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Subject: M'sia: The Rights of Non-Muslims in an Islamic State
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:05:02 +1100
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From: "Bala Pillai"
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----- Original Message -----
From: M G G Pillai
To: SK
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 4:37 AM
Subject: [sk] [MGG] The elephants fight, the grass gets trampled
> When the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, declared
> Malaysia an Islamic state, it reflected yet again the continuing
> 'jihad' of the Hamids. He had asked his special adviser on
> Islamic affairs, Dato' Seri Hamid Othman, and his minister for
> Islamic affairs, Brig.-Gen (R) Dato' Seri Hamid Zainal Abidin
> about it: the first Hamid wanted it, the second did not. In
> every Islamic matter referred to them, the two disagree.
>
> The 'old' Hamid, a polished Islamic worthy with a doctorate
> in Islamic studies, wears his erudition well and profers advice
> with insight and foresight; the 'new' Hamid intent on putting the
> 'old' down. In other words, the jihad of the Hamids continues
> unabated. No where is this in full nakedness than than in the
> affairs of Lembaga Tabung Haji, the pilgrimage fund board, where
> the minister Hamid, now in charge, is hell bent to destroy all
> traces of his predecessor, the adviser Hamid, from the body,
> while packing the organisation with as many cronies and acolytes
> he could find. Those working there find the heat unbearable, as
> many are declared redundant for reasons other than competence.
> It would have been funny, only that it is not since moral is low
> and about 1,000 could lose their jobs.
>
> He runs the organisation as a bull in a china shop. He
> replaced the chairmen and most board members of its subsidiaries
> with his own men. And they run the subsidiaries as if they own
> it: one newly-appointed non-executive chairman voted himself
> executive chairman within weeks of his appointment. These changes
> come amidst an important change in the Tabung Haji management.
> Danaharta, the government agency formed to bail out the cronies
> and revamp their company management, is brought in to revamp
> Tabung Haji after a former chairman lost nearly RM1 billion in
> unwise investments in Indonesia.
>
> This is where Tabung Haji's future is at risk. The new men
> from Danaharta are all accountants, there for three years at
> salaries of between RM30,000 and RM40,000 a month, or double the
> going rate in Tabung Haji, to turn it around. All they do is
> sell assets, merge or shut down companies by looking at its
> balance sheet. There is no concern for other than red ink.
> Their short term look, amidst the 'new' Hamid's narrow
> self-centred outlook, ensures a larger danger for Tabung Haji
> and, by extension, the government.
>
> Between Dato' Seri Hamid Zainal Abidin, with his gross
> insecurities, and the accountants with their penny-pinching short
> term approach to company rescue, there is suddenly a hidden but
> real danger of its assets being hijacked. Already, there appears
> to be an elaborate move by the master business 'dalang' (puppet
> master) to hive off Tabung Haji's valuable assets into a private
> company he ultimately controls. How does he do this? First, he
> gets loss making smaller companies in the group take over assets
> of larger and better run companies. Tabung Haji Properties took
> over Enstek, with its large land bank, adjacent to the Malaysian
> Super Corridor; another, Tabung Haji Technology, takes over the
> construction arm, Tabung Haji Universal Builders. Both minnows
> swallowing eagles, with 1,000 jobs to be shed; and makes no
> sense. The minister should have stepped in, but he would not:
> the key man in the takeovers is his former pupil when he was a
> Malay school teachers at Victoria Institution.
>
> But this man attempts this under conditions that make no
> sense. One cast-iron rule the government demands is to ban
> construction companies from sharing directors. This is breached.
> A director in a politically well-connected publicly-listed
> construction company is now on the board of Tabung Haji Universal
> Builders. So, it begs the intriguing question if the takeover
> would be absorbed by the other construction company. However,
> one looks at this, it looks an elaborate scam, one the 'old'
> Hamid would not have countenanced. But this is akin to selling
> the family silver. The morale is low and the staff traumatised.
>
> The accountants from Danaharta, as their ilk everywhere,
> sell assets in a flurry of pointless economic activity to improve
> short term balance sheets, and leave two or three years later
> with a semblance of re-organisation, just before their handiwork
> produces yet other lossess. Look at Bank Bumiputra: it is
> revamped to run into trouble every four or five years, with
> losses never dreamt of before. In other words, company
> management by accountants only ensure a mini-Enron waiting to
> explode. Tabung Haji is too important to be subjected to this
> highway robbery.
>
> The Prime Minister is about to leave for medical treatment
> overseas, and he has other more serious problems on his mind to
> bother about the travails of Tabung Haji. But he must look at it
> for while he crows of Malaysia as an Islamic state, he cannot
> afford the prime Islamic foundation of his government to be raped
> and pirated in a cynical business deal when the minister in
> charge is busy trying to control what may soon slip through for
> reasons he would not understand. If this happens, the downside
> for the prime minister is worse: it provides PAS with ample
> ammunition that he allows his cronies to steal Tabung Haji's
> crown jewels, besides more members from its distraught and
> disaffected staff. And turn it into an election issue at the
> next general election.
>
> M.G.G. Pillai
> pillai@...
>
>
>
>
>
