Free, fair and clean varsity student elections - foundation for nation of integrity

There are widespread and legitimate concerns that university student campus elections every year have become the training ground for the larger milieu of election corruption, abuses and money politics, whether in political parties or in national and state general elections completely against the pledge of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to create a new culture of national integrity with zero tolerance for corruption.

Already many complaints have surfaced about intimidation, vote-buying and downright unfair election practices and rules by several university authorities in the run-up to university student elections later this month or in early October.

It is most deplorable that currently the top criteria for the selection of Vice Chancellors and Deputy Vice Chancellors is not scholastic eminence or intellectual leadership but political loyalty, subservience and preparedness by hook or by crook to ensure that “pro-government” students control all student organizations, even if it means a completely submissive and servile student population devoid of critical thought or social awareness.

When the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was looking for a new President, its University Council Search and Find Committee launched a global search and short-listed 150 candidates before selecting Dr. Su Guaning – who received his early primary education in Muar in 1955. Dr. Su’s selection was unanimously supported by the University Council and also unanimously endorsed by the Academic Board of NTU, where all deans, vice deans, heads of divisions, the upper echelon of the University administration and full professors were members.

This process of searching for the best to be an university Vice Chancellor is totally alien to the Malaysian higher education culture, which operates in a most arbitrary and unacademic fashion, with the Higher Education Minister combing the civil service list for the most “politically loyal and subservient” candidate for the post.

One terrible result is not only low academic standards and morale but the gross abuses and corrupt practices which mar and disgrace university student elections every year.

The head of the Malaysian Integrity Institute, Datuk Dr. Sulaiman Mahbob, said last week that the most meaningful way to celebrate our 48th National Day is to respond to the Prime Minister’s call for towering personalities by transforming Malaysia into “a nation of integrity”.

There are enough words. The time has come to walk the talk.

Let us begin by ensuring that the forthcoming campus student elections in all the public universities are clean, free and fair, so that the universities are the seedbeds for character-building and integrity and not training ground for money politics and crooked deeds.

I call for observer teams by MPs, civil society, the National Institute of Integrity and Suhakam to ensure free, fair and clean student campus elections to build the foundation for a nation of integrity.

(3rd September 2005, Parliament)

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High drama to low farce

From high drama to low farce – all in 24 hours.

Hailed as “perhaps one of the most memorable moments of the Merdeka Day 2005 celebrations” and hogging all the front-pages, Rafidah Aziz’s hug of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad after the parade at Dataran Merdeka was applauded by several onlooking Cabinet Ministers and VIPs.

New Straits Times reported that Rafidah “sought to wipe the slate clean and turn the weeks of acrimony” between her and Mahathir over the APs issue into “yesterday’s news” with a “brief and tearful embrace”. The Sun front-paged the hugging photograph under the banner ‘Minta maaf, Tun” while The Star headlined “Rafidah hugs DR M. Then bursts into tears in public show of reconciliation”.

It was denials and clarifications 24 hours later:

• Rafidah – “I didn’t apologise, I just hugged him.”

• Mahathir – “Whether she apologised or not, hug or no hug, the problem is still the AP.”

The Star of 13th August 2005 carried the following report from Langkawi, which headlined the warning of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak: “No hugging, we’re Muslims”:

“’No hugging, please, we are Muslims’ – this was Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s message in hitting out at such actions being promoted by certain TV reality shows and programmes.

“’This is not a question of young or old people hugging. This is about religion. It is forbidden in ther religion,’ he stressed.

“Najib made these remarks when opening the Malaysia Youth Council’s 55th Annual General meeting at the Langkawi Exhibition and Exposition Centre here.

“With such reality shows attracting large audiences, he said the programmes should instead be helping spread moral values.

“”Hugging scenes are not suitable. They must sing decent songs, and must act decently,’ he said.”

Leaving aside the question whether Rafidah might be asked to resign from the Cabinet for publicly acting “indecently” and against the Islamic teaching, the more pertinent question is whether she is prepared to act in full accord with the principles of accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance.

She had cried twice over the APs imbrogio – but on both occasions for her own sake. Will she cry for the third time for Malaysians because of the long-standing AP abuses and excesses when Parliament meets and quizzes her on the issue in two weeks’ time?

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Shafie axed from Cabinet - no loss

When in early June the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi intervened in the Terence Gomez case to reverse the decision of the University of Malay Vice Chancellor to allow the eminent Malaysian academic to go on secondment on unpaid leave for a prestigious United Nations research programme in Geneva, many had hoped that there was at last light at the end of the tunnel in the protracted crisis of higher education in Malaysia – that although the road of meaningful university reforms may be long and difficult, at least the rot had been stopped.

The Professor P. Ramasamy case, where his contract of employment was arbitrarily terminated by University Kebangsaan Malaysia has however proven that the rot in the higher education system in the country had not been stopped but had become even more rotten. Cases of victimization of academics as had happened to Terence and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) vice-chancellor Prof Dr Mohamad Zohadie Bardaie continued to happen, not only just in the Ramasamy case, but also concerning two Universiti Utara Malaysia academicians, Dr Azly Rahman and Dr. Mutiara Mohamad.

In both the Terence Gomez and Ramasamy cases, I had sought to meet with the Minister for Higher Education, Datuk Dr. Shafie Salleh, but he was completely inaccessible – in this era of information technology and instant communications!

I raised the P. Ramasamy issue with the Prime Minister when I met him in Putrajaya on August 19, but nothing has happened and Ramasamy’s contract of employment had been terminated last week. May be it is not possible to expect the Prime Minister to intervene and resolve every individual issue which should have been resolved by the responsible Minister concerned.

At the "Solidarity with Dr. Terence Gomez Dinner" turned "Celebratiion with Dr. Terence Gomez dinner" in Kelana Jaya, Selangor on 13th June 2000, I had announced my intention to convene a meeting of MPs in the parliamentary meeting later in the month to establish an all-party caucus on higher education to give full support to the Prime Minister's aim to create "towering Malaysian personalities" by ending the decline of university excellence to create a world-class university system.

However, despite repeated attempts, I failed in my efforts to establish an all-party parliamentary caucus on higher education as those Barisan Nasional MPs who would normally be very vocal in their concern about quality and excellence at the tertiary level shied away from the proposal.

I suspect Shafie’s handiwork in the sabotage of the establishment of an all-party parliamentary caucus on higher education as he does not want to subject his ministry to close parliamentary scrutiny and public debate.

I for one had very high hopes in Shafie when he was appointed to the new Ministry of Higher Education immediately after the April 2004 general election and had very great sympathies for him when he was defeated in the UMNO Supreme Council election in September last year, regarding him as a professional and technocrat who had been sacrificed in the maelstrom of party politics.

I must confess that I am now completely disappointed by Shafie’s failure of leadership and vision to end the crisis of higher education in the country, as he does not seem to have any notion of the urgency for Malaysia to chart out a strategy for Malaysian universities to attain world-class standards and international recognition in the highly competitive environment of the gobalised world.

Recently, Shafie expressed the hope that in the impending cabinet reshuffle he would be retained although he had lost out in party elections last September – but I do not think Malaysians would now regard it as a great loss if he is dropped from the Cabinet altogether.

In the past two decades, many calls for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the education system, whether primary, secondary or tertiary had been made.

The time has come for the idea of a People Commission on Higher Education crisis to be seriously considered if the government is not prepared to establish a Royal Commission despite repeated calls, whether by opposition or by eminent Malaysians like former Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Musa Hitam for a world-class university system. I hope the Malaysian civil society and all sectors of the nation, including eminent educationists, could give this proposal serious consideration.

(2nd September 2005, Kuala Lumpur [forum -“Higher Education – Worsening Crisis” ])

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Wanna be born again as Malaysian in next life?

In your next life, would you want to be born a Malaysian again? How would you answer?

This was the question posed by Wa FM radio programme last evening. I said this was akin to asking whether a Malaysian would want to emigrate from the country. I would not emigrate as I believe that my battle for a better society is here. Similarly I would not think of wanting to be born a different nationality in another life.

When May 13 riots erupted in Kuala Lumpur in 1969, I was in Kota Kinabalu speaking at a huge public rally in support of the general election campaign of the independent parliamentary candidate, William Lye (who later became a Berjaya Federal Deputy Minister). Early the next morning, I was served with an eviction order by the Sabah Chief Minister, Tun Mustapha in gross abuse of the state immigration powers, but by a fluke, I escaped an attempt on my life because I missed the daily flight out of the state capital.

As the MAS at the time could not land at the Subang Airport with the imposition of the curfew in the Klang Valley, I spent three nights in Singapore monitoring developments back home.

Through phone, I was warned by party leaders and friends not to return as I was on the blacklist for detention under the Internal Security Act, but as I felt that having just been elected MP in the May 10, 1969 general election, my place must be with the people at a time of national hardships and not to become a fugitive, I flew back on May 18, 1969 when conditions were more settled and MAS could land in Subang Airport – straight into the waiting arms of the Special Branch. But this is another story. I mention it to illustrate why I do not consider emigration as an option.

I could understand, however, why tens and probably hundreds of thousands of professionals emigrated in the 70s and 80s, not to seek a better life for themselves but primarily for the sake of the educational future of their children. In Parliament in the 70s and 80s, I spoke out loud and clear deploring the short-sighted attitude of top government leaders who dismissed the brain-drain as “Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish”.

Are we on the threshold of a second “brain-drain” with the UMNO Youth call for the throwback to a NEP revival? A second “brain-drain” will be a much more Malaysian one in composition, as more and more Malays are also alienated by the oppressive and undemocratic political, religious, educational and intellectual atmosphere, the corruption and lack of accountability, transparency and good governance – most recently illustrated by the long-running but still unresolved APs scandal, which only created helicoptering AP Kings.

I have been asked whether I had been a recipient of AP – “ever” in my life. I have already given a clear answer before – No. If there are people who do not understand simple English, it is just too bad.

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Weeping Rafidah embracing Mahathir - no answer to APs scandal

A weeping Rafidah Aziz yesterday publicly embracing her former boss, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, described by Bernama as “perhaps one of the most memorable moments of the Merdeka Day 2005 celebrations”, cannot lay to rest the many unanswered questions about Approved Permits (APs) excesses and abuses for car imports during her 18 years as Minister for International Trade and Industry.

Rafidah’s emotional outbursts must have taken all by surprise as only a few days ago she was telling the world that she had put the APs controversy behind her and that she had moved on.

At the Wanita UMNO meeting in Alor Star on Sunday, Rafidah said the APs controversy was part of the “ups and downs of politics”, saying: “I am 62 years old and I entered politics when I was 22. If people want to say anything, they could”.

In Singapore on Monday for a seminar on business opportunities in Malaysia, Rafidah went out of her way to dispel the notion that AP had been taken away from her Ministry, stressing that the issuance of APs and the automotive industry are still under the jurisdiction of her Ministry – that there is “no change at all from before”. The difference now is that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is chairing a meeting of four ministers - the International Trade and Industry, Transport, the minister in charge of the Economic Planning Unit and the Second Finance Minister - to take a comprehensive look at the automotive industry.

She did not explain why she had to go abroad to declare that her Ministry is still in charge of the APs portfolio or why she chose to make her first admission that there had been abuses in the issuance of APs when she was in Singapore.

Why then did Rafidah break down on Wednesday at the National Day Celebrations? Is it related to the return of seven cars by Dr. Mahathir to Proton Bhd, which became national headline news on the eve of National Day, a strong signal that the APs issue was not going to go away as far as the former Prime Minister was concerned - which could only mean that Rafidah could not just pretend that the APs issue is no more or behind her?

Be that as it may, Rafidah should not delude herself into thinking that the APs controversy has disappeared from public consciousness and concern or that she could just sweep it under the carpet.

Rafidah’s announcement that her Ministry is still in charge of APs has come as a surprise, as the general public impression after the Cabinet meeting of August 10 was that Rafidah had been stripped of the APs responsibility and in consequence, she need not answer questions from the media about the APs controversy.

Now that Rafidah has herself clarified that the APs portfolio is still under the jurisdiction, she must give a full accountability of the abuses and excesses of the issuance of APs in her 18 years as Minister for International Trade and Industry when Parliament convenes on September 19, as the Cabinet dispensation given to her from having to answer queries from the media cannot be extended to give her similar immunity from having to answer queries from Members of Parliament when Parliament is in session.

In fact, the Cabinet has no right whatsoever to grant exemption to any Minister, including the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, from the most basic and fundamental Ministerial responsibility of accountability to Parliament – or the whole basis of parliamentary government and democracy would collapse and end in ruins.

In a way, Rafidah must be thanked for clarifying that she is still responsible for the APs portfolio as she cannot now tell Parliament that she cannot answer any question relating to it as she is no more responsible for the issuance of APs to import cars.

Rafidah had prepared a 29-page explanation for the Cabinet to defend her stewardship of APs to import cars. She should table this explanation as a White Paper in Parliament including a full list of the APs issued each year, whether open, franchise or individual APs going back to 1987 and agree to a full parliamentary debate to demonstrate that she has nothing to hide on this subject.

(1st September 2005, Parliament)

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Yes, I am I

For folks who asked whether I am I, yes I am.

Its great to read the comments exceeding a hundred from different parts of the world since the blog surfaced into the public domain some 24 hours ago. I appreciate the views, however diverse or diametrical. I want to go one step further and invite bloggers to furnish me with concrete information which could be useful in Parliament or outside to press on the cause for democracy, justice, accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance. For privacy, use email.

Maverick SM has a point that the likes of Cheong Choong Kongs cannot succeed in MAS or the GLCs because of political interferences and cronyism. The Internet however has provided an opportunity for such abuses and excesses to be exposed. What is needed is information.

There is however another pertinent point. Cheong Choong Kong left University of Malaya as Associate Professor of Mathematics to join SIA in 1974, rising up to become the CEO of what has been described as “one of the best-known and best-performing brands in Asia”. If Cheong Choong Kong had joined MAS in 1974 instead, what would have been his career path?

LC has a great idea. Why don’t we have an inventory of Malaysians who have achieved excellence, distinction and recognition in foreign lands like Cheong Choong Kong – to remind ourselves (all Malaysians) what the country has lost because of the brain-drain.This blog is prepared to host and assemble such an inventory, but we need names, designations, locales, dates so that it is an authoritative though not official list.

bigjoe99 evokes reminiscences of yesteryears, bringing to my mind the poem “I remember, I remember” which I learnt in school. There are memories and memories. The question is how they can be harnessed to remake the world.

On the suggestion from rakyat, the blog will feature statements/articles related to the controversy about UMNO Youth’s proposal for the revival of the New Economic Policy as the New National Agenda.

Finally, I wish to thank bloggers who have offered assistance for a newbie. Don’t be surprised if I take up the offers.

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MAS CEO - call a spade a spade

The government seems to have backed off quick and fast from the idea of appointing a foreigner to head the national carrier to fill the vacancy created by the sudden resignation of Datuk Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan as the MAS managing director after MAS turned in a heavy net loss of RM280.7 million for the first quarter ended June 30.

Utusan Malaysia today reported that the government has shortlisted three local candidates who are qualified to become the new MAS managing director, and the trio included the new executive director Tengku Azmil Zahruddin Raja Abdul Aziz. Three issues/questions come immediately to mind.

Firstly, why back off from the idea of appointing a foreigner to turnaround MAS and be a model high-performer GLC (government-linked company) if there is no suitable local candidate for the job?

Secondly, when Fuaad’s resignation was announced last week, MAS chairman Datuk Munir Majid said he would assume the duties of the managing director while the company looked for its new CEO over the next six months. In the press report about MAS considering a foreigner to head MAS operations and raise its competitive level, the rationale was to have “an expatriate for several years before the post is handed over to executive director Tengku Azmil Zaharuddin Raja Abdul Aziz” – “a mentor for Tengku Azmil prior to taking the helm”. Has Khazanah Nasional now come to the view that Tengku Azmil is qualified to be the MAS managing director without the need to go through a period of “mentorship”?

Thirdly, are the three “local candidates” shortlisted for the post of MAS CEO all Malays or are they Malaysians regardless of ethnicity? Is the unwritten rule that the top GLC CEOs are only reserved to bumiputeras still in force? If so, then we should call a spade a spade and not start the 48th National Day with a new hypocrisy in talking about “locals” which completely exclude non-Malays.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should clarify whether the highest national interest must prevail and that the best Malaysian candidate, regardless of whether bumiputra or non-bumiputra, would be considered for the appointment of the new MAS CEO, as MAS is a national carrier for all Malaysians and not just of any community.

(31st August, 2005, Petaling Jaya)

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Just call me Kit

And thanks. I am overwhelmed by the response to this blog since last night. Let this be my initial response.

Many of those who left messages are Malaysians who clearly love the country but doubting whether the country loves them. This is indeed sad on a Merdeka Day, 48 years after independence, and this shows that we have so much more to do. Running away or opting out is never an option, not if we really want things to become better for us and our future generations.

It is good that we have now more outlets for Malaysians to express our concerns, anxieties and dissatisfactions - such as this blog. Hopefully it will make us more Malaysian, notwithstanding colour or creed.

I can't reply to every comment posted here. Please forgive my lack of courtesy. But I read them all and take note of the views expressed. I am truly happy to have you all drop by to say hello and read what you have to say. Hope to hear from you more here!

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Sorry for the amateurish beginning

The initial comments have disappeared with the haloscan installation, but all is not lost, as they are available in the archive.

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Added something new

I have just installed a comment monitor ie the Haloscan, to avoid vicious postings that may cause anxiety to other visitors. The monitoring will be minimal. Hopefully this will remain an open and civil space for all to chip in their views and suggestions.

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Merdeka Proclamation 1957 - gulf between promises and realities

When the nation achieved independent nationhood on August 31, 1957, it heralded the beginning of a new era where Malayans and later Malaysians could dare to dream big dreams to remake the world.

Reading out the Proclamation of Independence in Kuala Lumpur on that auspicious day 48 years ago, Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman pledged that Malaya (later Malaysia) “shall be for ever a sovereign democratic and independent State founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people and the maintenance of a just peace among all nations”.

Today, we have the twin towers but Malaysia would have stood even taller in the world if in the past 48 years, we had been able to forestall the exodus of her “best and brightest” sons and daughters into a Malaysian Diaspora all over the world.

On the economic front, Malaysia had achieved much when compared to countries like Ghana and Haiti, but couldn’t we have achieved more when compared to countries like South Korea and Singapore?

Where do we stand on nation-building and the creation of a Bangsa Malaysia? The recent controversy over the “social contract” is cause for very sobering thoughts as it highlighted the ignorance not only of the people but also the leaders, whether in Parliament and Cabinet, about the “social contract” agreed by the forefathers of the major communities as the bedrock of the independent nation. Equally disturbing, it illuminated the stunted product of the nation-building process when the “social contract” could be arrived at in an open and democratic debate 48 years ago, but it could not now be openly discussed or reviewed some half a century later because of its “sensitivities”.

What of democracy, liberty, justice, people’s welfare and happiness in the past 48 years?

Parliament, the Judiciary, the institutions and organs of government, are still struggling to regain the role ordained for them in the Merdeka Constitution, with the country weighed down with more undemocratic and draconian laws abridging the fundamental liberties promised to Malaysians in the Merdeka Proclamation.

On the 48th anniversary of our independent nationhood, Malaysians should ponder the gulf between the promises and realities of the Merdeka Proclamation on democracy, liberty, justice, people’s welfare and happiness and reaffirm their dedication, determination and resolve to achieve the goals of the Merdeka Proclamation in the face of the challenges of globalization in the 21st century.

(30th August 2005, Parliament)

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MAS CEO - "Walk the talk" test for Pak Lah

The instincts of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that Malaysia has locals to take on the responsibility of leading two GLCs (government-linked companies), the national carrier Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS) and national carmaker Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd (Proton), without having to appoint foreigners are right.

In fact, the appointment of the new MAS CEO is a test case whether Abdullah can “walk the talk” to entrust the most qualified Malaysians, regardless of race or gender, to propel a Malaysian Agenda and not Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban or Kadazan Agenda as the national formula to face the economic challenges of globalization.

Malaysia will be celebrating the 48th National Day in two days time, but in the past two months, a cloud has been cast over the celebrations as Malaysians are reminded of what divide them instead of what unite them, as illustrated by the following:

The UMNO Youth proposal last month for the revival of the New Economic Policy as the New National Agenda for the next 15 years until the end of Vision 2020, which immediately became national policy and revived the institutionalisation of the division of Malaysians into bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras.

The previous Sunday (August 21, 2005), the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Mustapha Mohamed announced in Jeli that in line with the New National Agenda passed during the UMNO general assembly last month to give more opportunities to Malays to actively participate in business, the government is studying new strategies to make large private corporations hire more bumiputras in senior management positions.

Scouting for the appointment of a foreigner as the new MAS CEO, giving the message that despite some half a century of nationhood, the appointment of a qualified and suitable non-Malay Malaysian to head a GLC is still not acceptable while the appointment of a foreigner is less objectionable.

Malaysia is not short of CEO talents and the time has come for a far-sighted nation-building policy where non-Malay Malaysians do not have to find greatness by going overseas.

The person who built the Singapore Airlines (SIA) into “the airline that other airlines talk about” was a Malaysian – Dr. Cheong Choong Kong, who taught mathematics at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur from 1968 to 1974, when he left as Associate Professor to join the Singapore Airlines. In 1998, Dr. Cheong was conferred the title of “Asia’s Businessman of the Year” by Fortune magazine for his “unbroken 27-year record of profitability through turbulent economic times”.

The greatest challenge to Malaysia on the eve of the nation’s 48th National Day celebrations is for the government to create the conditions where local world-class CEOs like Cheong Chong Kongs can emerge in Malaysia and not only in foreign lands. The UMNO Youth proposal for the NEP revival is short-sighted for it can only drive the potential Cheong Chong Kongs from our shores.

(29th August 2005, Parliament)

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MAS CEO - appoint "best/brightest" Malaysian regardless of race

Khazanah Nasional should “head-hunt” for the most suitable and qualified Malaysian candidate, regardless of race, to head and turn around Malaysia Airlines (MAS) into a profit-making and model GLC (government-linked company) – as Malaysia cannot be short of top CEO material 48 years after Merdeka.

UMNO Youth leader, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein is both right and wrong when asking for the rationalization of MAS in searching for a foreigner to fill the managing director’s post made vacant with the resignation of Datuk Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan after the airline reported a heavy net loss of RM280.7 million for the first quarter ended June 30.

Hishammuddin said the appointment of a foreigner to lead a nationally-owned company could be likened to allowing the country to be re-colonized, albeit in a new manner, through mind, culture and economy. Asking for the “valid reasons as to why the post could not go to a Malaysian, a Malay in particular”, Hishammuddin said: “Don’t look at it purely from the commercial aspect but also at the bigger agenda, that is the Malay agenda.”

Hishammuddin is right in questioning why a Malaysian could not fill the post of a MAS CEO that it must go to a foreigner but his statement raises two disturbing issues; Firstly, whether the Malay Agenda is the biggest agenda in the country, even more important than the Malaysian Agenda; and secondly, his reasoning of “recolonisation” through mind, culture and economy jars and clashes with current government practices such as Cabinet Ministers sending their children to international schools instead of to national schools and the establishment of the International Advisory Panel of foreign economists, social scientists and financial experts to advise the Prime Minister on the economic strategies for the next 15 years.

If Malaysia does not have any local material who could lead and turn around the MAS into a profit-making and model GLC, then we must be prepared to talent-scout and head-hunt for the best CEO material in the global arena from any part of the world.

But is the country so deficient of top CEO material that there are no available Malaysians, regardless of race, who could be entrusted with the responsibility to head and turn around MAS? If so, then Malaysia is condemned to be a “First World Infrastructure, Third World Mentality” nation!

In Parliament in June last year, I had called for the appointment of “the best and the brightest” Malaysians regardless of whether bumiputras or non-bumiputras to head GLCs, as these companies are linked to the Malaysian government whose performance, productivity and profitability are the concern of all Malaysians. As such, CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) and COOs (Chief Operating Officers) appointed to GLCs should come from the reservoir of the best and brightest of all Malaysians, regardless of race.

In response to my speech, the Second Finance Minister, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop gave an assurance in Parliament on the selection of the “best and brightest” Malaysians regardless of bumiputras or non-bumiputras to head the GLCs in future.

More than a year has passed since this assurance by the second Finance Minister in Parliament and this undertaking has still to be fulfilled. Let the appointment of the MAS CEO be the first acid test of the preparedness of the government to select the “best and brightest” Malaysians regardless of bumiputras or non-bumiputras to head the GLCs.

(28th August 2005, Petaling Jaya)

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