Before the general election in 2018, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition promised to reform governance of government-linked companies (GLCs). These reforms included ensuring that the appointment of members of these boards of directors would be made based on merit, not on political considerations.

These were important pledges because Najib Razak, in his dual role as Prime Minister and Finance Minister, had effective control over government-linked investment companies (GLICs) which had majority equity ownership of a broad range of commercial enterprises. This concentration of political and corporate power in the hands of the Prime Minister had contributed to serious abuse of public institutions to advance the political interests of his party, UMNO, in key parliamentary constituencies while also contributing to serious corruption.