Will 'Senator Rosmah' emerge to help Najib put the economy 'right'?

Recent attempts by Prime Minister Najib Razak's family to make a mark in the Malaysian corporate world have been widely criticized - as usual on the quiet by market practitioners and professionals fearful of losing their own cushy jobs and deals.

But even the most die-hard BN loyalists can no longer doubt that First Lady Rosmah Mansor has not lost her thirst to play a bigger and perhaps even official role in the Malaysian economy. This is bound to upset her critics, who are already grousing that her role is mere perfunctory and cannot be executive because she is not elected.

"Unless Najib appoints her to the Senate, she has no say in the affairs of the state except for sharing her opinions and advising Najib on a personal basis. Other than that she should not meddle," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

Who are you to tell me not to meddle!

But the 60-year-old Rosmah, a former banker, is having none of that. Known for her flamboyance and Imela Marcos-like spending habits, she was accused of entering the stock markets via corporate newbie Deepak Jaikishan, her erstwhile carpet-dealer-turned-oil-and-gas-tycoon-extraordinaire.

Though Deepak has denied it, Rosmah again fueled talk when she urged the private sector to work harder and drive the Malaysian economy past roadblocks such as those thrown out by the Eurozone crisis.

"The private sector has a responsibility to advise the government on areas where there are growth opportunities which the government could facilitate the ease in doing business," Bernama reported Rosmah as telling the 1Malaysia Enterprise Awards presentation, organised by the Malaysia Food Processing and Packaging Entrepreneurs Association.

Rosmah: Success of ETP depends on private sector

According to Rosmah, the private sector has a vital role in ensuring Malaysia achieves its vision to become a developed nation by 2020. The prime minister's wife said the government had, under the Economic Transformation Programme, put much emphasis on the role of the private sector to drive the nation's economy, where 92 per cent of the funding growth would need to be generated by the sector.

Noting that the most competitive nations in the world were led by strong private sector in the building of markets and economy, she said: "The next success stories will come from the innovators and entrepreneurs.

Citing Finland as an example, she said the country was able to become one of the most competitive nations in the world today, by harvesting its own talents and investing much on research and development, despite having limited natural resources. She pointed out that Malaysia's challenge was not in the lack of talent but in the people's capabilities to identify, train and retrain the talents to keep up with the times.

"Our emphasis and commitment in training young leaders to own the market and to retrain the mature ones to remake the market will ultimately define the success of our private sector," added Rosmah.

The Najibs march in ... and out!

In the past 3 months, it was Najib's 28-year-old son from his first marriage - Nazifuddin - who first raised eyebrows by aggressively announcing his entry into timber firm Harvest Courts - an ailing firm newly out of designated status.

Nazifuddin's family name immediately triggered a sky-high jump in Harvest share prices. Amid calls from market professionals for stricter governance and transparency checks, Naziffuddin resigned from the Harvest board but vowed to keep his stake.

As for Deepak, once tagged as Rosmah's 'toy-boy' due to his willingness and ability to help her out of tight corners, he is generally regarded as the man who saved the first couple's skin over allegations raised in a statutory declaration issued by private investigator P Balasubramaniam that they were involved in the high-profile Altantuya murder case.

True or not, Deepak recently shocked the corporate world when he suddenly emerged with a 5% stake in Envair, a water filter company. Deepak also assured that he would turn Envair into a top oil-and-gas services firm. But in less than 2 weeks, Deepak U-turned, announcing he had sold off all his Envair shares but would re-enter the markets via another vehicle later on.

Deepak's exit sparked talk that former premier Mahathir Mohamad had objected to the Najib's entry into the local O&G sector, which is dependent on deals farmed out by national oil from Petronas. So far the main beneficiaries of contracts from Petronas include Scome, the firm controlled by the son of former premier Abdullah Badai and Kencana, which is owned by Mahathir's sons.

"There is talk Mahathir is not happy. Firstly, he doesn't want to share the Petronas goodies but apparently, his people also say he doesn't think Najib deserves any government contract from Petronas," an investment manager at a local stock broking firm had told Malaysia Chronicle.

Malaysia Chronicle