Learn from Sarawak on how to appreciate talents

Had a chat last night with a friend who is an expert of Sarawak and Sabah politics.

The guy told me that the establishment in those two states is more stable than its counterpart in the Peninsular because the leaders over there are very good at spotting and appreciating talents.

For the most recent example, he said the Sarawak government had hired the services of TS Mohd Hassan Marican as its adviser in its dealing with Petronas.

Mohd Hassan was Petronas' CEO from Feb 1995 to Feb 2010. He was also Petronas' acting chairman when he left the company.

This is his profile as provided by Bloomberg :

Mr. Mohd Hassan bin Marican is a Senior International Advisor of Temasek International Advisors, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. Mr. bin Marican served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) since February 1995 until February 4, 2010 and its Acting Chairman until February 4, 2010. Mr. bin Marican has over 30 years' experience in audit, accounting and management. He served as Senior Vice-President of finance for the national oil company PETRONAS from 1989 to 1995 and a Partner of accounting firm 1981 Hanafiah Raslan and Mohamed (Touche Touche& Co) from to 1989. He serves as the Chairman of Singapore Power. He serves as Chairman of Pavilion Energy Pte Ltd at Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited. He serves as Chairman of Pavilion Gas and Lan Ting Holdings. He has been Chairman of Sembcorp Marine since April 22, 2014. He served as the Chairman of Engen Limited, South Africa's leading oil refining and marketing company, which is a subsidiary of Petronas. He served as Chairman of MISC Berhad until February 2010. He served as Acting Chairman of the Board of Petroliam Nasional Bhd. until February 4, 2010. He served as the Chairman of the Board of Petronas Gas Bhd from August 1, 1991 to August 15, 2008. He served as the Chairman of other public listed companies under Petronas Group, namely Petronas Dagangan Berhad from March 29, 1995 to October 2005 and Malaysia International Shipping portion Berhad. He served as Deputy Chairman of Sembcorp Marine and serves as its Director. He has been Director of Malaysia International Shipping Corp. Bhd. since October 1997. He has been a Non-Executive & Independent Director of Sembcorp Utilities (Netherlands) N.V. and SembCorp Industries Ltd. since June 16, 2010. He serves as a Director of Regional Economic Development Authority of Sarawak, Sarawak Energy, Lambert Energy Advisory and MH Marican Advisory. He serves as a Board member of Bank Negara Malaysia and a member of the Board of Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority, which oversees petroleum development in the overlapping area between Malaysia and Thailand. He serves as a Director of International Centre for Leadership in Finance. He served as a Director of MISC Berhad since October 3, 1997 until February 10, 2010. He served as a Director of ConocoPhillips Canada Funding Company I. He served as a Non Executive Director of Engen Ltd. He served as a Non Independent & Non Executive Director of Petronas Gas Bhd until August 15, 2008. He served as Director of Petronas Dagangan Bhd. He served as Director of Petroliam Nasional Bhd. until February 4, 2010. He is an Energy Governor and the Energy Community Chairman for the World Economic Forum (WEF). He is also a member of the International Investment Council for the Republic of South Africa. He is a member of the WEF's International Business Council and Council of 100 Leaders. He is also a member of the Commonwealth Business Council. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, as well as a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants and the Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He holds a Honorary Doctorate from the University of Malaya.

Well, no wonder Sarawak seems to be getting the upper hand in its dealings with Petronas of late.

Mohd Hassan surely knows his stuff as far as Petronas is concerned.

The Sarawakians are very smart for getting his advise.

I wish the establishment over here in the Peninsular will get equally smart.

So far, they do not seem to be very good at spotting or even appreciating talents.

Their decisions on the matter appeared to be very much influenced by petty issues and favouritism.

There were too many examples of that.

I had seen good and talented people who were supportive of the establishment being cast aside in favour of those whose only interests and talents revolves solely around their own personal agendas.

My own significant experience in this matter was back then in Johor during preparations for the last general election in 2013.

A month before the date of GE13 was announced, PM DS Najib Razak went on a visit to Johor where part of itineraries was a briefing on Johor BN's preparations for the election.

The briefing was done by then State BN chairman and MB TS Abdul Ghani Othman.

At the end of the briefing, Najib expressed his satisfaction with what were presented and considered the preparations as being the most comprehensive as compared to those by other states.

The preparations were of course very comprehensive because they were carried out since just a few months after the 2008 general election.

Ghani was assisted by a small but dedicated team throughout months of  exhaustive visits to every corners of Johor to collect information and feedbacks as well as putting into effect measures to ensure BN's victory.

I believe that if not for those preparations, Johor which was hit hard by the Chinese tsunami of 2013 could had actually been lost to the opposition in similar fashion as Selangor due to the large number of Chinese electorates in that state.

Do bear in mind that up to 83 per cent of the Malay voters in Johor sided with BN at that time, which enabled the coalition to retain its two third majority in the state assembly despite the heavy losses in Chinese majority constituencies.

Ghani's small team which includes several experts in their respective fields was disbanded after he was no longer the MB.

Personally, I feel that it was a pity to waste the talents of that team.

They were really good and loyal to Umno and BN.

Unfortunately, not only were they not appreciated or being kept for further contributions, some were even hounded out to fend for themselves after their services were no longer needed.

It reached a point where I wrote this post just weeks after the general election in order to get a reprieve for some of the "small people" who once served Ghani at Kota Iskandar,

The eradication of Datuk Ghani 

That was one main reason why I always got frustrated with the establishment here.

There are other examples, but let me save them for other days.

Can't write too long as I need to get back to work now.

Cheers.