By C C Pung J. P
SABAH Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Hajiji Haji Noor wants to shut down non-performance GLCs in Sabah if they haven’t recovery plans in place.
Melaka developed a kind of fear of Christmas decorations that they are now banned in business premises (hotels, restaurants) that have halal certification.
Thumbs up to Hajiji, though I bet my bottom ringgit that his chances of success is as likely as the Romans learning shipbuilding from our part of the world.
A part of me wishes Hajiji well.
After all, Sabah GLCs are a horror story of a collection of tax payers funded institutions that have been costing Sabah an estimate of RM100 mollion a month mostly to pay for a bunch of clueless directors and managers who, based on their performance, don’t know the first thing about management.
Hajiji will not succeed because the GLCs are a monster sustained by decades of the culture of patronage and vague objectives.
Its the sort of thing which is akin to Malaysia’s corruption that is so systemic, deep-rooted and tolerated that its best left alone because, like pulling out an embedded splinter, the process will hurt.
To overcome a problem, the first thing is to know the problem. I don’t think Hajiji knows much.
For starters, GLCs are an old problem. But most of it is guess work and conjecture.
How many GLCs are there? The figure being tossed about is 200+, 240+.
Some GLCs are under the Chief Minister Deppt. Some under the Finance Ministry. Some under the Ministry of Local Government.
Who oversees these GLCs is anyone guess.
So where does Hajiji propose to begin his Ops GLC Shutdown? The process will require him to step into a land mine of political and self interest.
Each GLC has a bloated board of 10 or more political appointees and ex-officio and top managers comprising retired civil servants.
At 250 GLCs, Hajiji’s planned cleanup will affect and offend thousands of individual with political clout and unhealthy connections.
Hajiji can do it because he’s in the last leg of his political career (he talked about retirement recently).
But the political Web of connected interests he’s in will not tolerate it.
At least 90% of the GLCs have been operating at a loss.
No state authority has ever ventured to guess how much was the cumulative losses.
Hajiji thumped his chest recently declaring that several GLCs paid a combined RM130+ million dividend and they included SMJ Energy (set up 2021),
Sabah Mineral Management Sdn Bhd ( incorporated 2021), Sabah credit corporation, Sawai Kinabalu, Sedco (RM10m?) etc.
Is it as impressive as Hajiji would like us to believe? SMF has assets worth RM5 billion, according to AI search.
It give Hajiji’s govt RM50 m recently. I’m not good with too many zeros.
But 50 million is kacang putih.
No?
I recently attended some Christmas gathering where Muslim friends held candles, wore Christmas head gear, sang carols and partook food that was prayed over and blessed.
So Melaka offends me.
Reminds me that Anwar’s high sounding madani concept of government hasn’t been embraced.
Multi culturism? Islamic supremacy? Secularism or Syariah? Malaysia is still an evolving idea.
