Wednesday 24 August 2016

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.

24 comments:

  1. "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."

    Now madam, isn't Mappadulung Jibby Razak the sine qua non of vested-interest politikus culture?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cash's made him the King with no clothes ...
      Oh policeman, all around we're in pain!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lRvr12wnlQ

      Delete
  2. Annie,

    You should read JMD's latest blog post. I agree with him 100%.

    https://jebatmustdie.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/how-long-must-we-pamper-those-selfish-sarawakian-politicians/

    This thing PETRONAS vs Sarawak govt, is just a game played up by Sarawak politicians to enrich their Sarawakian cronies.

    Semenanjung people are not that stupid, Annie.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Annie,
    You have been singing high of TS Abdul Ghani since I first read your blog. He would have been an ideal candidate to replace current PM but he remain low profile.. I'm eager to know more from you on the why..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Annie,

    From what I can tell Sarawakians have had enough of Semananjung.

    Adenan Satem's popularity is not by accident nor is it carefully manufactured for a state election.

    Adenan Satem intends to have a Sarawak which stands on its own two feet - that is why he is so popular.

    He is serious about Sarawak for Sarawakians.

    My sister, who is now a Sarawakian, cannot stand Taib and voted DAP in GE13.

    But she absolutely loves Adenan Satem and I know she will be voting PBB in the next GE just as she did in the recent Sarawak state elections.

    Gladiator

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. but is najib going to cheat to adenan? The cost of pan-borneo highway is from existing budget......adenan kena tipu plak

      Delete
  5. annie , the big boss now prefer loyalty then brain, bodoh pun tak apa.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. En. Rahman, bukan loyalty itu ...it is faithless allegiance to common corruptibility. Birds of a feather fly together kan?

      Delete
    2. loyal BUT NOT SMART........tu lah, pilih palui mcm mat maslan 3.85.....ishhhh

      Delete
  6. Tun Mahathir is right when he said the idea of bangsa johor is bad (even though i am a johorean myself).No we will probably be talking about bangsa Sarawak.We used to celebrate Merdeka Day on 31st August every year and nobody kicked a fuss about it.Now we are celebrating hari Malaysia to accomadate our friends from Sabah and Sarawak.
    I wonder one day we will celebrate hari Johor,hari Melaka etc when everybody is becoming more parochial

    Prof Kangkunh

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But they say DM is senile!

      Delete

    2. Important, observe Hari Hol Johor Sdr ANON 08:00
      especially the Yg Bhg Datos


      M Zin
      Alor Gajah DPH

      Delete
  7. Annie,

    Have to applaud Adenan Satem, he is walking the talk and applying his rules fairly to both sides.

    That's why the East Malaysian states have a very different atmosphere from the Peninsula. They are clearly much smarter than we are.

    The situation is very different on the western side, where the basic BN strategy is all about carefully cultivating hate, rather than preventing it. They could try taking a leaf out of Adenan's book. Not to win votes, but simply because it's the responsible thing to do.

    Adenan Satem secretly despises Najib, but is playing a smart game to squeeze him for the sake of Sarawak.

    If Jibby starts getting too free with the use of Racism and/or Hudud cards, I think PBB will pull out of BN, as long as Adenan is happy with the future of Sarawak being looked after.

    In the next two years, you can be sure that the whole 1MDB and "donation" messes will be exposed by the 5 countries overseas, so it will become much easier for people with a conscience to step away from the Bugis stench.

    He will make global headlines again very soon, rest assured.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bangsa Sarawak is something we cannot complain about.

    If I were from either of the two East Malaysian states, I would frankly tell Malaya to **** off.

    Read the 18 and 20 Point Agreements in detail.

    To say Sarawak and Sabah have been shortchanged is a gross understatement.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. that's why in there the spirit of 'merdeka' baru is strong......merdeka from semenanjung!

      Delete

  9. Congratulations wal hamduli 'Llah Yg Bhg Tan Sri M Hassan!


    M Zin
    Alor Gajah DPH

    ReplyDelete
  10. If Sarawak's Adenan Satem got Hassan Marican, we in the Peninsula got Razak Baginda, Deepak Carpet & Jho Low.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hehehe......tu lah tahap "con-sultan" kak semah!

      Delete
  11. No wonder Ku Nan was reluctant to declare his asset. He even praised a Dato Sri, the Director in DBKL who was arrested for graft. This Dato had bought 13 units of condo, through direct-nego with the developer at RM200~300k each. It was alleged that he intended to resell them at ~RM500k each.

    I guess the 31 condominiums must be located somewhere near the HSR's KL terminal. Therefore, the developer must have targeted Singaporean buyers who can sleep in KL and work in Singapore or vice-versa.

    In Najib's own words when launching the HSR; You can have breakfast in KL, lunch in Singapore and dinner in KL.

    I've been wondering why the HSR project must be from Singapore to KL, not JB to KL. What's wrong if Singaporean or foreigners in Singapore, traveled to JB to use the HSR to KL?

    Now I know why.
    There must be some rich people scheming with politicians, planning to build condominiums, targeting Singaporean buyer. After-all, 1SD = RM3, very-very cheap for Singaporeans. Good for property investment too.

    Along the way they could somehow clamour it as 'Rakyat di Dahulukan' project.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "There must be some rich people scheming with politicians, planning to build condominiums, targeting Singaporean buyer. After-all, 1SD = RM3, very-very cheap for Singaporeans. Good for property investment too.

      Along the way they could somehow clamour it as 'Rakyat di Dahulukan' project."

      Agree.

      Also east coast railway with China.....all about $$$$$$ and rasuah........

      Delete

    2. More $ kickbacks if straight down the N Channel Penang, RD
      to Taman Manggis which the corrupt DAP EXCOs approved instead of affordable homes for the 'OOOs homeless applicants

      ( OK stop, not topic of this thread)


      M Zin
      Alor Gajah DPH

      Delete
  12. "Zaid: Only the stone-hearted will deny 1MDB scandal" I beg to differ.There are 3 types of people who will deny 1MDB scandal-1) Dedak eaters 2) Lembu (UMNO supporters) 3) Complete moron.

    Read somewhere today that UMNO had published all the failed projects,ie;Proton etc under Mahathir in attempt to cover-up 1MDB heist. There is a big difference here. Mahathir introduced those projects and let professionals manage them and he did not interefere in the management during his tenure as PM. In the case of 1MDB,Najib is the Chairman and all monetary transactions must be approved by Najib as stated in the company's M&A. In other words, Mahathir introduced new projects to develop the country while Najib set-up 1MDB to screw up the country. Did i say that UMNO lembus stupidity has no limitations?

    ReplyDelete
  13. But these are all a charade. They claim that their people are still poor even though their state is rich in resources. On the contrary, some Sarawakian politicians are among the wealthiest people in the whole of Malaysia. Malaysians would be more sympathetic if Sarawakian politicians are seen to be comparatively poorer than their West Malaysian counterparts. But Adenan Satem for instance, travels in a private jet almost to everywhere he goes.

    The state government is so quick to protect 13 senior executives but at the same time turns a blind eye to the tens of thousands of foreign workers that are depriving ordinary Sarawakians of decent jobs with decent wages.

    Almost everyone in Malaysia knows the reason behind this except Annie.All the noise over Petronas’s employment policy just a ruse to get more Petronas contracts for Sarawakian elite's connected companies.

    Politics should not get in the way of hiring or firing. Businesses should not be dictated by some politicians for their own political and business agendas.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Just imagine in the 1MDB scandal, Jho Low is the friend of Lim Guan Eng of DAP's son and not a close friend of Rosmah's stepson. Not only the entire Lim family will be arrested-Kit Siang,his wife, his father,grandfather,great grandfather,auntie ,uncle ,nephew,in-laws,grandchildren, great grandchildren and all those with surname Lim in Malaysia will be held for questioning.

    But because Jho Low is the close friend of Rosmah's son, suddenly it os connected to Najib.

    ReplyDelete