Supermax boss: My apology to Najib has nothing to do with ongoing case

Supermax Corporation Bhd managing director Stanley Thai has today clarified that his apology to caretaker prime minister Najib Abdul Razak for supporting the opposition during the last general election has nothing to do with his ongoing appeal against an insider trading conviction.

"No. It's completely unrelated," he told a press conference today at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, which only TV3 and Utusan Malaysia were invited to attend.

He also denied being pressured or intimidated into issuing the apology.

Thai is facing five years in prison after he was convicted of insider trading in 2014. He is currently appealing the conviction.

Last Saturday, Thai called for a press conference to apologise to Najib for supporting the opposition during the 2013 general election.

Thai said he would be “happy” if Najib called him to respond to the apology.

Former international trade and industry minister Rafidah Aziz (below) also resigned as chairperson of Supermax but said she would not be intimidated from speaking the truth.

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia later, Supermax said Rafidah had resigned on April 14 due to "personal reasons".

Thai said he accepted Rafidah's resignation.

"After she read about the news, in the evening, she wrote in our group chat that she was extremely disappointed that I apologised to the prime minister.

"On Monday morning, the office received her resignation letter and we announced to the Bursa," he said.

"Typically, when a chairperson resigns, (it) will have a knee-jerk reaction but in this case, it is a positive reaction from the market," he said.

He said Rafidah's resignation caught the company off-guard and they are still trying to find a replacement.

Thai said Rafidah was upset after being advised against writing about politics in their working group chat.

"I indirectly told her to stop talking about politics this chat group so maybe she was caught by surprise (by my press conference last Saturday)," he added.

When asked if Supermax will recruit those with a political background as Rafidah's replacement, he said: "I think the ideal candidate would be an accountant, lawyer, professional or a retired government servant with good experience.

“These are the credentials that we are looking at." - Mkini