I couldn't agree more with Kelvin Lee about reforming the GLCs (government-linked companies). After all, Pak Lah's GLCs today are primarily the inevitable metamorphosis of failed privatised companies of the Mahathir era.

The discernable difference is that while previously they were owned and run by self-serving entrepreneurial managers, now they are but bailed-out entities run by young professional managers in servitude. Is there any real difference to the rakyat?

The same professional consultant who recommended that Khazanah Malaysia formed Syarikat Penerbangan Malaysia to bail out corrupted Malaysian Airlines Bhd, is now running Khazanah. The RM50-a-nasi-lemak-on-board racket has stopped but now replaced by RM200 million-private-Airbus-for-the-boss racket. Apparently, consultants think different when they become employees.

If previously, these privatised companies had a big brother at the helm of the Finance Ministry to look out for their pockets, GLCs also have a brother at the same ministry, albeit a smaller one - but looking out for the infamous 'fourth floor's insatiable appetite. The 'piratisation' had simply moved one-notch upstairs, operating by remote-control.

These professional managers do not directly benefit as previously. As employees, they just do as they are told by the owners. But do the true owners, that is the rakyat, have a say? The buck literally stops at the elected leadership's desk and the professional see their pay-check coming from that desk and not from the rakyat.

But the wise and true professional should have the longer view, lest one becomes a mercenary. The difference is fine but appreciable. Some CEOs rationalised that it could be worse if someone else is doing their job. True. So was that why Petronas humoured Dr Mahathir by bank-rolling billion-ringgit Putrajaya? Just to keep the wolves at bay?

There will be no real change until the voters really change. Otherwise, be really satisfied with just small change in our pockets.