///My advice to Zubir is to consider taking Musa and his board to the cleaners. Sue them. We need in this country boards that are principled, and we can also do with a little honour and integrity in our business leadership./// – Tunku Abdul Aziz.

The advice will not be taken. In Malaysia there are 2 sets of rules.

The first set deals with corporate governance embodying the companies laws, listing regulations etc mostly borrowed from western societies. By this set, not only Zubir could sue but the shareholders including minority shareholders fdor directors’ breach of fiduciary duties. This first set would be enforced on companies of private, non governmental and non institutional character.

The second set of rules are neither official nor expressly spelled out. This second set is firmly grounded on our feudal political culture.

Amongst the main characteristics of such a culture are:

First: The practice of patronage where corporate positions at helm of GLCs and their perks are part of reward system for political contributions past present or future. The appointments are also political, recommended or endorsed by politicians or their cronies. Little wonder many of the CEOs & directors are bestowed honorific titles or affiliated to ruling political parties. They are not there necessarily for competence; certainly not corporate governance!

Second: in the corporate milieu of GLCs , as a the case of the wider political milieu, there is a wide gap between the powerful and the powerless…The latter defer to the former. They don’t challenge those in powerful positions whether these positions relate to a corporate, a government department or political party. Those at the helm are tolerated in their sheninegans and excesses. They are part of privileges to be enjoyed at the top. If one challenges them, one finds that whatever recourse sought from the various institutions, regulators and government agencies will not only lead to nowhere but invite a backlash. The reasons are that the top decision makers of these institutions, regulators and government agencies are equally occupying their positions due to political patronage and play by the same rules ie listen to those in power!

So the country is run upon 2 sets of rules : one laid out in the books and the laws for the commoner and the powerless; the other, unspoken, but of great potent effect wherever power equation is involved, government linked corporates, agencies, regulatory authorities are involved. These operate on principles of might not right. These have been happening since TDM’s time when flurry of privatisations took place to put Bumiputra captains at the helm of corporations linked to government to spearhead the NEP’s objective of acuuring 30% equity quota. Who dared to oppose Daim’s associate Tajuddin helming or the way he helmed the airlines; who dared Govt’s acqusition of his shares at RM8 when market price was RM3? Who dared oppose the way Halim Saad managed UEM or Renong?

The prevailing feeling when one is connected to power is that anything is possible whether making lots money quick and easy or getting out of trouble with political help and connections. This is playing by second set of rules – not the first!

Felda Holdings group managing director Datuk Mohd Bakke Salleh was appointed by govt to take over Sime Darby’s top executive position previously held by Datuk Seri Ahmad Zubir Murshid who has gone on leave following punlic revelation of Sime’s costs overruns from the Bakun dam project and another energy project in Qatar.

“If we look at his track record, Datuk Bakke has the ability to improve Sime Darby,” PM Najib told reporters in support of his appointment – [See The MalaysianInsider Report byy Boo Su-Lyn June 19, 2010].

But it may be asked, what track record?

Reference is made to the allegations in an open letter by Datuk Dr Tan Kee Kwong (a former Federal Territory Gerakan chairman, who was once the Land and Cooperative Development Deputy Minister from 1999 to 2004 but who has since joined PKR as deputy chairman of its International Affairs Bureau) in which Tan alleged that due to mismanagment, Felda’s cash reserve which were around RM4.5 billion in 2004, dwindled to RM200 million.

Ref:
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/fmt-english/politics/pakatan-rakyat/6982-tan-lodges-report-with-macc-zaid-weighs-in-on-felda-issue

But complaints about Felda’s depleting cash reserves have surfaced following Bakke’s appointment to Sime Darby.
“If we look at his track record, Datuk Bakke (picture) has the ability to improve Sime Darby,” Najib told reporters today.

“MALAYSIA INC TOO: A Conglomerate Gone Awry”

Political Corruption, defined by World Bank as “abuse of public power for private benefit”, is, like the HIV virus, once lodged in body politic, impossible to cure and eradicate.

This is because it is self feeding. Power is used to accumulate financial resources from dishing out contracts and exalted positions in govt or GLCs, corporates to preferred recipients who for the benefits of market protection, preferences, and monopoly and licensing rights, give back to the power wielders their unstinting support/loyalty and via round tripping their share of the booty. A portion of financial resources accumulated by this means of patronage distribution are channelled back to again buy support and loyalty of not only the immediate party delegates voting one in, but to even members of opposition for their cross overs and, in by elections, even segment of voters!

This cycle of extraction for private benefit and enrichment, and the use of corrupt means for power preservation for more extraction for private benefit and enrichment is an unending cycle – addictive as dadah.

(Even if one knows this is wrong, one poised at vantage point to benefit within such a system, cannot reform by kicking the habit. One can only talk of resolvbe to end the habit but not walk it).

However it must all end somewhere eventually – when the country, like the physical body, ravaged by the spread of this ‘corrupt’ virus, is drained off all its resources and defences, it will just, at the point of full blown AIDs developing, succumb and collapse (in a case of person into death) and in case of country into economic/social chaos.