University of Nottingham Malaysia
School of
Media, Languages and Cultures
     
  

Access to Power - Business-in-Politics in Malaysia

Location
H1B11
Date(s)
15th November 2022
Contact
Should you have any queries, please contact Zaharom Nain.
Description
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash 

This talk will draw attention to the growing emergence of business-in-politics in Malaysia, a phenomenon which, as I shall demonstrate, takes four main forms. In identifying and delineating the characteristics and workings of this phenomenon, the talk provides crucial insights into the struggles waged by political and business elites seeking to secure control of a state where much economic power is concentrated. Case studies of parliamentarians indicate what happens when different actors, differentially positioned in politics and business, collide or collude with each other, leading to the formation of new elite networks and evolving business-politics power blocs whose composition can vary significantly. These business-politics networks appear quite divided, and often in contestation with each other, resulting in shifting alliances, the creation of new parties and coalitions, and party-hopping between coalitions. Key themes under analysis include business control mechanisms such as the use of business groups and the interactions between the corporate sector and political representation through directorships, both in private-sector firms and GLCs.

Details

Date: 15 November 2022, Tuesday
Time: 11:00 to 13:00 (GMT +8)
Location: Room H1B11  
               University of Nottingham Malaysia
               Jalan Broga 43000 Semenyih Selangor

About the speaker
Edmund Terence Gomez served as Professor of Political Economy at Universiti Malaya. He specializes in government-market relations and the linkages between politics, policies, and business development. He has also held appointments at the University of Leeds (UK) and Murdoch University (Australia) and served as Visiting Professor at Kobe University (Japan), the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and University of California (San Diego). Between 2005 and 2008, he served as Research Coordinator at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), in Switzerland. Other academic appointments include Visiting Fellowships at the Australian National University and at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Denmark.

His publications include Malaysia’s Political Economy: Politics, Patronage and Profits (Cambridge University Press, 1997), Political Business in East Asia (Routledge, 2002), Government-Linked Companies and Sustainable, Equitable Development (Routledge, 2014), Minister of Finance Incorporated: Ownership and Control of Corporate Malaysia (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017) and China in Malaysia: State-Business Relations and the New Order of Investment Flows (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2020).

School of Media, Languages and Cultures

University of Nottingham Malaysia
Jalan Broga, 43500 Semenyih
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

telephone: +6 (03) 8924 8693
fax: +6 (03) 8924 8020

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