If you are a minister of one race, you can’t fire or demote your subordinate from another race? Why?

Should the interest of one DG, who is so bereft of talent that he can’t even invoke one of his achievements to defend himself against his demotion, supersede the interest of the entire tourism industry, which hundreds of thousands or millions of Malaysians depend on for our livelihood?

Nehru Sathiamoorthy

There are so many things wrong with the demotion of the Tourism Malaysia director-general Ammar Abd Ghapar that I don’t know where to begin.

The first thing that comes to mind is the way that the Tourism DG defended himself. That the tourism DG complained that he shouldn’t have been demoted in the way he was demoted because he has given 36 years of service without any complaint is itself problematic. The defence that he gave himself is actually a defence that is only fitting for a lower-level employee, not top management. It is only low-level employees that have the right to invoke loyalty and obedience as a reason why they should be appreciated by the organisation. If you are just a blue collar employee in an organisation, and you showed up to work daily, caused no trouble and did what your superiors asked you to do, if you are fired and demoted, then you can complain that it is unfair.

If you are a member of the top management on the other hand, your relevance to the organisation is not dependent on your obedience and loyalty. It is actually dependent on your talent and leadership qualities. If you are a DG, the right way to defend yourself if you feel that you have been unfairly demoted is by stating your achievement. You should invoke all the projects, programs, agendas, ideas that you have implemented, or speak about the benefits or profits that you have generated, to indicate why your dismissal is unfair.

As a member of the top management, you should also register your complaint in a defiant tone, not lament about it. Being a member of the top management, you should be confident enough of your skill and leadership ability, that if the organisation you are working for doesn’t appreciate you, you should have no problem saying sayonara to them and go to a different organisation that will appreciate your talent and leadership qualities.

A lower level cadre will lament, because having not much talent or abilities, they will be ruined if the organisation that they are working for fires them or demotes them, because they have nowhere else to go. If a DG is lamenting his demotion in the same way that a lower level cadre is lamenting, it begs the question why was he promoted to become a DG in the first place, when he has no confidence in his talent and leadership quality.

The second thing that comes to mind is the racial angle that is being touted as being the cause for the demotion. The Tourism, arts and culture minister Tiong King Sing is a Sarawakian Chinese. The DG he demoted is a Malay Muslim. If you are a minister from one race, can’t you fire or demote a person from another race, even if that person is a member of a top management, simply to not seem like you are a racist?

I actually think that it is not wrong for the tourism minister to demote or fire the top people in the tourism ministry, because I think the tourism ministry is underperforming. Langkawi, for one, has been deserted by tourists, both domestic and foreign, who are instead flocking to places like Hat Yai in Thailand. As the tourism minister, Tiong has a responsibility of turning things around, and one of the ways he can turn things around is by replacing the top executives of his ministry who fail to execute a turn around. He has to replace them, because if his ministry continues to underperform, he will have to himself be responsible for the failure to turn things around, and tender his resignation.  Before the minister himself resigns, it is not wrong for him to replace, fire or demote the  top executives in his ministry, to turn things around. If he can’t even do this, then how is he  supposed to turn things around ?

The fact that  we have a DG who is probably not qualified to be a part of top management , because he is talking like he is just a blue collar worker, and the fact that his demotion is triggering such an uproar, might be a symptom of what is wrong with our country and economy.

This tourism DG’s case might not be an isolated incident.

In other parts of the government, we might also have DG’s and top executives, who have been promoted to the highest office despite lacking talent or leadership qualities, and who can’t be fired or demoted although they are unfit for their high position, simply because it might ignite some racial controversy.

So what are we supposed to do?

Are we supposed to just bear with people who were promoted by mistake and who can’t own up to their part of the bargain, and just let the interest of the country suffer?

Should the interest of one DG, who is so bereft of talent that he can’t even invoke one of his achievements to defend himself against his demotion, supersede the interest of the entire tourism industry, which hundreds of thousands or millions of Malaysians depend on for our livelihood?

If this is how we are going to run our country, then I suppose all we can do is pray.  because only God can save our country and economy.