Munir Majid’s role in CIMB acknowledged in my book

 

From Nazir Razak

I refer to Munir Majid’s letter to FMT entitled “Where Nazir Razak’s book falls short”.

I thank him for airing his views, and “striking while the iron is hot”, as he says, to add to the discourse around my book.

In my memoirs, I believe that I have acknowledged Munir Majid appropriately for his role in CIMB’s early years, in hiring me and CIMB winning the crucial Tenaga Nasional mandate.

If this was a book about CIMB, he would certainly have deserved more coverage as would a number of other people, too.

I worked with Munir for less than three years, or 10% of my time at CIMB.

In my acknowledgment letter in the book, I apologised to many others who played big parts in my CIMB story — some by my side for most of my 29 years — and were not even mentioned.

I don’t think Munir victimised Tommy Ng. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the whole case against CLSA, CIMB and Tommy was motivated by the desire to support the political narrative that short selling was bringing down the stock market at the time.

I felt that recounting this story was important as an example of how our actions in the corporate arena can have very real human consequences — something we all need reminding.

Tommy has read the book. He thanked me and said that my words had brought solace and helped bring his family closure after more than 20 years. As the ultimate boss that failed to protect him then, his words meant a great deal to me.

I enjoyed reading Munir’s account of CIMB’s early years and I hope that he too will write his memoirs soon. - FMT

Nazir Razak is the former CIMB group chairman.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.