Foreigners may not save our GLCs
Radha VengadasalamPublished: Sep 9, 2005 4:39 PM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 6:21 PM
'Plain Talk' in New Stratis Times and 'On the Beat' in Star last weekend carried what is now a customary cry among many quarters, that the best person must be allowed to helm our corporate entities, especially taxpayers-owned entities otherwise known as GLCs.
While I fully support that idea, I am still not very keen on foreigners helming our prize assets. I am not encouraging misplaced myopic nationalism, but my question is, where will this stop?
We don't want to see third-rate dud foreigners who are only here for a few years and take the post as an extended beach holiday with the chance to fraternise with our lovely locals. Remember all the duds we brought it as imported footballers?
The issue in Malaysia really is the perception that the private sector is dominated by one race and the government sector is dominated by another, and everyone like to point the finger at each other and scream meritocracy. The rest of us will side whichever and whenever we find it convenient to one or another.
In my opinion, it is the absence of second echelon suitable leaders that is hindering corporate Malaysia growth. Irrespective of race or gender, organisations in Malaysia have a poor record of grooming future leaders to take over. The second echelon leaders in many organisations themselves are sometime there through string pulling and political influence.
If we have had a policy of continuous professional development as well as leadership grooming, something the multinational consulting outfits are very good at, we will not have this problem of scratching our head and go elsewhere to look for suitable experienced leaders to take over our national carmaker and airline.
Getting a foreigner may be a short-term measure to plug the gap but if we do not address the grooming of middle- and second-tier corporate leaders, we will always be having this issue resurfaced again and again.
In fact, the problem with MAS was never addressed even with the widely acclaimed Widespread Asset Unbundling (WAU) scheme back then; it just postponed the headache to today. Let us not yet again make the same mistake and go for a short-term solution that will continue to burn a hole in our taxpayers' pocket.
It is ironic that the architect of WAU is now helming Khazanah and he is having to deal with the short-sighted restructuring scheme that many of us thought will not work and have been proven to be so.
Market watchers will be amused at some of MAS's antics, for example - they advertised a full page cover for first-class tickets in a free newspaper. I am sure those who can afford the first class will not be taking trains and lining up at 7-Eleven to get this free paper as the demography is different. Well done to the newspapers marketing people but brickbats for the jokers who authorised this in MAS. See my point?
While I fully support that idea, I am still not very keen on foreigners helming our prize assets. I am not encouraging misplaced myopic nationalism, but my question is, where will this stop?
We don't want to see third-rate dud foreigners who are only here for a few years and take the post as an extended beach holiday with the chance to fraternise with our lovely locals. Remember all the duds we brought it as imported footballers?
The issue in Malaysia really is the perception that the private sector is dominated by one race and the government sector is dominated by another, and everyone like to point the finger at each other and scream meritocracy. The rest of us will side whichever and whenever we find it convenient to one or another.
In my opinion, it is the absence of second echelon suitable leaders that is hindering corporate Malaysia growth. Irrespective of race or gender, organisations in Malaysia have a poor record of grooming future leaders to take over. The second echelon leaders in many organisations themselves are sometime there through string pulling and political influence.
If we have had a policy of continuous professional development as well as leadership grooming, something the multinational consulting outfits are very good at, we will not have this problem of scratching our head and go elsewhere to look for suitable experienced leaders to take over our national carmaker and airline.
Getting a foreigner may be a short-term measure to plug the gap but if we do not address the grooming of middle- and second-tier corporate leaders, we will always be having this issue resurfaced again and again.
In fact, the problem with MAS was never addressed even with the widely acclaimed Widespread Asset Unbundling (WAU) scheme back then; it just postponed the headache to today. Let us not yet again make the same mistake and go for a short-term solution that will continue to burn a hole in our taxpayers' pocket.
It is ironic that the architect of WAU is now helming Khazanah and he is having to deal with the short-sighted restructuring scheme that many of us thought will not work and have been proven to be so.
Market watchers will be amused at some of MAS's antics, for example - they advertised a full page cover for first-class tickets in a free newspaper. I am sure those who can afford the first class will not be taking trains and lining up at 7-Eleven to get this free paper as the demography is different. Well done to the newspapers marketing people but brickbats for the jokers who authorised this in MAS. See my point?
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