Tun Musa Hitam : Be Gone
By Syed Akbar Ali
Well I am a couple of days late but here are my comments about the Sime Darby issue.
Do read Another Brick in the Wall’s and also BigDog who have raised many points about the appointment of the new CEO for Sime Darby. Brick in the Wall has aptly titled his piece “Musa Hitam : Foxing To Stay On”.
The travails at Sime Darby are now turning into an indignation and even recalcitrance. The Board and the Chairman seem to be taunting us with a ‘So what?’
Now the appointment of the new CEO seems to be against the grain. Maybe also against the brain. There is a simple reason for this. It is called GLC, run by the GLC Mafia in this country.
You can decipher much about this GLC Mafia and ime Darby from just these few lines that appeared in the Press:
“Although Musa did not cite the names of the other candidates, it was widely speculated that the four were Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s CEO Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh Che Khalid, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala, Maybank president and CEO Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar and Telekom Datuk Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa.”
There were four other candidates shortlisted for the top Sime Darby job. The Tenaga boss? Power plantation maybe? Idris Jala? Lab rat? Wahid Maybank? Lets do the jammin’ bro. Zamzamzairani – broadband Edgecrumbe Estate ke? I couldnt believe this list. All GLC boys.
Obviously conglomerate merit and plantation experience were not a huge consideration. You had to be from a GLC. An inside man – approved by the GLC Mafia. You dont have to manage. You have to be ‘manageable’. Sit Bubu, sit. Good dog.
Hence the appointment of an outsider as the CEO of Sime Darby has become quite a news item but only for the uninitiated gentiles like you and me. The cabal does not feel the same way.
Despite the qualifications and credentials the appointment does not appear to be based entirely on the sort of merit that may be suitable for a conglomerate like Sime Darby. In other words it is not Sime Darby’s interest that seems to be at heart of the ‘powers’ or ‘power that be’ who called the shot on this appointment.
(Having said that the new CEO may yet prove himself to be worthy of the appointment – who knows). But the machinations behind the appointment seem to have an agenda.
And the fuss over the new CEO has provided a new smokescreen for the Board of Sime to deflect attention from themselves. Should the Board not resign over the loss of over RM1.3 Billion in Qatar and in the Bakun project? Should the Chairman Tun Musa Hitam not resign over the fiasco too?
It is quite obvious that the Chairman does not want to resign. (He should have by now, if he wanted to). Resignation is just one act – an outcome. But more importantly such an action would mean that the Chairman and the Board accepts responsibility for Sime’s losses. The key word here is ‘accepting responsibility’. This is what I find quite mind boggling. They are just point blank refusing to accept responsibility. “Its not my fault”.
Tun Musa Hitam says he will wait for a forensic audit before seeing if the Board should also be responsible for the losses. If the forensic audit says so, only then will he and the Board leave. What kind of double talk is this?
By the same logic (or total lack thereof) why then was the MD Zubir asked to go on leave? By the same logic, shouldnt Zubir also be the beneficiary of a forensic audit first before having to go on leave? I mean what is good for the musang should also be good for the kucing, shouldn’t it?
Then Musa also made another strange statement in the Press :
“The responsibility of the board and chairman of a corporation like Sime Darby is no different from that of ministers and a prime minister in the running of government. If a department causes a scandal, then the normal practice is the relevant minister is responsible and in a worst-case scenario, the prime minister is also responsible.”
