State firms loom over Malaysian poll despite pledge to divest

Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim, managing director of Malaysia’s UEM Land, thought it was a “match made in heaven” when his state-linked property firm bought out Sunrise, a successful property developer owned by ethnic Chinese, in 2010.

Critics, however, saw it as a sign that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s promise to roll back the state’s overbearing influence in business and dismantle policies favouring ethnic Malays was already ringing hollow less than a year after it was made.

via Business feed http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1209116/state-firms-loom-over-malaysian-poll-despite-pledge-divest