KOTA KINABALU: G25 Malaysia, which is a group of influential and moderate Malays, will be looking at whether race-based politics which has been plaguing the Peninsula has found a home in Sabah and Sarawak.
The civil society organisation, that plays a constructive role as the voice of moderation on religion, will also want to learn about Sabah’s unique relationship with the Federal Government and understand the harmonious co-existence of different races and religions in the State.
The group will be here next Monday for a forum which it is jointly organising with the Institute for Development Studies (Sabah) and the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4).
The forum will be on Institutional Governance and GLC Reforms. The half-day forum aims to educate the public and raise awareness of the importance of GLCs. It will engage the public in discussion and discourse on government issues surrounding GLCs and disseminating information on the objectives and role of the GLC Reform Cluster.
According to IDS Chief Executive Officer Datuk Dr Johan Ariffin Samad, who is also a G25 member, GLC reforms has been in the agenda since the rule of the previous government in numerous occasions, particularly following economic crises, with talks to end patronage, rent-seeking and corruption.
But he said the reforms were unable to materialise as the distribution of rents through federal-and state-level GLCs served as a crucial mode to consolidate political power by dispensing patronage within the ruling political parties as well as to the rural electorate.
“Since these GLCs have high degree of institutional and organisational heterogeneity, the reforms required can only be properly determined after they have been properly assessed,” he said in a statement.
The GLC Reform Cluster which was formed in January 2019 serves as a watchdog to ensure that appropriate reforms of the GLCs are being instituted. The forum, which also serves as a platform for G25 Malaysia to reach out to other states in Malaysia, will have two panel discussion sessions with two separate themes.
The first session “About G25 Understanding Sabah’s Issues Relating to Government Reforms, the Federal-State Relationship, and the Extent of Islamisation in the State” will include Tan Sri Mohd Sheriff Mod Kassim, Johan, Dr Sharifah Munirah Alatas and Collin Swee, as the row of speakers.
This session will be moderated by Dato Dr Narimah Awin.
The second session, “GLC Reforms” will be moderated by Cynthia Gabriel, and the speakers will be Sheriff, Prof Dr Edmund Terence Gomez, Dr Arnold Puyok and Jannie Lasimbang.
The forum will be held at IDS Hall, Wisma Sedia on March 25. About one hundred participants, from both public and private sectors are expected to participate in this workshop. Any inquiries can be directed to Aslina Mustapa at 088- 450 500.