‘SMART’ OF KHAZANAH TO QUICKLY YIELD TO MAHATHIR, SAYS GUAN ENG – WHILE KHAIRY LAMENTS THIS & THAT, YET THE MOST CORRUPT ‘BUSINESS MODE’ WAS DURING NAJIB ERA NOT THE 1990s

THE finance minister today welcomed the Khazanah National Berhad board members’ offer to resign, saying it was a “smart move”.

Lim Guan Eng said the board of directors was usually appointed by the prime minister and it was wise of them to leave the prerogative to Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“They want to give an opportunity to the PM on the direction of Khazanah. The board of directors appointed by the old government either they want to continue or not. I feel that it is a smart decision to give a choice to PM,” Lim said at the Parliament lobby today.

It was up to Dr Mahathir to appoint a new board or retain some old faces, Lim said.

“As I mentioned earlier, it is always the PM (who) will make the final decision. After all he is the PM. We leave it to the wisdom of the PM.” 

He also disclosed that yesterday’s cabinet meeting did not discuss Khazanah’s future.

The Malaysian Insight reported today that the entire board has submitted undated resignation letters this week to the Ministry of Finance Inc (MoF Inc).

Khazanah confirmed today that all its board members have offered to resign to “facilitate a smooth and orderly transition” under the newly formed Pakatan Harapan government.

Khazanah is Malaysia’s main sovereign wealth fund with strategic interest across most sectors, including finance, health, telecommunications, aviation and utilities.

The current Khazanah board has nine members – managing director Azman Mokhtar, Md Nor Md Yusof, Mohamed Azman Yahya, Mohammed Azlan Hashim, Raja Arshad Raja Uda, Andrew Sheng Len Tao, Nazir Abdul Razak, Nirmala Menon and Yeo Kar Peng.

The naming of the board’s possible replacements could come as early as today, said sources. – THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT

KJ on Khazanah: It will be a shame to bring back 1990s business mode

Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s role as the government’s strategic investment arm must continue, said Umno lawmaker Khairy Jamaluddin.

According to the Rembau MP, Khazanah has become a different entity than what it was at the end of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s first tenure as prime minister.

Back then, he noted, Khazanah did not have a strategic role and served essentially as a holding entity for the governments’ stake in companies.

“Post-PM (Mahathir’s first tenure), Khazanah was transformed from just a holding entity to a strategic investment arm with a mandate to not just increase asset value but also make investments into sectors that would benefit the nation.

“Khazanah recruited the best and brightest Malaysians to do this. It would be a shame to dismantle everything that has been built only to replace it with the business mode of the 1990s.

“My fear: GLCs (Government-linked Companies) will be broken up and flogged off to a new set of 1990-esque businessmen,” he added in a series of tweets.

The former youth and sports minister was commenting on Khazanah’s board of directors, including managing director Azman Mohktar, having offfered to resign from the board.

Khairy said he was not surprised by the latest development.

“Apparently PM has yet to even grant MD an appointment at the office. BoD meeting cannot be called. Even with upcoming changes, I hope present GLC model will be continued. GLC transformation is a success story. Need tweaks for sure.

“For instance, GLCs have (in some sectors) crowded out private business. This was a long-standing issue. That was probably the spirit of PM’s comments that GLCs deviated from Bumi agenda. So tweak needed there,” he added.

Early this month, Mahathir claimed that Khazanah had deviated from its original objective of helping the bumiputera.

He said Khazanah was established in 1993 to hold shares for the bumiputera until the latter possessed the capacity to purchase those shares.

The prime minister said this was because the bumiputera who received shares had the tendency of selling them and enriching others instead.

“But along the way, Khazanah decided it should take all the shares for itself and if they are good shares, well, why not acquire the shares at the time of listing when the price of shares was very low and so they forget entirely about holding the shares for the bumiputera.

“They decided that they should be holding the shares forever as a part of the government companies owned by the government,” Mahathir added. – MKINI

THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT / MKINI