Tan Sri Isa Samad and his wife, Puan Sri Bibi Sharliza Mohd Khalid, arrive at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s headquarters in Putrajaya June 21, 2017. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 ― The government should stop treating appointments to key positions in companies linked to them as a game of musical chairs, a civil society group urged today.

Centre For A Better Tomorrow (Cenbet) expressed concern over the government’s latest decision to move Tan Sri Isa Samad from his chairmanship of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad (FGV) to temporary stewardship of the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) pending investigations into allegations of improprieties within the oil palm giant.

“Appointments to key positions in government agencies and GLCs should not be treated as a game of musical chairs.

“Such a practice will send out a wrong message about public accountability,” it said in a statement calling for the government to review this practice, especially when it involves “controversial personalities”.

Cenbet also urged Isa to consider turning down the job pending the completion of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation into allegations of power abuse raised by suspended FGV chief executive Datuk Zakaria Arshad.

“Such a move is not an admission of guilt. On the contrary, it would demonstrate his commitment to upholding integrity and good governance ― values which CENBET promotes,” it said, stressing that those holding key positions in bodies which dealt with public funds and had statutory powers “must not only be upright and accountable, but be seen to be so”.

Isa, 68, and his wife Puan Sri Bibi Sharliza Mohd Khalid, 47, were both questioned by the MACC in Putrajaya yesterday.

Cenbet’s view was shared by DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang who similarly called on the government to stop its GLC “musical chairs” practice.

The Gelang Patah MP claimed Isa’s appointment to SPAD to be unpopular with all levels of society, from Umno’s rank-and-file and even the commission’s first chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar whom he was replacing.

“The least Isa could do to end the charade of his appointment as SPAD Chairman is for him to decline the appointment as SPAD Chairman, pending inquiry into his stewardship of FELDA and FGV, which resulted in the loss of tens of billions of ringgit for the 100,000 Felda settlers.

“This would in fact be the greatest national service Isa could render the country,” Lim said in a separate statement today.

He questioned Isa’s suitability and qualification to be SPAD chairman where he would be in charge directly or indirectly of the government’s RM55 billion East Coast Rail Line project, the RM60 billion KL-Singapore High-Speed Rail , RM28 billion MRT Line and the RM20 billion MRT Circle Line projects with the FGV controversy still hanging over the latter.