The PM and PETRONAS
Sometime ago, I wrote an article about PETRONAS appointments. In particular about the issue surrounding one person named Omar Ong. As usual, when I suggested that Omar Ong should not be disqualified on account of being close to KJ, I was labelled with the usual unmentionable characterisation.
I have also said it is the PM's call.
I wrote some lines critical of PETRONAS too. They were not meant to belittle the thousands of highly qualified and dedicated PETRONAS employees. They were intended to place PETRONAS in perspective or rather to remind the PETRONAS employees of the need to practise some humility. Getting employed in the oil and gas industry, PETRONAS included, does not require insurmountable rocket science qualifications. Properly trained, people can do the job assigned to them. Being trained by PETRONAS for that matter does not confer on anyone exclusive abilities. I am saying that being a PETRONAS employee does not qualify you as a special being. Of course, those suggestions were met by derisive responses.
Those lines had to be said as there were positions taken by some PETRONAS people to view the national oil company as an exclusive domain meant for certain approved people. Needless to say, such an attitude is further fortified by concerted attempts to paint PETRONAS in such light. There was a suggestion for instance to accept PETRONAS as a showcase of Malay management prowess. The implications are fairly obvious- among them, the admission of some elements may adulterate the Malay management prowess. On the part that PETRONAS's eminence is contributed by the fact that it is a legal monopoly, one is deviously silent.
I was not interested to prolong the argument about the technicalities of the oil and gas industry. I did not respond to some comments disputing my simplification of the O&G Industry in that article. I feel I am sufficiently qualified to discuss about some aspects of the oil and gas industry having worked with Shell for a decade.
We need to be mindful of the following points. One, it is the prerogative of the PM as to who he wants to appoint. The PDA (1974) confers him the absolute powers. Two, PETRONAS should rid itself of the high horse mentality and accept that entry into its organisation is very possible by anyone trained in his/her field. Three, why are people so protective of PETRONAS? It is not a sacred cow deserving of unsolicited pontificating as to the type of persons agreeable to PETRONAS.
